When I was buying snow tires from Tirerack.com I got the steel rims from them and if memory serves, the wheels were something like $30 each. That's cheap enough.

Actually, the idea of carrying one of the off-season tires (snows in the summer and all-season in the winter) is a good one. I'll have to see if mine fits the spare tire well.

Also, on the subject of checking the spare pressure often. I am not a psychiatrist, nor do I play one on TV, but I think if access to the spare tire valve were better than what it is, more spares would be properly inflated. I wonder if there is a product out there that extends the tire valve via a flexible hose to about a foot or two. That way, you could just have the valve available for your tire pressure gauge all the time without having to take the kids' bikes, strollers, case of oil and groceries out to check the spare tire pressure. Let me know if anyone knows of such a hose. It just needs to have a male shrader valve on one end and the female on the other and be lfexible and tough enough to survive the trunk environment.


Cheers!
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Vladimir. '98 S70 base, 5-speed manual (his), '91 240 sedan automatic (hers).