I'm planning to keep my stock wheels for the forseeable future, but I found myself wondering what I could get away with in terms of tires. Two questions: What's the widest I can realistically do with the stock rims? Will they hold a 215, or is 205 the max? Also -- I'm considering snow tires, but only if all-seasons for sure won't handle Minnesota snow. I'd much prefer to get one set of tires that are pretty awesome for everything. Was looking at a set of Bridgestone High Performance All Seasons... Would something like that do the job?
You're going to get better bite out of snow tires if you stay with a smaller tread patch. I wouldn't recommend going "larger" on purpose for snows. It's generally said that all season tires are only mediocre for both summer and winter. If you can afford it, I would highly suggest a set of wheels for both summer and winter.
if you only want one set of tires i strongly reccomend the Nokian WR G2: only all season to get a DOT severe duty rating. i have the pervious version on my legacy wagon and they are awesome. a little spendy but worth every penny. the Finns really know what they are doing when it comes to snow/all season tires. these tires have my wagon glued to the road in the winter. deep snow, slush and ice are no problem. in fact they grip so well it is hard to get the car sideways in the snow if they can bite in to the ground. the G2 has a better "slush groove" in it than the old WR. they have a pretty solid sidewall too and i feel the cornering is very solid. sure they arent as good as dedicated summer race rubber but they are worlds better than a RE-92 or even a good summer oriented all season. plus they kick butt for rallycrossing. wouldnt want to do a track day or autcross in them though.
That's pretty hard to do. Tires are a compromise. Generally, good winter tires compromise summer traction, and vice versa. I'm a huge fan of dedicated winter and summer tires. I've found that most all-season (no-season) tires suck in the winter and suck in the summer. I'm sure there are a few exceptions though.
really only one exception to the all season tires sucking in the winter rule. i have a set of hakka 1s that i use on my Legacy turbo and i think the WR grips better.
i had reallllly good luck with kuhmo ASX's.. i tried to get stuck in every snow storm, followed my buddies with trucks off road and never got stuck... i also did some drag racing, and an autox event and they did very well.. these were 225-50-16's
I had a set of the G2's i ran from Sept. to Apr on my T-leg. They were awesome but they wore MUCH faster then i would have liked. Im already into the last wear # on the treadblock, pretty much worthless now as all the sipes are gone. Just an FYI
Yea, I am still riding on Blizzaks. Have been all summer. I have 3 ws 50's and one ws 60 I had to replace the back one cus it poped. They dont handle well, I can easily squeal the tires on a clover leaf turn at 40ish. But they are excellent in the dirt.
Just for info's sake, Stock tire size = 205/55-16 stock wheel can do a 225/50-16, doesn't mess up the speedo. wider is not a good idea for winter, though, as was mentioned. How hard were you driving it, though? I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on G2's for quite awhile now, but reviews have been lacking.
I put them through 2 rally-x's, but that doesnt do much to them at all. I did my best to resist high speed cornering on them in the dry too trying to save them. I feel for how i drove on them they should have lasted longer. My buddy has ws50's, he drove them much harder then i do and still has a ton of tread left so i am rather disappointed. I think im gonna try out some RSi's this winter.
my wife is the primarey driver with the WR and they seem to be wearing nicely for her very sedate driving style. of course we have snow on the road from novemeber to may some times.
It's been said before, but a good rule of thumb is that what works on the street generally doesn't translate to working well in snow/dirt. I've been running my snows all year to get them burned off so I can get a decent set of winter tires, I'm running 185/65/15 for my winter wheels and i'll go to 225/60/16 for my summer wheels/tires. For snows, going smaller and narrower usually will get you better traction and rim protection as well as a slightly smoother ride at the expense of pavement handling. The difference in winter is pretty substantial though. +1 for anything with the Nokian label. They make great all weather/foul weather tires.
Awesome. Getting some great info here. I had already heard a lot of good things about doing dedicated snow tires for the winter, and definitely can't wait to see what kind of difference summer tires make for my handling. Three reasons I was considering going with All-Seasons only: 1) Up until this May, the car I was driving was a FWD Saturn wagon (5MT) and I'm proud to say I only had to shovel myself out once in the 9 years I drove it. Never put snow tires on. 2) I figured the 4WD + 5MT combo in the WRX would be pretty unstoppable in the winter anyway. 3) I don't have a lot of money to put towards the car -- since it's going towards the payment + insurance -- and if I decided to go the two set route I'd be tempted to buy some sweet summer wheels, too. And I'd want something functionally better than stock, not just aesthetic. So that's $1000 just for the wheels.... That said, I'm a sucker for getting the best thing for any given application, especially if it deals with a passion of mine (which in this case is driving). :biggrin:
^Just an FYI. You can find used rims on this site with tires(some in great condition with lots of tread left). I have two sets of rims and I paid $500/set of 4 with tires. One set had 1/2 worn Bridgestone Potenza's, and the other had a near brand new set of Blizzak winters on them. You can find some nice 17's(bling) with summer rubber and some 16's(not so bling) with decent winters on them for approximately $900. Jus sayin'.
You're absolutely right. Winter tires aren't about going, they're about turning and stopping. That being said, if you baby it in the winter, yeah you can get around. Just like any other car.
Two things I've learned in the past 5 years. The first was I'll never drive in the winter without snow tires again... Night and day difference. The second was I'll never drive a car/truck that isn't AWD/4WD in the wither. Both alone will for sure get you were you need to go, safely. Both combined is just insane. The only thing I'm ever worried about is the people on all seasons or summer tires and them not being able to stop fast enough or swerve.
had a friend that drove an svx around with studded snow tires. said it was like driving on dry pavement.
I heard studded tires for the first time last winter when I drove with a buddy out to Portland. I'm glad we aren't allowed to use them on public roads here. Noisy and man were their roads bad. Not that we need them....
It'll work, but you'd be better off with the 205/55/16 sizing. You want to go narrower with snows, not wider. Is this for your L/RS? If so, I'd look at some of the 15in wheel/tire sizes.
It'll be doable, but not optimal. I'd run 205/55/16s if you can. When I had my WRX I was trying to find a narrower and taller option to run for 16s but didn't really come up with one.
