I just put these on my WRX and they are fine tires.. I'm really impressed that these uber snow tires give almost the same ride comfort as the stock RE92s (better rubber?) and still manage to be top ranked for a snow/ice tire.

Here's a pic of the tire on my car (I know that's crappy but I didn't take the cam to the tire shop), with a closeup of the wacky tread pattern.



You can also clearly see how drasticly tread wear would effect the performance of this tire. I'm not looking forward to dishing out another $900 (Can w/tax & install) for a set of these tires.

I've had cars aligned before and never noticed the shop taking the car out for a drive. The place I took my car to insisted that they had to take it for a run before and after the tire install/alignment, to be sure that there was no issues. To me that sounds like BS, because they have machines that measure the alignment. Am I supposed to believe that mechanics second guess their hardware each and every time they do an alignment and must drive the car to tell if it was accurate? How can a mechanic know how far out of align a vehicle is by driving it, when his machine says it's perfect? I guess I'm not an expert in steering and suspension, cause that makes no sense to me.

 

Just got back from a tip up north.. I hit 20 below weather, deep snow, icy/slushy/wet roads, etc.. The LM22s really held up. When they slide it's perfectly controlled. Just have to get them back off the car now.

 

And then again,,

Maybe "lil" Johnny never got to drive a REX!!!

SHotgun

 

Well the place had botched alot of things from the start (and in the middle..), so joy-riding my car wasn't that far fetched. I managed to let them explain before I killed or seriously injured anyone. So that was good.

I need to get performance 17" wheels and tires for my car and I will always need alignments.. The screwups alone would of likely turned me away from them, letalone driving my car around and totally neglecting to tell me first. Time to call Tire rack and see how they handle Canadian orders.

 

Hmm I think I'll go into business making an alignment system that works.. Part of the process will be making sure the steering wheel is dead center before parking the vehicle onto the alignment rack. That way the only reason to drive the car will be to get it on and off the rack. If someone's out driving the car with my system it's beacuse they sell ****ty tires that are poorly crafted, or because they have useless mechanics that might forget to tighten everything down or complete all adjustments the alignment system suggests. "It worries you much less if we are driving your car around when something we screwed up causes a mid-drive catastrophe. Plus you won't know about it so we can hide any damage we did."

Or the car place could skip ordering my breakthrough new alignment system and just say: "We need to take your car for a test drive before and after the alignment. I see here on the work order that it's a 2002 WRX. Most new car owners appreciate us offering them the opportunity to ride with our mechanics during the test drives. We can send someone out with you right now and wait for you to return before doing the final test drive. Would you like that sir?"

Problem is that this place never did anything like that, they screwed up the order, took 2 extra days to get the tires in stock, refused to make an appointment so that I could get done faster, didn't warn me they take 4 hours on the phone, left me stranded in the middle of ****-ville browsing discount stores while I waited, gave me the opportunity to see someone else driving around in my car, and they threw the old tires in the back seat of my car without asking. So much for my new car smell.. It smelled like I was driving a tire store for a week after that. I'm sure that if I had a POS car or a truck that I'd have less complaints about the "back-country" style of service.. Though the whole order screwup and lack of appointment + 4 hours of surprise waiting should be a sore spot with most any customer. Sucks when you miss 2 days of vacation + get jerked around, just to do business with a business that doesn't deserve your money.