I got new tires for my car Wednesday. General Altimax RT45’s. Those are the new version of the ones I’ve gotten several times in the past. They are a good mix of rating well on snow, rating well overall, and a relatively decent price. And just in time. They showed their worth on the snowy roads on Friday, having little trouble where my previous tires it would’ve been more nerve racking.
My previous tires were down to 4-5mm, which was still fine on dry, but just a little problematic on wet pavement, and definitely not great on snow. If it weren’t winter, I would’ve kept going.
I went to Tire Source in Fairlawn, as I have in the past. I generally trust them. I went in first on Monday to have them order the tires and set up the appointment, then got the work down on Wednesday. I got an oil change and an alignment as well. The total was approaching $900. A lot of money, but I think the tires will last near the life of the car (considering how long the last transmission lasted) and no doubt have plenty left when I’m ready to sell (hopefully in the next couple years).
They also recommended like $1500 of other services by the next oil change. I didn’t want to add any more onto the current bill, so I declined for now. Some I can probably do myself, like light bulb, battery cleaning, and brake parts, though I’ll probably want to wait until warmer weather for the latter. Others include brake flush and differential fluid, scheduled maintenance by mileage, that I’d probably just rather let someone else do. I’ll decide on that later.
It snowed on Friday and some on Saturday too. I felt pretty comfortable out there, more-so than some of the other vehicles, so I take that as a good sign. Wasn’t really worried going up or down snowy hills, though I didn’t come across ones that were too bad.