Called TireFactory today and spoke with a nice guy named Ryan. Anyways he said the tires would be $154.00 a piece shipped...ouch. That's with the $10 off per tire discount.

These seem like amazing tires, however a total of $616.00 prior to them even being mounted and balanced may be a bit much for me.

 

Well, I called our local big box tire place in the area, Town Fair Tire, and asked them if they could order the Nokians just for fun. The nice guy, Matt, on the phone took my info and said he would call me back. Sure enough he called and said he could do the tire for $121 and change. Holy smokes I was floored. I asked what it would be out the door with mounting balancing, valve stem, tax, yada yada and he gave me a quote of $622.86 Thats only a difference of $6.86, and that's with everything.

I confirmed about 300 times with him that they were the correct tire, and he kept spitting back all the correct data on the tire. I placed an order with him, and hopefully they should be in sometime early next week to be installed.

I will let everyone know how it goes.

 

Town Fair Tire called yesterday and I went in to have them installed. I confirmed that they were the correct tire prior to paying for anything and sure enough...they were.

Whole process took about an hour, and I couldn't be happier so far with them. They still offered their 30 day test drive on the tires, even though they were a special order. I met and spoke with Matt again, who continued his prompt service.

I ended up keeping 1 of the old tires that seemed to be in the best shape of them all for the possibility of mounting it and keeping it as a full size spare some time in the future.

As far as the tire performance goes, time will tell. Driving home, and into work this morning I did notice that they definitely seem quieter than the old stock conti's. Traction in the rain worked well this morning too...however I really didn't have a problem prior either.

Now just wait for the first snow!

 

I'll chime in with another vote for the Nokian WRs. I actually mounted them on a Mercedes E300 turbodiesel because I spend so much time in the snow - and they got excellent mileage (up to 33 mpg at highway speeds, average 29-30 mixed); better than the Michelins I ultimately replaced them with. I was able to drive in snow conditions that surprised me (e.g., getting out of a snopark lot after a blizzard).

One downside: two of the "lugs" broke off at around 40,000 miles; don't know if I rode over a rock or what.

Anyway, I see that the Prius owner who posted earlier followed up recently with his MPG update in another thread, and he's getting better mileage with the WRs than with the other tires he's had. I just got a new 08 MMH and probably don't want to spend the $$ yet, but this would be my first choice for a tire upgrade.

 

I did post my MPG update in the HH thread as they were looking for data on rolling resistance. My data on the Nokian WRs on my Prius is still sparse (~6k miles), but first indications are that the WRs will do well on MPG. They are indeed great tires in ice/snow/wet and should be considered for use in northern climes.

JeffD