The stock Toyos are absolute trash in the snow!

[twintrbo]

This is more of a rant than anything else. These tires are the biggest pieces of shat that I have ever had the mispleasure of driving on. I got stuck on a snowball today that my 4 yo threw. I spent 20 minutes digging down the to asphalt only to have it spinning the tires at idle in drive. I think if I took the tires off it would have more traction on the bare rims, at least the TPMS sensor would dig in once every revolution. Man, I swear if I didn't know I could buy a snow tire it would have a for sale sign on it just because of the tires. Why couldn't Mazda put a decent set of tires on this thing?! I hate these @#@#$$#^#^&#%$@!#$!@#%$#$^#$%!@#%$!#@$#@ tires............

My only real question is does it make sense for me to buy real snow tires or should I get a good pair of 4 season M+S tires for year round? I only do about 5000mi per year and here in the city we are only driving on snow maybe 10 days out of the whole winter before the roads are cleared and salted.

Oh and these tires are crap..........

 

[schokie]

Here's my opinion and it's just that - it's not just the Toyo's that are crap in the snow. I don't think the car is very good in the snow w/o snow tires. Maybe not enough weight over front tires? I don't really know. I now have Kuhmo Platinums (advertised as performance all season) on car and it still is terrible in snow compared to all of my other front wheel drive cars. If I had this car as a primary driver and lived somewhere that got a decent amount of snowfall would buy a set of 16" wheels and snow tires for winter. JMO.

 

[mpvue]

I drove last winter on the stock toyos (when they were new) and didn't have any issues. I had to replace them early (before they were worn down because of one getting a huge puncture).
I have conti DWS's now, and they are much better even. we haven't had a lot of snow yet, but so far, so good.
maybe it's because I've driven such worse cars in the snow (living/driving in the NE for more than 20 years), but I think the 5 is just fine in the snow. take it easy slow and careful and it's fine.

 

[twintrbo]

I had a 1987 Chrysler Conquest TSi for my first car. It was RWD with a limited slip and was not what you would consider a "winter" car. It almost never got me stuck unless I really tried to get in someplace awful. I never had all weather tires on it and I just never had the problems I have with the 5.

Let me clarify that the main problem is from a standing start on snow/ice. I use the 2nd gear start on the tranny and its better, but far from good. Braking is really quite good and I havent noticed any cornering problems. Its basically just another FWD car so why would it be any worse than any other car? Exactly, it doesn't make sense that something is "wrong" with the 5. The only thing that can be blamed is the tires, IMHO, of course!

As far as my driving, I'm not going to say I'm Colin McRae but I've driven on snow my whole driving life. Thats about 19 years so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing by now. I personally drove 3 vehicles that were "stuck", right out of spots during this storm without further shoveling. The biggest obstacle here in the city is getting in and out of parking spots after the storms are gone.

As an update, I just purchased a used set of Blizzaks on 16" rims for the winter use. I'm picking them up tomorrow so I will let you know firsthand how big a difference the tires make. Well worth the $375 its going to cost if I'm right. Just reading the reviews on tire rack, it seems snow tires are night and day for these conditions.

 

[chief_wiggum]

I agree 100% about these tires being horrible in the snow; i've been on the look out for cheap rims to slap dedicated winter tires -- just haven't found the right craigslist bargain.

 

[twintrbo]

I agree 100% about these tires being horrible in the snow; i've been on the look out for cheap rims to slap dedicated winter tires -- just haven't found the right craigslist bargain.

I found mine $375 for mounted blizzaks on 16" alloys. I'm getting tpms sensors for it as well.

 

[chief_wiggum]

I found mine $375 for mounted blizzaks on 16" alloys. I'm getting tpms sensors for it as well.

That's the kind of deal I've been looking for; nice grab!

 

[twintrbo]

The guy had them on his Lexus IS300 so it should be the proper offset and they are 205/55/16's too! I checked on tire racks' site for their recommendations and it was the same for both cars. I hope I can get the tpms for $75 or so, that would be awesome! I just have my fingers crossed that the guy was upfront about everything since its an hour drive to get them.

 

[Premacy5]

I never try to drive the stock Toyo on snow. I got a used set of 215/55R16 winter set with TPMS cheap soon after I bought the car last October. The last 3 car I own all have dedicated winter tire. My AWD subaru handles pretty bad also on OEM tires. Where we live its not really necessary to use dedicated winter tire. I still used it because I feel it worth to protect our family. All the safety technology available in the most advance car right now would be worthless if the tire does not have any traction.

 

[chief_wiggum]

The guy had them on his Lexus IS300 so it should be the proper offset and they are 205/55/16's too! I checked on tire racks' site for their recommendations and it was the same for both cars. I hope I can get the tpms for $75 or so, that would be awesome! I just have my fingers crossed that the guy was upfront about everything since its an hour drive to get them.

you might have problems; the hub bore for Lexus is 60.1, ours is 67.1. Definitely try and bolt them up before you give him your money. Other auto makers wheels I've found that most closely match our specs (5X114.3, 67.1 hub, 12MMX1.5 bolt thread) are a lot of hyundai wheels and mitsubishi wheels. good luck, I hope they fit.

 

[chief_wiggum]

All the safety technology available in the most advance car right now would be worthless if the tire does not have any traction.

Amen!

 

[twintrbo]

I hear ya, keep in mind that the manufacturers cant build rims to fit one companies hub bore so its oversized to accommodate everyone. They looked great in person, turned out to be WS-50's and about 3 years old so I think I'm good. I will try to bolt them on asap and get some pics up. This was the pic in the ad : http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/pts/2132557020.html

 

[chief_wiggum]

I hear ya, keep in mind that the manufacturers cant build rims to fit one companies hub bore so its oversized to accommodate everyone. They looked great in person, turned out to be WS-50's and about 3 years old so I think I'm good. I will try to bolt them on asap and get some pics up. This was the pic in the ad : http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/pts/2132557020.html

oh, I thought you meant they were on factory Lexus rims -- my bad.

 

[twintrbo]

Nope, sorry to confuse. Just got back from a test drive with fronts only....... Night and Day would be downplaying it a LOT. Even when its stuck its not stuck for long, I'm putting the shovel and ice chopper back in the basement where they belong.

 

[twintrbo]

Turns out I read the wrong # on the sidewall, even though he claimed they were used one season and stored for 3, I had a feeling they were older than he said. Seems they are 6 years old, which I'm not sure I would have bought if I knew that at the time. They dont have any dry rot on them and I dont do much highway driving so I will just run them til I dont feel safe on them anymore. They still perform 100 times better than stock so I cant complain about performance, just a little less peace of mind.

Where it would have been hopelessly hung up before, it just digs its way to the pavement and powers through. Its pretty amazing actually! I deliberately ran it into some bad stuff just to see what would happen and now I'm not afraid to try a spot that isn't shoveled down to the asphalt. I certainly am no longer daydreaming of a 4wd J-spec conversion either. If anyone is even slightly unhappy with the snow performance of the stock tires, I cant recommend full snows enough.

Oh and not sure if its 100% true but I had read that tires earned the M+S based on tread to void ratio and not actual winter performance like a true snow tire. This would explain a lot about why some all season tires are not that good in all seasons.

 

[red headz]

I have a dedicated winter & summer set of wheels for both my VW Golf and Mazda5.

I recently tested our M5 in the snow with our new Blizzak WS-70's. They were awesome. Deepish (5-8") snow and we never got stuck. We were bottoming out and getting high centered before we loosing traction.

michael.

 

[twintrbo]

Could someone please tell me how the TPMS has not caught on to the fact that the 2 front wheel sensors are no longer on the car for the last 40 miles? I just switched the rears out so lets see what happens. I had the TPMS alert me to low pressure before so I know it works, but wtf?

 

[Premacy5]

To program TPMS you just have to turn the key to "ON" and turn it back to "ACC". Leave it on ACC for about 15 minutes. Are you sure you did not do that? If you do that the new TPMS sensor would automatically get registered again.

 

[twintrbo]

I'm not programing it because I dont have sensors in the winter set, yet. So I find it weird I get no indication that there is a fault with only half the sensors still reporting.

 

[Fivo]

This is more of a rant than anything else. These tires are the biggest pieces of shat that I have ever had the mispleasure of driving on. I got stuck on a snowball today that my 4 yo threw. I spent 20 minutes digging down the to asphalt only to have it spinning the tires at idle in drive. I think if I took the tires off it would have more traction on the bare rims, at least the TPMS sensor would dig in once every revolution. Man, I swear if I didn't know I could buy a snow tire it would have a for sale sign on it just because of the tires. Why couldn't Mazda put a decent set of tires on this thing?! I hate these @#@#$$#^#^&#%$@!#$!@#%$#$^#$%!@#%$!#@$#@ tires............

My only real question is does it make sense for me to buy real snow tires or should I get a good pair of 4 season M+S tires for year round? I only do about 5000mi per year and here in the city we are only driving on snow maybe 10 days out of the whole winter before the roads are cleared and salted.

Oh and these tires are crap..........