New Tires? Who do you recommend?

[jourdo]

Well the poor tires are almost kaput, and I need to shop around for new ones. I'm not a car guy at all and very clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff. Where do you recommend? Who would you avoid? I was at Walmart this morning (finding out one tire was totally kaput) and am a little leary of the price. You know the whole, you get what you pay for kind of thing. I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

Thanks.

[Phy]

If you've got your own set of winter tires, you might want to just throw them on now. My winters are just the Canadian Tire-exclusive ones, the Goodyear Nordics. I've been using Crappy Tire since my first car, and they're actually not too bad for what you pay, which isn't much. I have the tires thrown on over my stock wheels, but many people prefer to get a dedicated set of steelies as well - you don't bang up your stock wheels, and you can change wheels a lot easier than you can change tires.

There're a couple of wheel and tire shops in town that get a lot of recommendation (or did a couple years ago) from the local tuner car boards. These guys aren't bad, I don't know if they're still in business. Good selection, and IIRC better prices than the big shops like Fountain or Kal Tire. I can't remember the other tire shop. Costco's also got good prices on tires, but limited selection - kind of like the rest of the store.

[Protoman]

How is the weather in Calgary. Cause that makes a big different on tire wear and what you should buy. Example, if the tires that are finished are you summer tires but your winter tires are fine, don't put on your winter tires. Winter tires with contact on hot asphalt during the summer will come completly ruin them. Winter tires and their grooves are made to thread through cold snow that would normally cause lack of traction, so your best bet is to get a good set of summer tires (I ain't crazy about all seasonal). You can't go wrong with companies like BF Goodrich, Michellin, Goodyear, heck even the cheaper end Motomaster tires can handle your everyday drives, you don't need Dunlops (which are very expensive), your not a race car driver.

[cannabisprime]

You're better off getting dedicated summer and winter tires (on separate rims). Like Proto said, you can use the winter tires during the summer, but that's almost tantamount to burning cash. As for tire recommendations, I've used Kumhos for the past 3 winters and have been satisfied so far; I've also heard some positive reviews for the Falken Ziex tires. The website I mentioned previously has tire reviews from actual customers as well.