Hi, I am planning to drive down for a skiing trip. I have a Nissan Serena (16” tires). I have snow chains. But, I was thinking of renting snow tires — to use them instead of using snow chains, unless I have to use both due to weather conditions.
At this point in time, I am not considering investing into new snow tires for myself to keep. Are there any good rentals in Tokyo where I could get them?
4 comments
I have never heard of winter tyre rental and it sounds economically unsustainable to me..
If you don’t want to spend too much on winter tyres you can buy them from a used tyre shop. I bought my previous set with genuine stock subaru wheels for my Impreza a very low price and they worked well enough for a a few trips in Nagano.
Edit: apparently rental exist! But the price is not cheap…
Honestly I think snow chains are good enough
I rented studless tires when heading to Hida/Takayama. I had to go out to Machida to get them, but I was coming from Omiya so I was looking for something on the way, not in central Tokyo – can’t recall which shop, just what showed up in a google search.
Sorry, can’t help much other than saying it’s possible
I bought a set of used 18” wheels with almost new studless tires and it was ¥50,000 delivered via Yahoo Auctions. Did the same for FIL’s X Trail with 16” wheels and they were even cheaper. Then bought a jack and a torque wrench and swapped them over at home. Used them three seasons now and never felt like I would need chains (driving around Akakura/Nozawa etc). If you’ve got the space to store them having a set spare is super handy, plus means you can run them through mid winter and not worry about piling into someone if there’s occasionally snow where you live.
And not having to put snow chains on in the mud/snow is priceless.