I'm looking for winter tires for my car and I was wondering if anyone can give any sugestions, I don't want the best (too expensive) but something good and desent price rage, also I have an XLS and I think it comes with 18 " wheels so my question is, should I go with a 16" winter tires and rims (to lower cost) or should I stay with the 18" tires and rim?
The tires in the car are new (I got the car about 2 months ago) but I was driving today and in a couple of ocations I try to stop and the car just went right through the stop sing, the weather was bad (rain and the temperature was about 2 celcius) has anyone had any bad experience with the all season tires that comes with the car?
Thanks
Roberto.

 

Tire size difference is going to throw off your speedo. Plus going from 18s to 16s you better beef up the tire big time or your going to look extremely funny with them little tires on there. I have had no problem with the tires in the rain at all. Did you come from a smaller lighter car?

 

i just buy 4 toyo open country G-02 plus winter tire, 16 " with 4 rim (16")

i keep the same size

I have a ls canadian model, so i have 16 " rim and tire

ask your tire's dealer to calculate the difference from 18" to 16" tire

the dealer have to check the size of the "galiper" ...if you can put 16 " rim

Where i live (Lac-Megantic, Quebec, near Sherbrooke) , winter's tire is a must !

I buy my rim at costco for168 $ (with tax)for 4 rim and 789$ (with tax) for the tire

i compare with Yokohama, Dunlop...so even the same price.

remember than you have to buy 20 new nut because the nut came with mag don't match for the new rim

I think than i don't want to save a few $ and buy cheap tire

the 4 tire are only things to keep on road,

with cheap or medium tire maybe you will 100-200 $

Ohbtw, i have a rebate of 60 $ by mail on toyo's tire

i hope it help you

 

Yeah, there's really no problem going either route, just up to you how much you want to spend. 18" will be a bit more expensive - more so if you get a second set of rims to keep the tires mounted on. I always opt for the second set of rims - it pays for itself in a couple year (for cheap rims) and is just more convenient for me. I cheaped out and got 16" steel wheels... it was only $700(US) for Blizzaks, mount, balance, +nuts, delivered, from Tire Rack. In my experience, they are very good about knowing what fits etc.

The 16" would look no worse than a base LS... although for some reason, I think the black wheel visually doesn't look as small as a light colored rim. Just my impression though. Tire rack had some low end wheel options for another $200 (or more) for some basic wheels instead of the plain black steel, but I didn't care. Bridgestone had a $50 rebate as well.
I can't wait for to snow! I heard they got up to 6" up on the mountain at Stowe last night. All the ski areas are supposed to open in 2 weeks.

 

I live In Canada to and I have a XLS, I got 16inch rim from Costco that I paid 37.99$ each and got the Toyo G02+ open country tires in 215/70r16. There the same size use on the LS model there the perfect match if you want to down size for the winter I made sure and check with a tire shop and online with a tire calculator and it's the right size in 16 inch.

 

The outer diameter of a 215/70/16 tire is the same as the 225/55/18 so the speedo will be fine with either. Definately more choices in a 16" wheel than the 18 for winter specific tires. lots of package deals out there for winter tires these days.

 

Just sorted out a set of X-Ices from CTire on 16" in rims at 215/70R16s. Came in
around a thousand bucks all in but plan on keeping the car for a long time. Just
a matter of time of getting up there and getting them put on.

Regarding the standard XLS wheels on snow... I played around last week when we had
some snow here in Calgary and they lost traction pretty quickly with a little bit of snow down
so will be happy to have the set of winter tires.

Cheers

Cayo

 

Thanks to everyone for the input on this. I found a good price at my dealer for 4 winter tires with steel rim install for about $850 with taxes, so I will be getting (size 215/70/16). They said to me that they will change the tires and they will put the all season back in the spring and reprogrand the TPMS for free, is that really necesary (the reprogram part of it)

Thanks

 

if you have two sets of TPMS sensors...YES (the system only recognize one set at a time)

but if you move your TPMS from winter to summer and vice-versa...or dont have tpms for winter .... you should not need to reprogram.