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Article: DON'T WAIT UNTIL SNOW FALLS TO BUY WINTER TIRES; Get 'Em While It's Hot!(Special Report)
- Article from:
- AutoWeek
- Article date:
- February 28, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: ANDREW LUU
Ask most any tire distributor or manufacturer about obtaining winter tires for your car next year and the response is consistent: "Buy them early.''
While this may sound like a self-serving sales pitch, the winter tire business has changed. We learned that firsthand when trying to shod both the long-term Nissan 350Z and Mazda RX-8 test cars in our fleet.
When we tried to buy winter shoes in November for these cars, the store shelves were bare of the required 18-inchers. We then contacted the tire companies directly and were told the same thing: Sorry, no go.
"We saw a tremendous demand from 2003 to 2004,'' says ...