So my project "don't bust the budget" got an extension. In short, I am proving to my wife that the buying and maintaining a car for $1000/year all in is still a viable possibility. It was originally a 2-year plan to end in February but due to some unfortunate occurrences, it got extended a year or more.

One of the reasons I chose my 1990 240 DL sedan over some over used cars was that it had nearly new tires. In retrospect, this was a mistake as the tires on it are badly flat-spotted, hard as a rock and grip like oiled glass on wet or or snowy surfaces.

Locally there are a set of used Michelin xzx...

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/pts/3245745121.html

Owner says they are older but mostly sat on a shelf in his garage. Around here mounting and balancing at a used tire shop is about $12/tire all in so this would fit in my budget quite well. My other thought is just to bite the bullet and get lower priced snow tires and drive them year round (only commute 14 miles per day round trip). What would you guys do?

I am looking at one new u-joint, an alignment, new rotors and pads on the front so a large chunk of my budget will disappear in one swipe when I do this.