Here in central Iowa, winters are crazy. Last winter was probably the worst in the history of the state.

I've been thinking about getting winter tires but am completely unfamiliar with how this would work and what costs are associated with it.

Would it work like this by going into a tire shop?

-Pick out what winter tires I want
-Pick out steel rims for winter tires to go on (or can they use my stock rims?)
-They put everything on, rebalance tires?

I guess what I'm saying is that how do most people do the "winter tire" thing? Do you get them put on after the snow has definitely fallen for a few days? Basically I'm looking at the worst snow months for Iowa being late December through the end of February.

What is your "winter tire" routine?

How much would I expect to spend by getting the work done by a local tire shop all in all?

 

If I were going for getting everything done in one shot, I'd buy steel wheels and tires - already mounted and balanced - from Tirerack (or alloys, if you want to spend a bit more). Have them shipped to a shop if you're not comfortable with changing wheels yourself. The work is as simple as changing a tire - just multiply x4. Takes less than half an hour to do all 4 yourself.

I was trying to save money last winter, and also bought late in the winter so Tirerack had no steel wheels left, so I bought a set of 14x6" alloys from an early 90's Honda Del Sol, bought a set of tires from DiscountTireDirect online, and had them mounted and balanced at a local shop. I still installed them on the car myself. I spent $100 on the wheels, and roughly $250 for the tires (185/70R14) including purchase (free shipping) and mounting/balancing. You're typically looking at $500-600 for a full set of steel wheels and tires from Tirerack in either 185/70R14 (probably can't get 14" wheels from Tirerack) or 175/65R15.

I'd expect a local shop to either be on par with Tirerack or within $100-200 more, depending on whether they can source you used wheels from a salvage yard, or some other inexpensive source. If they quote you new steel wheels from the dealer, the cost will be significantly more than Tirerack, who charges roughly $50/wheel for steel wheels.

Basically any OEM 4x100 14" Honda wheel will fit just fine if you want to save yourself money and go the somewhat DIY route I did.