Hi Guys,

New to the forums.

I just bought a 2012 Acura TL SH-AWD with the Tech package. It has the 18" rims on it. Tire size is 245/45R18.

I am shopping around for winter tires and am having trouble finding steel rims that will fit this car. I live in Calgary and they use an ungodly amount of salt and gravel to provide traction in the winter. Rims that would be considered nice in any way will be destroyed.

I have called several shops and the best price I have been quoted is from the dealer and that was north of $3k with new OEM rims.

I have been on Tirerack looking at packages and am looking at these tires on these rims with the TPMS sensors and shipping for around $1600.

Is this a suitable configuration for my car?

Is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance...

 

Ya tirerack is good for shipping to canada too. They will deliver them mounted to your door. It is way cheaper to have them shipped to the border if you can do that.

We have a store at the border that you can ship them to and pick them up for a minimal fee, which is nice. Its a 20min drive to get to the border from Thunder Bay.

Ya, any configuration given by tirerack will work. They are conservative. Just dont forget about duty and taxes. (Car parts may be exempt from duty but you will still pay tax)

 

Small world. I moved from Tbay in 2007.

That price was inclusive of duties and taxes.

The border in Montana is about 3 hours away, so that's not really an option.

Did you get winter tires? Which ones?

 

I bought several sets of winter tires from TireRack. I've tried both options, having them shipped to my door and having them shipped to a UPS Store across the border and picked them up. The later is cheaper, but might be more time consuming depending on your proximity to the border. The nice thing is that if do go the route of having them shipped to your door the fees you see are what are you are going to pay, nothing more. Everything is covered. Duties, brokerage, tax, etc, etc. Us Canadians pay threw the nose for tires!

 

I suggest you call them before u hit order. They can give a more accurate quote from my experience. They're overall pretty good. Sometimes however, it's not worth the hassle of shipping, waiting, extra taxes and brokerage fees (especially since they ship UPS).

 

Yeh, the hefty third party brokerage fee is a killer.

It is best to find a shipping company with in-house custom clearing capability.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Montana is about 3 hours away, so a 6 hour round trip. I think I'll call and pay to have them shipped to my door.

Probably going to go with Conti DWS after doing a bit more research.

 

^^^

Great tire.

 

Did you look at another company? http://www.1010tires.com/
or http://www.oktire.com/home/ - I almost bought wheels from them then I found a new "used" set locally from another tl owner


And fyi - I ordered hub rings here - https://www.justforwheels.com/index.jsp ( around $50 if I recall for 4 plastic hub rings )

 

They provided exactly the service they advertise. Fast and accurate. I live close to the border, so went down and picked them up. Border was easy, as all I had to do is hand over my receipt and pay the appropriate taxes. I'd use them again, not merely for price, but for selection.

 

good to hear! it's not TR that you can't trust, it's the courier (ups).

 

Really,??, my experience was the other way around.^^

 

are you in canada?

 

wow you guys in Canada do pay alot for tires!

I live in Houston so no experience in snow driving, but Conti DWS is definitely good tire for dry and wet condition. I have them on my mom's 3 series, cousin's 2006 TL and my Z4. They stick to the road and treadwear do last to 50k miles.
One thing is, why don't you just use your DWS as your daily tires, starting from winter?

From tirerack description it said:
" A visible "DWS" indicates the tire has sufficient tread depth for dry conditions, as well as wet roads and light snow. After the "S" has worn away, the remaining "DW" indicates the tire only has sufficient tread depth for dry and most wet road conditions."

After winter I suspect the S will wear out, then just keep driving those till next winter coming?

 

I have a 2012 TL Advance with 19's and just received a complete winter set-up that I bought in the blackmarket section of this forum. A guy in Colorado lease-returned his TL so I go an 18" set of 4 OEM Rims with TPMS, centre caps and rubber with about 70% left shipped, duty and brokerage fee to my door just outside of Toronto, ON for $1,700 CDN. Of that, duty was about $90 and a $80 brokerage fee and $250 for shipping via UPS

Same set-up (with new tires obviously) with the same rims from Acura would be $3,000.

 

We pay more for everything........

as for using summer tires for winter, or even all season tires for winter... if it's the first winter, and tread is fresh, it's "ok". But it's still nowhere NEAR as good as a proper snow tire. It's not just tread depth and pattern, snow/winter/ice tires use a different compound that doesn't harden as much as summer/allseasons when it gets cold. Makes a huge difference when we get a foot or two of powder, or when we get freezing rain (and some of the southern states freak out at 1" of snow lol).

 

I've order plenty of tires from tire rack and they have good prices. But UPS brokerage fees are unreasonable. I've found Urban Expressions to be decently priced.

 

Urban Expressions was within $100 of tire rack with a much nicer rim. Mounted and installed in Calgary.

Thanks, Hotwilli!!!

 

If any one is considering buying tires online, do consider Discount Tires Direct......

I ordered tires for my TL-SH-AWD 245/40/19 in Contis as I did not want OEM Goodyear Eagle RS-A......and the price difference between Tire Rack and Discount Tires Direst was around $128 (Tire Rack was expensive than Discount Tires)....

I liked their Customer Service Rep too, he was very knowledgable and had some great info to share....

 

Just to clarify that I have ordered Continental's ExtremeContact DWS....I had it on my previous car TSX and now will be putting it on TL....hopefully the performance would be much better than Goodyear Eagle RS-A's....keeping fingers crossed

 

Almost anything we can buy on the tire market is better than the RS-A's.

 

I am glad to hear that.....

otherwise I was having second thoughts that why did I order....and should have tried Eagle RS-A's as Acura is putting it on ...they must be atleast average.....

 

Never bought from Tirerack, but have heard good things. A friend suggested checking out Kal Tire...seems they have a line of reasonably priced rims of decent quality. Haven't checked them out myself, but might when my all-season's need changing. I know there's a bunch of locations in Calgary (I'm your neighbor to the north...you know, the city with the hockey team )

 

I have a 2012 SH awd with 19's.

I ended up buying 17 inch Acura rims with tpms for about 700 on our black market.

Then bought snow tires in the States for 600. Ended up getting a winter set rims and tires for 1300.

 

Here in Calgary, Spec R Tire Services, a local tire dealer can get tires pretty cheap. They have a state of the art tire mounting machine too. And I believe they are a Tire Rack wholesale dealer. I have never been disappointed with them (both service and pricing)... and they support/sponsor local motorsport events which I find pretty neat.

 

I've always bought local as well. I trust the shop I go to (Tire Warehouse), and when I buy from them, I get free flat repairs, and free changeovers (winter/summer) which save a few bucks in the long run.

 

I never purchased from Tire Rack but i had other items shipped to me via UPS standard services and the brokerage fees is too high,factor in that,duties and taxes and it will erase any savings you get on the purchase,if it is a product that you can't get locally then maybe you have no choice.Keep in mind that UPS brokerage is legal robbery.

 

I ordered from them and even with the extra fees I saved money. Some of the faster shipping includes brokerage fees FYI..... and the brokerage fees also include local taxes that you would have to pay anyway.