You've all certainly heard horror stories about prices in Japan - ten dollar cups of coffee, two hundred dollar steaks, fifty dollar taxi rides, etc. Like most urban myths these tend to be exagerations based upon nuggests of truth. However...

I have just had the biggest shock in my fourteen years here. Needed to get a new set of PS2's. Four 19" OE spec tires retail for 181,000 JPY (1,632 USD) mounting and balancing another 25,000 JPY (225 USD), grand total of 1,857 USD. Seems to be about 25% more expensive than the US.

Yeah - that's steep. I buy from TireRack and the tires are about $1200 and change, and about $120 - $30/tire to mount and balance...

brad

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21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

Can't you have Tirerack ship them overseas to you? Better yet, why don't you just ship the CS here?

Great idea! I'll ship to you, you can get the tires mounted, drive the car for a few days, and then ship it back...

Now would be a good time to try some of the Japanese brands. Besides costing less than the imports, they will be less expensive, and probably handle better and last longer than the PS2s.

Try the Bridgestones RE 050's
I love mine.

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2009 Carrera coming soon

Considering other tires? This is a good read: Tire Test: The Quick and the Tread - Features - Car and Driver December 2005

Consumer reports also did a feature recently. I was pleasantly surprised at how high the PS2s ranked.

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"The Cayman doesn't need any more toys." -- My wife

Nice article, very informative. Thanks.

I'm running Yokohama's on my CS now. As a Japanese manufactured tire, I wonder if they would be cheaper?

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Life is not a rehearsal

I paid $1600.00 Canadian dollars for 4 Pirelli winter tires and that didn't even include installation.

You must be getting a special discount. The TireRack posted prices tally to $1334, and there is still shipping. And in CA, if you pick them up through a reseller that does the install, they should be charging tax. So, I'm guessing another $110 on taxes, $120 on install and $50-$100 for freight. That comes in at just about $1600.

When I bought my car, I was told that the most expensive maintenance would be tires. And that seems to be true. I'm sure that those with PCCB, will find out otherwise.


BTW, for the OP, that price is roughly what the dealer charges in the US.

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The search tool is your friend. It is very
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Cayman S - a portable amusement park

- 2006 Cayman S
- 2003 Dakota SXT
- 1963 Studebaker Avanti, R2, 4-Speed
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LL

How do the Yokohama's perform? Are you running 19"s. Do they wear faster?

__________________
*******************************
The search tool is your friend. It is very
likely that your question has already been
answered countless times.Very,very likely.
*******************************
*******************************
Cayman S - a portable amusement park

- 2006 Cayman S
- 2003 Dakota SXT
- 1963 Studebaker Avanti, R2, 4-Speed
*******************************

LL