question about summer vs. winter tires and rims

[whitemp5seattle]

Ok so I just won a set of Mazdaspeed3 rims on ebay...and now I need to decide what kind of tires to put on 'em. This is my first time buying tires! How exciting! (ughdance)

So, I'm thinking I'll use the MS3 rims for my summer driving, and keep my stock rims around for winter use. That said, I should get some all-season tires for my MS3 rims (215/35/18) and winter tires for the stockers (195/50/16 or maybe 205/45/16?). Right?

any advice for a first time tire-buyer? I'm still doing the research on what tires are good (in the Tire Review Thread), and looking around on tirerack.com...

Thanks in advance for your help! (rockon)

 

[whitemp5seattle]

or maybe I'll sell the stock rims and tires and buy some steel rims with winter tires?

 

[FunkyBuddha]

Keep your stocks

You can try some Pirelli all seasons for your MS3 rims then just get nokian winter tires for your stockers. Nokian is as good might be better than the michelin X-ice and are cheaper too.

EDIT: high performance all seasons

 

[jersey_emt]

Don't bother with all-seasons if you are going to have a separate set of wheels for winter tires. Go with summer tires.

 

[FunkyBuddha]

^^ that's an option as well. Nitto or Toyo make good tires. the G-Force tires are good too.

 

[whitemp5seattle]

would summer tires be ok in rainy conditions too? (i.e. spring/autumn rain?) just as long as I switch to winter tires by the time the first frost comes around I should be ok, right?

 

[Tom03es]

Summer tires are better in the rain than a comparible all season tire. An all season tire has to make too many compromises in its design to be good in every condition.

But if you can't find a summer tire you like, going with an Ultra High Performance All season or a High Performance All season tire would be OK too.

Check out www.tirerack.com or www.discounttiredirect.com for pretty much all your tire needs.

 

[whitemp5seattle]

(cool) thanks!

 

[benjpi]

Get real summer tires for the summer. If you're going to swap them out you might as well have some fun!

The Yokohama ES100 is a perennial summer favorite; decent treadwear, good in the rain (when relatively new), great dry traction, and QUIET. I had these on my BMW (pre-twins...) and I could slide the car without even a hint of squeal. They are AWESOME for stealth speed, and they aren't that expensive.