Winter Package Deals?

D

DiscoStew

Member
Hello ya'll! First post from the noob. Picked up a 2009 Mazda 5 Touring in black/black during the c4c cattle rush in August. Bone stock and likely to stay that way.

Living in snow country, I have been looking to buy a set of mounted snows and have been searching all the usual places such as Tirerack.com, Dscounttiredirect.com, Ebay, Craigslist (will buy used if local). Seems like $600ish for steel rims at Tirerack is the best I have found

So I figured a few others must be doing the same this time of year. Perhaps the "wisdom of the crowd" can find a smokin' deal, closeout, misprint, and post it up for others to take advantage of as well. Personally I am planning on going to a 16" 205/55 setup.

Thanks in advance!

- Stew
 
fyi i run a 205/60 16 winter tire and am very happy. i bought from tire rack but be aware not to wait too long in the past tire rack has run out of the mazda steel rims.
 
I went with 16" momo five spoke winter wheels with yokohama (I think) studless tires in what ever size is automatically calculated at discounttiredirect.com. Bought them in 07 for the 5 and at that time they were offering $100 of a set of tires and $100 off a set of wheels, got the whole set with hub centering rings for $450, what a deal. I just called to order steel when the guy told me about the specials.

edit:
The Ice Guard IC10 and its a fantastic tire. I think its actually better than any studs I've used and I have used studs every winter till then.
 
Last edited:
After exhaustive research and endless agonizing, I finally pulled the trigger on a set of 4 205/55R-16 General Altimax Arctics (@$78) from Tire Rack, w/studs installed, mounted & balanced on steelies, total $700 w/shipping to my door. A modest $25 Amazon gift card rebate (big deal), but I'll take it. Best I could do at any local discounters was $103 per tire, plus installation, and they had no steel wheels available for this car.

I also looked at the 205/60R16 option, but after consulting one of the many online calculators out there, I found that the 55's are a bit closer equivalent of the 205/50R17 original on my car.

These tires are supposed to be a rebadged version of the Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tires; if they're good enough for Sweden, they'll probably be fine here in NH, where we seem to be getting lots more ice the last few years.

Already have the official roll of Car Talk black tape ready for the TPMS light... ;)

I usually change over on Veteran's Day, and I'll report back on performance in Dec-Jan.
 
OldGreyMike said:
After exhaustive research and endless agonizing, I finally pulled the trigger on a set of 4 205/55R-16 General Altimax Arctics (@$78) from Tire Rack, w/studs installed, mounted & balanced on steelies, total $700 w/shipping to my door. A modest $25 Amazon gift card rebate (big deal), but I'll take it. Best I could do at any local discounters was $103 per tire, plus installation, and they had no steel wheels available for this car.
Click to expand...

Didja take the TireRack quote into the local dealer to see if they would match it? I did last year, and they matched it, and didn't have any steelies, and upgraded me to alloy rims, all for about the same price as TireRack.

Trying to make the recession work for me.....
 
remarquian said:
Didja take the TireRack quote into the local dealer to see if they would match it? I did last year, and they matched it, and didn't have any steelies, and upgraded me to alloy rims, all for about the same price as TireRack.

Trying to make the recession work for me.....
Click to expand...

Good suggestion. That occurred to me, and I know that some do match, but they are all a bit of a hike for me to get to, and if all they would do is match, it doesn't save me any money and makes for a lot of driving around and time spent having to make appointments and wait in line, etc. UPS brings these things to my garage door, and I can slide the floor jack under the car and have them installed before Buster Brown has even left the zip code.
 
I have battled the local dealers to find a set of winter tires and steel rims for my 5. Ended up buying from sprawlmart: Nexen ws 215/55-16's on 16x6.5 steelies. OTD 715.00 Canadian.

My local Mazda dealer had stacks of mounted winter tires, starting at 1120.00 OTD (with hubcaps), but quoted me 65.00 each for steelies. When I went to order them, the price changed to 137.00 + tax because I wasn't buying the tires with them.

The 405.00 feels good in my pocket.
 
Ordered a set

Follow Up: After a ridiculous amount of obsessive searching and research, I ended up buying a set of winter tires on rims from Buywheelstoday.com. 17 inch house rims with Nankang SV-1 Snows. Included mounting, balancing, nitrogen fill, with lug nuts and adapter. Part Numbers:

BS77511448 Eurospoke (Silver)
N114 Snow Viva SV-1

Pretty good looking rim with a darker finish that will look OK on the black 5 (I hope).

Total ($652.00 + $94 shipping) ended up being equal to the cost of the 16 inch steel rim package with hubcaps from Tirerack. Hope this helps somebody else.

- Stew
 
CometGSR, have you guys been hit by the unusual winter weather? How are the Blizzaks so far?
 
I installed the winters this past week as I was going to be out of town, so I pulled off the 17's and put on my 16" steelies.

How come nobody told me that the acorn nuts from the 17"ers won't work with the steel winter rims. The acorns bottomed out long before they contacted the rims.

Had to go out and buy $40 worth of lugnuts to get the rims to tighten.

My good deal (700 OTD) is gradually becoming not so good. At least the rims seem to fit and have no vibration over the road (so far)
 
KBrian said:
How come nobody told me that the acorn nuts from the 17"ers won't work with the steel winter rims. The acorns bottomed out long before they contacted the rims.
Click to expand...

I thought it was odd that my winter tire package (General Altimax Arctic 205/55R16s with steelies) from Tire Rack shipped with a full set of new lugnuts included, but when I took the others off I saw why.

I really like the tires so far, they seem to handle fine, and as winter tires go, the increased noise is not too bad even with the studs, I just turn up the tunes a little. Of course no TPMS, but black tape over the warning light fixed that. Now we'll see how they perform in the snow and ice that's coming soon enough.

My only minor disappointment is that these new minus-size tires are making my odometer rack up around 1 extra mile in 60, getting me closer to the end of the warranty a little faster. My local dealer's service manager (these particular guys are excellent, BTW) checked to see if there was a way to reprogram or recalibrate the sensors, but Mazda technical told them there wasn't. Not really a huge deal, just an annoyance. If I had gotten the 60s instead of the 55s, I would have had the opposite situation, but the speedo would have been pessimistic and more subject to misinterpretation resulting in fines.
 
KBrian said:
Had to go out and buy $40 worth of lugnuts to get the rims to tighten.
Click to expand...

OldGreyMike said:
I thought it was odd that my winter tire package (General Altimax Arctic 205/55R16s with steelies) from Tire Rack shipped with a full set of new lugnuts included, but when I took the others off I saw why.
Click to expand...

Don't sweat the small stuff,...

Oh, yes forgot to mention, it's all small stuff that will kill a guy = $$$. :p

In case anyone else reads this thread... you can (because no one cares what they look like)
stop by a local gas station, auto repair shop and ask if they have some extra lug nuts laying around,
hit about 4-5 places, you should have enough to make a set.

then again you might spend $40.00 in gas driving around and asking (chair)

but if you get lucky like I did 8 years ago, I stopped by a garage and
they gave me an entire set for free, and was in a a plastic bag and everything.

Peace!(rei)
 
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