Mobile tire-changing companies bring the garage to your door

About three years ago, a pregnant Crystal Karam looked out the window at the falling snow and shuddered. With her husband out of town on business and no snow tires on her car, she felt helpless and had no clue who to call.

“I thought, ‘Why can’t someone come to my house and put them on?’”

Fast-forward a year later and the young mother of three opened Tire Changers, a mobile tire-changing company that brings the technician to your home or work.

“It’s a service of convenience,” says the 30-year-old entrepreneur, whose customers range from single moms and busy families to seniors who don’t want the hassle of lugging heavy tires back and forth to the garage to get them changed over in the fall and spring.

For $59, a technician will mount your seasonal tires — they have to be on rims — in your driveway.

[The Ottawa Citizen]

[Bridgestone]

I hear it all the time, living on the East Coast: "Well, I need an all-wheel drive car because it rains and snows sometimes." But those in the know are well aware that the right kind of rubber is really more important than anything else.

This video from the UK's AutoExpress seeks to prove just how true that is. They get two Ford Kugas (Ford Escapes to us Americans), one with front-wheel drive and one with all-wheel drive, and they see which one is better at powering up a snowy slope.

The front-drive car doesn't make it very far up the hill with its summer tires — and the all-wheel drive version fails to do any better with the same tires. When equipped with winter tires, the front-driver obliterates the all-wheel drive Kuga that's still stuck on summer tires.

The one that does best of all is the all-wheel drive Kuga with winter tires, which makes it all the way up the ski slope. Not surprising. But the video is excellent proof that the tires make all the difference.

So the next time someone insists on spending more on an all-wheel drive car and they don't live in some perpetually snow-covered place like Colorado or Alaska, use this to maybe convince them to spend that cash on the right set of tires instead. [Jalopnik]