My Pirelli'S were shot, only 14K in 15 months of use. I decoded to get an all season tire since the Balt is my daily driver. I couldn't justify the expense of buying a snow/winter tire now and then having to buy another set of tires for the other 8 months of good weather. I also wanted to stick to a budget under $600 and buy locally. Online tire dealers save you money but the trade off is no service. So off tire shopping I went. After four stops at different tire shops I ended up with a set of Yokohama AVS S2's, 225/40/18 for $560 with the usual warranty, free rotations, etc. These are a directional tire with a W speed rating, 320 UTQG rating. Plus they're supposed to at least get you out of the driveway in snow. I really wanted the Yoko Advan s.4's, but they were way out of budget. Sweet tire, though. Anyone else have any experience with this tire?

Here's some pics/linkage:


Yoko AVS S2
Tirerack .com info

 

Nice tires, should just bought snow specific tires and "suffered" then as you budget allowed bought some summer tires.

Heck a pair of steelies is $200 at the worst. And any decent tire shop can get you those within a week. Regardless of your bolt pattern.

 

its not always worth it depending on the amount of snow you get in your area. my area we usualy get one or two dumps of snow a year, usualy not more than 6", but the snow melts between dumps, and usualy it hoveres right around freezing the whole time. may total about 2 weeks through the winter with snow around.

on my old car, i had some nice 17s with all seasons on them, but around november i put my stock wheels on to save the nice rims. wasnt a case of needing winter tires.

btw: you will like the yoks, i had a set of h4s's and loved them

 

I was going to go with a set of winter tires, rims too. Bid on a set of HHR 17" on Ebay but got outbid at the wire. Trying to explain to the wife why I need tires on a car thats a little over a year old and the difference between winter and summer tire, bleh. She said wtf, do you think you drive a frickin Ferrari or something? Married guys probably know the drill....

I looked at the H4's too, those were my second choice.

 

you shoulda saw the wife flip when i installed the juice.

 

I can only imagine. I've managed to install Stage2, Ingalls, CAI and a Hurst shifter all without the One who lords over me finding out.........