Snow Tires - No Deals? Hmm.

[jyl]

Interesting.

Here is my logic. Last winter was the warmest, mildest winter in history for the US as a whole. Tire chains, unless they are solely West Coast based (winter was more normal there), are reporting very poor 1Q12 sales due to mild weather and thus poor sales of winter stuff - like tires. So, it should be a good time for a frugal cookie to buy a set of son tires for wifey's car, to install in coming winter, right? There should be discounts, yes?

Wrong, and no. Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 195/65-15 (our preferred snow tire) are $100/ea online, just like always.

Does this mean that the tire industry foresaw the warm winter and produced fewer snow tires last year? That the industry aggressively cleared out excess stock this winter? That they are leaving excess tires in inventory, figuring they will sell in 7 months and that interest rates are so low that the carrying costs of inventory are low?
Or that my search skills just suck?

[aigel]

It probably is cheaper to keep them in inventory than to throw them out at a discount price now only to sell less next winter.

I am sure you could have gotten a deal in Feb/Mar at what was left at the store, but that's probably cleared by now.

What's this snow thing you are talking about anyway?

G

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by aigel

It probably is cheaper to keep them in inventory than to throw them out at a discount price now only to sell less next winter.

I am sure you could have gotten a deal in Feb/Mar at what was left at the store, but that's probably cleared by now.

What's this snow thing you are talking about anyway?

G

In the middle of the previous winter my wife and I flew back from San Fran.(the no snow area) to Edmonton, Canada to about a foot of snow. Fortunately I had installed snow tires on the Camry about 2 weeks before. There is no way that all season radials would have got us out of the parking lot. Worth it? Priceless and also reduces auto insur. premiums. I probably paid too much in the middle of winter

[Zeke]

I think the recession had something to do with it. Does everyone fit snow tires to every car in the winter in snow country?

That, or Jim Richards bought them all.

[jyl]

We switch to studless snows on cheap steel wheels every year around Nov and take them off around Apr. You don't really need them in Portland - in the central city we get a couple days of light snow a year if we are lucky, none if we aren't. But you never know when there could be some ice. More important, the wife drive to Central WA every couple of months, over snowy mountain passes, often alone - so she needs the snow tires. A set of Blizzaks lasts us about 4 years of 6 month seasons, which isn't bad at all, $100/year basically. They seem to be good rain tires too.

I'm thoroughly impressed with studless snow tires plus modern traction control/ABS. I've taken the Prius w/ Blizzaks into a deserted grocery store parking lot as icy as a skating rink, floored the throttle, stomped the brake, and the car accelerates and brakes smoothly, not a hiccup or slip. It will also motor through 6" of fresh heavy snow or rutted rotten slush without drama, whch is about as much as I'd ask the car to do. It is hard for me to see why * most * people would really need studded tires. Emergency vehicles, who need to drive faster in snow/ice than civilians should, yes. Soccer Mom in her SUV taking the kids to a school which is going to call a snow day anyway, no.

At the same time, we have incessant roadway damage from studded tires here. Certain intersections have trenches worn into the pavement where goobers with studded tires always spin them on takeoff. Highways have long ruts where studs have cut up the surface. It rains then freezes and those trenches become slick ice traps, often right where cars are trying to stop for the intersection.

I wish studded tires would carry a major extra fee to pay for the damage they do to the roads.

[Zeke]

I didn't know studded tires were legal. IIRC, they weren't many years ago. Maybe that was a different kind of studding.