Originally intended to document my experience of DeLorean ownership, focus is often radical and strange, boring and obtuse.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Cashing In On Snow Tires

Super stealthy black winter wheels? Nah! It's bright aluminum for us!

Winter is clearly here, as it smacked us in the face with snow and freezing temperatures the other day. Fresh snow on the roads provided us our first slidey test for the Insight.

After driving to work and sliding through 17 stop signs, I concluded that the Insight's all-season tires failed the winter test. The main reason it sucked in the snow is because it is so damn light. The combination of aluminum, titanium and plastic adds up to only 1,800 lbs. of banana-peel-oil-slick hybrid action.

Enter my sister. Working at a Honda dealership, she was able to score me a huge deal on Insight wheels and snow tires. Our first choice was the high-tech Michelin X-ice tire, but it was only available in 175/65/14.

I was understandably upset, but instead of grenading the local Michelin plant I decided to go with Bridgestone's Blizzak MZ03, in the narrow, Insight-approved 165/65/14 format. The extra anorexic tire will cut right through the snow and supply us with extra gripping force - To The Max!

Tread. Neat.The aluminum wheels were a whopping $470.75 each, but fell to an astounding $306 each with my sister's discount. The super soft Blizzak tires rang up at $233 each, then fell to $117.90. For one pair, we achieved a phenomenal savings of $559.

That means under normal circumstances we would have paid $1,407.50 per pair, or $2,815 for a complete set of four. Realistically however, we would never have paid $940 for two manufacturer's wheels. Instead, we would have bought some fancy aftermarket wheels, so long as we could find some extraordinarily light ones.

Consider this: The Insight wheels with the Blizzak MZ03s weighed only 22 lbs. each! And according to the Bridgestone website, the tire is a chubby 15 lbs, making the Insight wheel a svelte 7 lbs.

As a result of our transaction, my sister has now pulled a Godfather and started cashing in on the favour. I've already had to deliver a coffee, some Reese's Peanut Butter Bites, some gum and a sleeping bag up to her house. I wonder if it was worth it? I don't want to start offing people.

6 Comments:

Blogger Rainypete said...

I think I put tires on all four corners my old Hyundai for the price of a single wheel of your Insight!!!! Man is progress ever painful.

12:49:00 PM

 
Blogger Martini said...

That's why I still use my nearly-decade-old DVD player... and my Beta.

2:56:00 PM

 
Blogger Vengelyne said...

The savings you made on the tyre purchase no thanks to your sister is still way more than the small favours she's been asking of you. =P Maybe you should tell her nicely when your delivery services in exchange for that discount expires?

11:45:00 AM

 
Blogger honkeie said...

I think I will just go out and buy me some tire chains and save on the pay-backs.

8:33:00 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

I didn't know All Season in Canada didn't include winter esp. when you have so much of it. Like the World Series in your neighboring country has nothing to do with the rest of the world.

1:07:00 AM

 
Blogger Martini said...

Ah SJ, so true!

All-season tires technically work in the snow, but they suck. Snows are way tons much better.

12:46:00 PM

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

 

This many people accidentally stumbled upon my site
...while searching for porn.