I think part of where I messed up is getting 215 series. My logic was that 215's are so skinny anyhow. Why go skinnier? The problem i'm having right now is that the tires seem to catch and wander into the various ruts or tracks that other tires have made on different vehicles. And you gotta be spot on with your steering otherwise you'll feel the left or right side start to catch the piles of snow and start to suck the car in. I used to travel the outside lane with confidence, but a few ruts and tracks sucked me dangerously to the curb (of course I was speeding...I've got snowshoes right?!..) and I backed off and got back into the inside lane with less snow.
The 205's matched with the +48 offset would have been a pretty wide stance. Oh well..what's a few millimeters..
The wheel is 17x7, and our stock wheel is 18x7. 215 seems to fit rather nicely. If you ran 17's with a wider footprint, i'm pretty sure the widest you could run would be 225/45/17. My setup (215/50/17, 17x7 +48 wheel) is 0.2" further away from the suspension from stock, so you should be able to run 225's. Just be careful with wide tires on a skinny wheel. Sloppy sidewall action.
You can tell from these pictures that the tires seem to fit pretty well on the car.
Light snow and slush is fine. And I can't complain too bad. I haven't gotten stuck once and even forced my way into a parking spot that had higher snow than the lip of the bumper. My gf's CX-7 tried the same thing and the front wheels got stuck and just sat and spun. They can dig down if they want. But you really have to be easy on the throttle.
I like the wheels a lot! I guess it's part of the reason why I was considering some TE37 Volks (way out of my price range), but I seen my buddy in person with his stockers on and I missed them immediately. They're sexy for stock wheels! But I can't complain about these as winters!
Actually, I have one complaint. Snow gets stuck and frozen on the inside of the wheel and spokes and throws off the balance..it doesn't feel too great at 60mph.
