I’d phone a different Kal tire and enquire about some tires, then ask if an allignment is needed and just record the whole convo

The other key tell is how your tires are wearing. If you say have too much toe-in the car will drive fine and straight but you'll be burning up the outer edges of your tires.

This used to be my move. I'd grab my tires at Discount Tire and have them installed down there.

Only thing is if you're not declaring (which I never did) you have to leave your old tires down there, so if you have low tread left, who cares.

Not sure if it's worth it nowadays with the exchange rate and price parity though.

I bought my summer tires earlier in March from DiscountTire.
It was worth it at the time... They had a $100 rebate and exchange rate was only 1.25~.
Even after declaring my tires and after taxes, I still saved a couple hundred dollars.

Swapped to winters the other day with a friend, we did 4 cars in just under 1.75 hours. Power tools made it so much quicker.

Did mine last Monday during a huge snowfall here in the Okanagan. Got home around 6pm from work, bundled up in warm clothes, wrapped/taped myself in blue recycling bags to stay dry, put on a headlamp, and headed out into the driveway in the dark to swap wheels. Kinda glad it was dark as my neighbors would have wondered why I was rolling around under and around the car dressed like a blue marshmallow if they had been able to see me. :D

... If you're rolling under the car to swap winters I think you're doing it wrong?

When your fingertips are completely numb and dexterity is severely compromised, things like lug nuts are more likely to end up rolling under the car :lol

Head to head testing of the CrossClimate2 against the X-Ice Snow and the Pilot Sport All Season 4.

tl;dr - the CrossClimate has about 85-90% of the X-Ice's performance in snow and about 85% of the Pilot Sport's performance in dry and wet.

Would have been nice to see the Pilot Alpin 5 or another performance winter tested as I suspect its numbers would have been similar to the CrossClimate but with higher wear.

I think it's important to state which Pilot Sport.

Pilots are a huge line from AS, 4s, All Seasons 4, and Supers

It’s in the title right there. Pilot sport 4s and pilot sport all season 4

Final update on the Costco situation with my tires.

Money has been paid as promised. I could tell they had to do some funny paperwork to make it happen (but I get it from a business pov).

I appreciate they fixed the situation. Thanks to Jeff and Drew from Costco Willingdon, they were apologetic and professional all the way through.

I learned a long time ago people don't remember the mistake you made, they remember how you fix it. So credit where credit is due to Costco Willingdon.

^ now you can go nutz with that $550 on Black Friday and make that amount stretch :lol

Anyone run Hakkapeliitta R5?

I got a quote from Kal Tire and thinking of putting them on my new Outback XT.

How do they handle wet/slushy Vancouver winters?

from what i can see the R5 replaces the R3?

I've run the older R2 for several seasons on the wifemobile X3. They have been excellent. Good wearing, good performance. Deeper snow in the interior and S2S slushy stuff handled w ease.

Like all winters it's not until you throw the regular all seasons back on that you realize how loud and how squishy they are - but neither were so bad that they were bothersome.

Nokians - highly recommended. Previously had them on our old Eurovan also.

Looking for 18" Wheels and Tires for the Veloster. I wanna be able to sauce around the city and drive to the mountains once or twice a winter. I'll be driving < 20,000KM in the winter over the span of the next 5 years so not sure if tread wear matters to me as the tires will likely be old before I finish using them.

Are cheap tires the way to go?

Triangle winter tires - $540
Yokohama IG53 - $1,093
Bridgestone Blizzak - $1,165
X-Ice - $1,221

My budget ass General Artics were champs last night from Richmond to Vancouver for the game. Saw a few FRS and Miata spun out on the bridge.

In-store clearance for these winter tires at CT at 139 each, with a $50 mail in rebate makes them about $500 for a set of brand new 16" snow tires.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/g...content=341376

Good deal for those with the right tire size.

Those C2's saved our ASSES last night.

We drove back from Portland and crossed at the truck crossing in Cloverdale around 7PM.

Google Maps took us through a gauntlet of detours through farm roads (99 HWY, side streets), eventually we came out just above the hill where all the chaos was happening to get onto HWY1, came off of 92AVE to see the chaos below us :lol

Passed tons of ditched cars along the way and the tires handled it all.

Was a long ass journey, but very impressed with these tires.

As to be expected, hakka r3’s on a Subaru, like the weather wasn’t even there.

The latest Michelin X-Ice tire on a BMW with X-Drive was no drama at all. It shifts a little on ice, but once I got my bearings it wasn't bad at all.

Pirelli PZero Winters - did okay, I think the tread pattern is a bit too closed for the slushy mess that we had yesterday once it got a bit deep. Had very good control though once you lose traction, did donuts at SFU until security chased me out. Pilot Alpin PA4 still a smidge better, I think.

EDIT: Quattro makes it a bit hard to tell the difference since you're so sure-footed.

I picked up some clearance X-Ice 2s a few months ago from CT and it handled yesterday like a champ. Felt much better than the Sottozero 3s I used in last year's snow my other vehicle.

Vikingcontact 7s handed everything fine, just a bit of a hiccup over some ice on highway 1 after a plow passed by. Rear end swinging back and forth a bit in an FWD of all things, corrected with a stab of the brakes.

Basically sprinting from Mary Hill ->Pitt Meadows -> Golden Ears -> 1 West in those conditions after spending four hours stuck in the worst of it, I lost my mind a bit trying to hurry home.