Fellow Canadians,

This has been discussed before, but here's my 2 cents based on recent experience:

I needed new front tires. Like many, I have Conti SportContacts on all around.

Even though my backs are still good, I was faced with the decision of whether to replace the fronts only (with Contis) or buy a 4 wheel package of similar or cheaper tires- what an odyssey this turned out to be ! :-)

I looked at pricing and availability of the following brands (summer H.Performance tires, not All-Season), in Canada and in the US: Continental, Falken, General, Hankook, Yokohama, Goodyear, Pirelli, BF Goodrich, General, Dunlop, Michelin, Nexen, Toyo.

Needless to say, the availability of all the brands seems better in the US, or at least, I should say, it's easier to find sites online that quote the price for 18s,19s and sets for our vehicle. With limited exception (TireTrends) trying to get this info from Canadian tire vendors is like pulling teeth. When I was able to find suitable tires/tire sets (finding 255/35/19s was difficult), most places have ridiculous pricing. The best price locally that I could find for a similar/better tire package was for Goodyear F1s, quoted at around CDN$1550.00 before tax and installation. Cheaper tire brands were available but in most cases 255/35/19s weren't , even by special order.

I eventually ended up comparing the door-to-door TireRack (US) price for 225/40/ZR18s ContiSport Contact 3s with TireTrends (CDN) with the following result: TireRack = $CDN489.01 TireTrends= $CDN622.55

Bottom line is, the US online vendor beat the Canadian vendor by $CDN133.54 for these 2 tires !!!
I should add that for those that don't realize it, TireRack's shipping price includes all duties and taxes. The TireRack price for shipping, etc in this case was USD$54.00 - probably not worth the trouble of having them shipped to a US address and driving across the border to pick them up and have them installed. If you are planning to do this, know that there are several other sites that offer even cheaper tire combinations than TireRack.

We continue to get raped on tire prices (and many other things) in Canada despite recent decreases in the exchange rates. I want to support Canadian companies as much as the next guy, however, not when there is such a price discrepancy!!!

If Canadian vendors insist on picking our pockets, the very least they can do is refrain from crushing the "family jewels" in the process...