Why are winter tires so expensive?
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In our ongoing series with winter tire expert Paul Lucianco, John from Alberta asks: “How much will I spend on new winter tires?
The average price on snow tires here, in the last few years, is $1,000. It’s the profile. Everything is performance rated, so if somebody comes in here with a Hyundai Accent, an $18,000 car let’s say, and it’s got a low profile performance tire on it, the first thing they say is: “will it drive my car fast?” Well, it’s got a performance suspension in it, and it’s got 50 more horsepower than it did three years ago. And it’s got performance tires on it to support the suspension. So you’re going to pay more for the tires. But you know what? That’s the demand and you have and the aftermarket drives the manufacturers into putting bigger wheels on it because the kids are putting bigger wheels on their cars. So the manufacturers have leaped emissions and created more power out of the car nowadays too, so all those things have to be supported by the suspension, the drive line and then brakes. Bigger brakes, bigger wheels, bigger tires and lower profile and performance rated equals more money.
