Winter Tire Deal

Hey Guys!

Happy Holidays! I'm going to have to make a New Years resolution to check in here more often......

Thought you'd like to know----

I've been at the end of my rope necessitating installation of some fresh, really good 'winter rubber' on the SVX. I've searched online and locally for the best deal on some new winter tires. I was really looking forward to getting some Blizzak WS-50's (or MZ-01's if I could find any on closeout), but I couldn't seem to find any better deal than about $126.00/tire (although that was mounted/balanced/etc.) I even considered the Michelin Arctic Alpine and the Dunlop Graspic's, but they weren't much cheaper, so why bother.

Today I looked again online and stumbled into a terrific deal for some Pirelli Winter Ice Asymetric tires. (http://www.1010tires.com/tirespecials.asp) I was hoping to go with a 205-55-16 to cut down on the 'footprint' a little, but they ONLY have 225-50-16's - our 'native' tire size. They got a pretty good review at TireRack a few years ago (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/icebox99_rd.jsp)

At $67.00/tire (+~$40.00/shipping and NO sales tax) they were too good a deal to pass up. We've got Discount Tire here in our area now and they'll mount and balance a carry-in tire for only $10.00/per.

Looks like I'm going to have Pirelli's on again- (I had a set originally of Winter 210P's that I wore down to the cords last season).

Bring on the snow!

-Mark

[SVXphile]

Thanks for posting about those tires Mark. I need a set of winter tires for the Focus, and those look like a good buy indeed. Let us know how you like them, OK? Don

Finally got my new 'clearance' Pirelli's here and on the car (BTW- they're down to $59.99/tire now(!!)- unfortunately, the warm spell we're in dried up what minimal snow and ice we had here in MN. (I guess I'll have to drive out East , huh?)

Had to drive out to Wisconsin yesterday- my wife's Dad just passed away and we had to pick up his cre-mains and death certificates in Glenwood City, so I got a chance to try out the new tires on the 1-1/2 excursion.

First driving impressions- they ride VERY nice and smooth and not much noisier than my Nitto NT450 Extreme A/S 'summer' tires. (I was worried they might be as god-awful noisy as the Pirelli P210's I replaced.) They handling was still quite crisp- no 'muushiness' that some people report with other tall winter treads. Considering they were ice-rink tested by Tire Rack and performed only one 'notch' below the Blizzaks, I'm still looking forward to good winter performance.

Here's the link again if any of you need a super deal on some winter rubber:
(http://www.1010tires.com/tirespecials.asp)

Good Luck.

-Mark