Newbie needs Winter Tire / Wheel Advice

[G-Whiz]

Recently purchased 3.5 6MT Sedan with 26K miles. The has 5 spoke wheel with the Turanza 17 inch tires which are about done for. Knowing that I am facing a New England (RI) Winter...wondering what my best option is for tires / wheel combos? Don't want to spend too much...car was a stretch, but I don't want to go sledding either. Can I get away with an all season? Or do I need to buy a set of snow tires (blizzaks?) and rims and then a second set of all season / performance tires? Should I consider 18s and I assume they will fit. Thanks in advance for any input.

G-Whiz

[donpalombella]

A good all-season set is your cheapest way out.

[dholly]

Sure, a new set of all-season tires is the cheapest way out and, assuming you have a reasonable amount of RWD driving experience and skill in winter conditions, you should be fine 99% of the time. However, I would NOT replace with the same oem A/S tires, rather, I would find another set with better winter ratings. The oem A/S's are absolutely nothing specal, and have consistently drawn bad reviews re: both summer and winter traction. Not all of that can be attributed to un-familiarity with rwd in winter conditions. In any event, since the car will work soooo much better with 4 winter tires and our northern winters last soooo long, do consider a dedicated winter wheel/tire pkg. I found that it was less expensive to buy a 16" winter/tire pkg than buy and swap back and forth between 17" winter and summer tires on the oem wheels. Much kinder to your expensive oem wheels too. Also, do not forget that should you run A/S's year round you will most likely be compromising summertime performance in a big way...something I was unwilling to do. A few searchs will uncover many comments about member's experiences last winter and several specific tire recommendations.

2004 | 6MTs | Diamond Graphite/Graphite
Upstate NY

[fafafriendly]

I, too am a newbie to tire stuff. I need new tires NOW (literally - my rears are bald) and live in PA....so we do get snow, just not a ton of it.
I've been trying to find all season tires for the 6MT but no luck, only performance or winter, no gray area there. I made it through last winter with my stock tires so I'm thinking of just getting performance tires again and taking it REALLY easy so I don't buy winters now, and then another set of performance in the spring.

Any advice would be MUCH appreciated. Anyone hear of all seasons that fit the 6MT's? I don'y mind sacrificing a bit of performance for a little better traction in the winter.

Also, the tires I've prices thus far are around 1100-1300 a set.[!]

I did see some Yokahamas (I think that's the name) for below 700.00 for a set but they are 'Ultra Performance Tires' instead of the stock 'High Performance Tires' which is telling me that the Yokas will TOTALLY suck in the snow but stick great on dry.

Again...any and all advice/comments/etc would be EXTREMELY appreciated! [cheers]

2003 Black on black 6MT Coupe, premium package, NAV, JWT Pop Charger-w-Z Tube.

[donpalombella]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dholly

Sure, a new set of all-season tires is the cheapest way out and, assuming you have a reasonable amount of RWD driving experience and skill in winter conditions, you should be fine 99% of the time. However, I would NOT replace with the same oem A/S tires, rather, I would find another set with better winter ratings. The oem A/S's are absolutely nothing specal, and have consistently drawn bad reviews re: both summer and winter traction. Not all of that can be attributed to un-familiarity with rwd in winter conditions. In any event, since the car will work soooo much better with 4 winter tires and our northern winters last soooo long, do consider a dedicated winter wheel/tire pkg. I found that it was less expensive to buy a 16" winter/tire pkg than buy and swap back and forth between 17" winter and summer tires on the oem wheels. Much kinder to your expensive oem wheels too. Also, do not forget that should you run A/S's year round you will most likely be compromising summertime performance in a big way...something I was unwilling to do. A few searchs will uncover many comments about member's experiences last winter and several specific tire recommendations.

2004 | 6MTs | Diamond Graphite/Graphite
Upstate NY
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
[werd] Which is why I bought a winter set as well.

[fafafriendly]

Hey Don, do they make ALL SEASON tires for the 6MT Brembo car? I was told that there are only winter or performance, nothing else.

Thanks

2003 Black on black 6MT Coupe, premium package, NAV, JWT Pop Charger-w-Z Tube.

[donpalombella]

I have never checked, but I'm sure someone does.