I got my car aligned and new tires installed at Pro Care Auto last week. The alignment was only $60 and they have a Hunter setup. They did a good alignment on both mine and my wife's car. Also had new tires (purchased from TireRack) installed for $10 a piece. There are 3 mechanics that work there and they all seem real knowledable and cool to the customers. However, it did take them two times to get the balance right at highway speeds but they took care of that quickly and without a fuss. They also worked on several Lexus's and Mercedes while I was there. Their info:

410-526-4480
84 Main St.
Reisterstown

They are a newer shop and were not in the phone book, yet.

Do you find the SP5000's sufficient for the light snow that we get here in the DC area? I can't decide whether to go with dedicated snow tires or all-seasons for my 17" wheels during the winter.

Regards,
rwh

haven't a basis for comparison. I can tell you this, as long as you are running all season tires, you should be fine as long as you take your time. Just DON'T run Summer tires. Summer tires handle poorly in cold weather and worse in the snow. I actually went down to 205/55/16's for winter because narrow is better. I plan on getting 17" wheels in the spring (already have 17" summer tires for them) and will use the 5000's as winter tires. I don't want to lose the w-rated traction of the sp5000 for a winter tire for the infrequent snow we get. I digress....

I actually made it through some decent snow in '98 or '99 in my old passat on 15" all-seasons, so I'm sure for snow driving all-seasons with quattro would be ok. I think the bigger problem in DC is the ice that we tend to get on the roads here. Still trying to figure out if we get enough of it to go with a more dedicated winter tires. The sales guy at my dealership actually told me to go with all-seasons....decisions, decisions...

rwh

the guys were real nice