A lot of people pinged my Facebook when I mentioned I was buying from the US. With the Canadian dollar on a winning streak, it’s hard to ignore buying across the border.

TireRack is a well recognized size for US shoppers and they make buying in Canada very seamless. Their site quotes shipping to Canadian addresses as well as adding duty and brokerage fees already. The only thing you have to do is convert to CAD (which may even reach par soon).

Yes, it’s winter, so it’s time to shop for tires. Remember there are different types of winter tires: All-season winter tires, full winter tires and performance winter tires.

In Toronto I recommend full winter tires if you are a “must drive” type of person. Those that drive to work and drive every day will appreciate the traction on those stormy days. The top end tires in this category use multicell technology – a way of creating a tire that removes water from beneath the tire. I recommend Bridgestone WS-60 and Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and both use multicell compounds for the best traction on ice and packed snow. Tires without multicell technology are cheaper, but at a cost of ice traction – which probably is an OK sacrifice for Toronto.

Performance winter tires are better for occasional drivers and drivers that are willing to sacrifice some snow traction for some cold/dry performance. I bought one of the newest offerings in this category, the Bridgestone LM-60.

I don’t recommend any all season tires for winter in Toronto.

If you are interested in truck/SUV tires, see this article at Canadian Driver.

There’s a good article at Motive Magazine about winter tires. While they define three categories, one of their categories are still all-season tires which I don’t recommend for winteres – even in Toronto. Instead I’ve removed that catagory and added a third: the performance winter tire.

Ice and snow tires - the most hardcore of winter tires and is used for driving on packed snow and ice. Perfect for Dawson Creek weather but probably a bit too hardcore for Toronto with our adequate snow removal.

Winter tires - the “true” winter tire which is made to be good in snow but won’t give the same performance on packed as and snow as the “ice and snow” tires. However, these will not wear away as quickly when driven on lots of dry ashphalt and highway driving. These are best suited for Toronto winters.

Performance winter tires - these are a pretty new catagory and basically are winter tires made for low-profiles like sports cars. These generally have higher speed ratings as winter tires but you sacrifice some snow traction. I’ve been using the Pirelli Wintersport 210′s which fall in this category. Good for getting around but if there is 4″ of snow on the ground, stay home.

If you’re still running on all-seasons, it’s not too late to buy a set of winter tires and not have white-knuckle driving this Monday – yes, a storm is coming.