[E92LNGCGY]

Just wondering where to get some good winter tires (and good prices) in Calgary. What tires would you recommend?

[mad villain]

i used urban expression (http://www.urbanexp.ca/) for mine. Great service!

[02themax]

Tire rack, get Dunlop D3 or Blizzaks

[bigup]

You could try Tien at Matrix Motorsports (403 290 1111) -- tell him Simon sent you ..

He might be able to give a good price.. I'll warn him tomorrow morning to expect some calls (he too is a BMW owner)

From experience, I didn't like Nokian Hakks (winter dry road performance sucks). Blizzak LM60s are good on dry roads, but not so good on ice. Maybe try the Blizzak WS series?

I'm going beater this year!

[E90MCF]

Treadline tires and wheels ask for Shamez and say that Peter sent you.

Best prices in town on everything and better than COSTCO!

[idspispopd]

Tunerworks - just got a great price from them on Blizzak LM-25 RFTs.

[couturegirl]

I'm getting mine from the dealership

[dubber1]

I had Blizzak LM-22's but wasn't fond of them. I like Nokian's best. Kal-Tire is the only place that sells them I think.

Just bought new summers and ordered them from the States. They were a few hundred buck less than buying them in town.

[Spoolin335]

Online only, probably beat any price locally and its shipped to your door.
Dont even need to get off the couch.

[idspispopd]

Originally Posted by couturegirl

I'm getting mine from the dealership

Couturegirl - don't do that!! They are charging you at least a 50% premium for NOTHING. Mine were $484/tire at BMW and $318 at Tunerworks.....that is a lot of dough over 4 tires.

Enough for more clothes (as I suspect that's what you like!!). Well, in addition to cars.

[idspispopd]

Originally Posted by dubber1

I had Blizzak LM-22's but wasn't fond of them. I like Nokian's best. Kal-Tire is the only place that sells them I think.

Just bought new summers and ordered them from the States. They were a few hundred buck less than buying them in town.

I would have gotten the Nokian Hakka 9s, but the word is they are *very* soft and not great on dry pavement (of which Calgary has a lot in the winter).

My LM-22s lasted two good seasons before cupping, and did a fair bit of dry pavement, too (unfortunately on the highway).

[E90MCF]

Originally Posted by taxbuster

I would have gotten the Nokian Hakka 9s, but the word is they are *very* soft and not great on dry pavement (of which Calgary has a lot in the winter).

My LM-22s lasted two good seasons before cupping, and did a fair bit of dry pavement, too (unfortunately on the highway).

The Nokians are rated #1 for winters, but I'd have to say the Michelin X-Ice are my #1 choice for winter and more specifically icy conditions. For sizes that are unavailable in the X-Ice, my choice would be the Pirelli Sottozero Serie II.

[Spoolin335]

Originally Posted by E90MCF

The Nokians are rated #1 for winters, but I'd have to say the Michelin X-Ice are my #1 choice for winter and more specifically icy conditions. For sizes that are unavailable in the X-Ice, my choice would be the Pirelli Sottozero Serie II.

Weird, i had Nokians on my previous car and when it came time to replace them i got the X-Ice. I was stunned to find my X Ice not near as good as my worn out Nokians.

Needless to say, Nokian is leaps and bounds ahead of the X Ice tires.

[E90MCF]

Originally Posted by Spoolin335

Weird, i had Nokians on my previous car and when it came time to replace them i got the X-Ice. I was stunned to find my X Ice not near as good as my worn out Nokians.

Needless to say, Nokian is leaps and bounds ahead of the X Ice tires.

What's weird? I stated my preference.

But I'm also impartial to Michelin since I have 2 sets of the Super Sports for summer and a the X-Ice for winter.

On the list of available winters Nokians are ranked #1 then the X-Ice at #2.

On the list of tires that able to purchased at any tire shop the X-Ice are #1 since Nokians are available only through Kal-tire, but shops like my friends are still able to get them.

I'm surprised at the leaps and bounds General has gone through to get it's Artic Altimax rated #3

[idspispopd]

Originally Posted by E90MCF

The Nokians are rated #1 for winters...{snip}

IIRC the Nokians are rated #1 for *snow*. I've been in Calgary for 30 years and I would never describe it as a "snow city" in the winter. We have some snow, we have some ice, we have a lot of dry (more or less) road.

It's a tough - and probably highly subjective - choice of what to use.

In my case it's balanced by the need to drive in the mountains to the Okanagan. I found the LM-22s to be solid and controlled in all conditions. Hopefully the LM-25s will prove as versatile!

[couturegirl]

I have an awesome connection at the dealership so I'm getting them for a really sweet deal otherwise I would never go there over a tire place!

[idspispopd]

Originally Posted by couturegirl

I have an awesome connection at the dealership so I'm getting them for a really sweet deal otherwise I would never go there over a tire place!

Kewl, in that case!! Tony Dilawri doesn't really need to get richer....particularly when it's avoidable. Good for you!

[couturegirl]

"Kewl, in that case!! Tony Dilawri doesn't really need to get richer....particularly when it's avoidable. Good for you!"

Haha no kidding hey!

[BlueElectrin]

If you are willing to trade performance for added safety, then don't get performance winters. They are better than all-seasons, but definitely not as good as "true winters" in term of stopping and cornering, especially on ice. Check out Tirerack for a pretty honest comparison between performance winters and true winters.

For true winters, Blizzaks WS-70, ExtremeWinterContact, and X-Ice2 are some of the top performing tires according Consumer Reports. Hakkapeliitta 5 seems like a good choice too, but the only place in town that sells them are Kal Tires, and I've experienced, and heard too many complains about Kal Tires to do any work with them.

In term of pricing, I did a comparison based on Blizzaks WS-70 between local shop (Harper's Tires), Tirerack, and Costco. While Tirerack has the lowest price, Costco will be the most "economical" because walk-out price includes tire change and Costco's own tire insurance. The price difference between Costco and Tirerack was less than 100 CDN dollars.

For bimmer owners looking to get a set of X-Ice2 from Costco, don't bother! As of Friday, Oct 28th, Costco has a back-order waiting period of 8 weeks for X-Ice2! This is for the 17" setup (225/45/17)

If you want to get Blizzaks WS-70 from Costco, you would need to place a special order, which translates to about a 7-10 days of waiting period, but on the plus side you get to book an appointment for tire swap, rather than facing the horrendous first-come-first-serve line.

Hope this helps.

[idspispopd]

Originally Posted by BlueElectrin

If you are willing to trade performance for added safety, then don't get performance winters. They are better than all-seasons, but definitely not as good as "true winters" in term of stopping and cornering, especially on ice. Check out Tirerack for a pretty honest comparison between performance winters and true winters.

For true winters, Blizzaks WS-70, ExtremeWinterContact, and X-Ice2 are some of the top performing tires according Consumer Reports. Hakkapeliitta 5 seems like a good choice too, but the only place in town that sells them are Kal Tires, and I've experienced, and heard too many complains about Kal Tires to do any work with them.

In term of pricing, I did a comparison based on Blizzaks WS-70 between local shop (Harper's Tires), Tirerack, and Costco. While Tirerack has the lowest price, Costco will be the most "economical" because walk-out price includes tire change and Costco's own tire insurance. The price difference between Costco and Tirerack was less than 100 CDN dollars.

For bimmer owners looking to get a set of X-Ice2 from Costco, don't bother! As of Friday, Oct 28th, Costco has a back-order waiting period of 8 weeks for X-Ice2! This is for the 17" setup (225/45/17)

If you want to get Blizzaks WS-70 from Costco, you would need to place a special order, which translates to about a 7-10 days of waiting period, but on the plus side you get to book an appointment for tire swap, rather than facing the horrendous first-come-first-serve line.

Hope this helps.

Can't say that I had any trouble with my old Blizzak LM-22s on a '09 335i xdrive. Calgary is funny that way -- it's often very dry, with little snow, so really soft tires will wear quickly. Highway driving (of which I do a lot in the winter in the mountains) is different. Typically, the snow is low as the #1 is generally pretty well cleared -- and the LM-22s were terrific there, and on the Coke, especially on the ice.

While in BC I also had no trouble with the 'performance winters' in snow -- now to be fair, it was rarely over 6". True winters may be considerably better there.

All in all, I think it is a combination of driver and car that makes driving in the winter 'work'. (I drove all one winter in Calgary on summers, on a RWD 328i....)

Just gotta pick one and try!

[BlueElectrin]

Originally Posted by taxbuster

Can't say that I had any trouble with my old Blizzak LM-22s on a '09 335i xdrive. Calgary is funny that way -- it's often very dry, with little snow, so really soft tires will wear quickly. Highway driving (of which I do a lot in the winter in the mountains) is different. Typically, the snow is low as the #1 is generally pretty well cleared -- and the LM-22s were terrific there, and on the Coke, especially on the ice.

While in BC I also had no trouble with the 'performance winters' in snow -- now to be fair, it was rarely over 6". True winters may be considerably better there.

All in all, I think it is a combination of driver and car that makes driving in the winter 'work'. (I drove all one winter in Calgary on summers, on a RWD 328i....)

Just gotta pick one and try!

I'll agree with you that snows gets clear quickly in Calgary. It's really the hard-packed snow and black ice that I'm worried about. And these are plenty in Calgary.

For example, last year I took a course at SAIT over the winter semester, and the small hill between the ctrain station and student centre was icy pretty much the whole winter (saw a few mustangs fish-tailing their way up the hill), and this is a pretty well traveled path and gets clean often.

For me the added grip on ice is worth the sacrifice in performance, but that's just me though. Performance winter will work great for 99% of the situation, but personally I'd like to plan for the 1% "oh $hit" moments.

[XB101]

I would say Urban Expression or Tunerworks. Urban X provide good prices and services on when I used them for tires for my WRX and X3.