Winter Tires

[moonrayker]

I just got a new set of Nokian Hakkapelita R winter tires fitted to my GS and they are awesome!

Having them fitted at Kal-Tire turned out to be a nightmare though. I left the car with my wife to take to the local Kal-Tire whilst I went to work. The Orang-Utans in the service bay managed to break one of my locking wheel nuts. So the manager offered to replace it with a plain one. I said no thank you, I'd like the car to be returned to me in the condition that it was in before they had it. So they got a new set of locking nuts. Later on I get a phone call from my wife, "oh, they charged you for the new set of nuts". So I call the manager and ask him about this and he says, "well it's not my fault that one broke". So I ask him whose fault he thinks it is given that the car was in his shop and one of his guys broke it! He responds with something about not supplying aftermarket parts for free blah blah. :chairshot: At this point I no longer hear what he is saying because a red mist has descended. So I tell him that my wife is bringing the car back and he can take the f ******* tires off, shove them where the sun don't shine and put the old ones back on. He then gets off his high horse and offers to refund the cost of the locking wheel nuts. I accept and vow to myself never to set foot in Kal-Tire ever again.

Despite the nightmare the tires are performing great, packed snow and polished ice intersections are hardly noticeable, I am waiting for some more snow now so I can give them a real testing. The car had Pirelli Sottozera W210's on it when I bought and they were darn good but starting to wear down (they were almost bald in the centre). Whilst the traction and braking were still OK with them, the lateral grip was starting to go and it was very easy to slide sideways. So I researched lots of posts and forums and found that it was a choice between Michelin X-ice2 and Hakka R. Michelins turned out not available so it had to be the Nokians, which were the ones I wanted anyway, just that the Michelins were cheaper. The Nokians are really quiet and ride very smoothly as well, just as quiet as my set of Toyo Versado tires I have for the summer. I would definitely recommend these tires to anyone looking for a good winter tire, just try to get them from somewhere that treats it's customers property with a little respect.