Winter Tires
 

Thinking of buying 195-55-R15 ( with steel wheels from Canadian Tire ) in either Michelin Pilot Alpins or Dunlop Wintersport M2.

Any opinions out there? There are very good reviews on these on TireRack and elsewhere, but not many from Mazda drivers. I have an 03 P5.

Would love to get in on a group buy, if any are planned.

If you don't want to buy another set of rims for winter, I found pirelli makes 195-50-R16 size called 210 snowsport. In winter, I have these put on my stock rims.

Actually, having piloted into the curb sideways multiple times ( either that, or somebody's rear ), I DO want the el cheapo $50 rims :D

AlexB2

I had a set of those for 2 winters. No problems, they did the job, just sold them last night since I want to use the original rims with winters.

2.0GT, where did you get the tires from? The best on any size I have seen is 205-50-16's

i haven't been able to find those tires in the 195/50-16 size. also, i know the next best thing for winter tires on the stock rims (P5) is 205/45 or 205/50, but there are VERY few winter tires in those sizes either (i think i only found one...if that - i can't quite remember). anyone have any suggestions?

Last fall I got a set of 14 inch steel rims, four 195/60/15 sympherit??? snow tires (good performance and great in snow), precision mounted???, balanced and the warranty on them for curbing, or blowing out the tire for $426. USD shippeed to my appartment. Was very happy with them in the snow and did not have to worry about curbing nice rims and the tires when parking in the winter. Got the from discounttire.com

They had other 15 inch and 16 inch rims and tires but were much more. Check them out.

-R

14"?! no caliper rub at all? I am being discouraged by my tire guy and others from dropping to beyond 15"...

I called tire rack first becasue they had a pretty good deal on 14 inch rims and tires for the DX/LX which have the same size brakes as the ES and PR5. The man said they would not fit and I was not going to argue with him. I checked out the discount tire web page and then called and ordered 14 inch rims for my PR5. The tech man said the core was big enough to fit over the calpiers. I used them on my 01 ES2.0 for two months and then 4 months on my PR5. They fit with pleanty of room to spare over the calipers. Hope this helps.

-R

I got my Pirellis from a local Firestone dealer, up here in Canada. Because it was through Firestone, i likely paid a bit of a premium. look around, and i'm sure you can find a set.

Since our cars are front wheel drive, is there any point in getting all four wheels replaced with winter tires, or will the front 2 suffice for the winter?

I'm cheap. hehe

But I'll do whats best fo sho.

JorynnRace
No. Change all 4 to winters. It is more critical in FWD cars to have all four tires the same.

2.0GT
Thanks, the best price I have seen is from 1010 tires, $116.

seems like a pretty good price. I paid $850 CDN including GST. All four mounted and balanced, plus they put the summer tires in pretty white garbage bags with "Bridgestone/Firestone" on them.

AlexB2,

You seem to be looking for 'peformance' winter tires (H rated speed or better) . If you can afford them, you could add the Nokian WR to your list; they are avalaible in 195-55-15 size, are H rated, have a treadwear of 420 and also have a rim-protector (very unusual feature for a winter tire). I'm running on them right now as A/S tires, and I love them, but it seems that they are also very good in winter conditions. You can check a recent review of the WR at: http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

You can also check the Forums section on the canadiandriver site, Tires and Wheels Talk, for a discussion about them.

P.S. FYI, the Proxes TPT are V-rated A/S tires that are available in your stock size (195-50-16) but I wouldn't trust them for canadian winters ...

to pierreasdf:

You're correct, I am looking for "performance" biased winter tires. The favourite du jour is Nokian Hakka1 ( about the same price as Pilot Alpin ).

The WR's would be a compromise, I'm afraid, which is something I don't need since I have the Dunlops anyways...

Thanks for the pointer, always good to consider all options!:)

The WRs' look like an update on the NRW. This tire is geared more towards winter, whereas the Dunlops are DEFINITELY geared toward summer. I know two people in my office that have NRWs, and they have been really happy with them for winter use. Plus they don't wear as quicly as some other winter tires when the roads are clear (that's important in Calgary). I don't imagine you would find them to be too much of a compromise for winter. BTW - one of the guys with the NRWs has a 2000 Camaro SS and manages to drive it in the winter to and from Fernie regularly.