At a professional gas station getting your tires changed takes just five minutes, and increasingly many drivers are opting for a pro's touch instead of changing out their studded wintertime wheels themselves.
A garage attendant can guarantee a clean job, and businesses that offer what are called "tire hotels" see a definite uptick in demand, especially in the capital region.
Hannu Temonen is the proprietor of one such establishment in Helsinki. He says that the so-called hotels – which offer checkup services but primarily store winter tires over the warm season – are still too few in number. Housing companies are not thrilled by excess tires being stored in basements and parking halls.
Minimal groove
The recent uproar over the Nokian Tyres quality control deception has not had an effect on business per se -- except that the everyday banter in the gas station yard has gone up a notch, with customers cheekily asking after tyes of the "GMO" and "Doping" varieties.
New cars have automatic tyre pressure gauges installed, but Jonne Luomala from the Automobile and Touring Club of Finland says the system poses no obstacle for those determined to change their summer tires themselves.
More important, he says, is that the minimum groove of the tires be above 1 point 6 millimeters.
"Any lower than that and a tire is good only for dockside buffering or swinging from branches," Luomala says.