I'm considering going to a winter rim/tire combo. The stock 17"s were challenging to say the least on a recent highway drive through thunderstorms (hydroplaning), so I'd expect the Potenza's to be sketch in winter. Looking around on the web, it seems a narrower, higher profile tire would give better winter perfomance. So I'm considering a set of 16" steel wheels with 205/55 R16 Dunlop winter sport M3.
Should I go even narrower or to a 15" wheel? like a 195/65 R15
Might there be caliper clearance issues?

Or should I just forget about it and just get 215/45 R17 snow tires (not too many options)

 

yeah i know what you mean about the stock tires.. www.tirerack.com reviews of the bridgestone potenza re92 (stock) aren't that good.. slips in the rain..

I already bought some Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S tires and putting them on at the dealer soon.. should be a lot better than the bridgestone potenza re950's that i first put on.. those were very heavy feeling and weren't that sporty in handling.. the pirelli's are cheaper.. ($116 at tire rack) i would say this tC needs two types of tires if you live in an area with snow, like here in michigan.. one is an "all-season" more like THREE season tire spring, summer, fall and maybe into november.. but when the snow hits in december and january i'm slapping on some snow tires (stock size, 215/45-17).. there are "performance" snow tires now out there.. they actually can drive on the highway without wearing down the tread like the old snow tires.. looking at both pirelli's snow tires and bridgstone's blizzaks lm-22..

but for now, i'm keeping the stock size and putting on some Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S.. after a couple weeks of research that's what I have determined would be a good fit for me.. I'll post how it turns out.. but anything is better than the stock RE92's.. they've been bad tires in the rain for years!

 

Steelies are the way to go for winter. I'm 99% sure a 16" would fit (since Celicas have 16s stock) and maybe even a 15", but more research would be needed on those (yes, due to caliper clearance. It either clears or it doesn't.) Tirerack might be able to tell you.

 

I've got four stock wheels and tires just sitting here with less than 1000 miles on them.
I don't know whether to get 17" snow tires, or sell the wheels and tires and buy steelies w/ tires

Tirerack doesn't have crap for information this early, so I have no idea how much cheaper it would be to go with the steelies.... and of course that greatly depends on if I can go down to 15" wheels or not.

For the price of a set of 17" blizzaks I could almost buy a winter beater.

 

If I really had to have snow tires (and at the moment I will probably drive my MX-3 when it snows) I would find a pick-n-pull parts yard and buy/borrow a 15" steel wheel from a Camry/Corolla/Celica or whatever other Toyota product I think will fit. Bolt it on, check for clearance, then call up Tirerack and order a set of steelies in that size with your choice of tires. Alternately, you could just buy the other three steelies from the yard and order the tires from Tirerack.

 

Keep us posted. I live in Seattle and I'm really looking for a tire that handles well when it's dry and can really channel water when it's wet. Right now I have some M&S tires on my Integra and they work great in the rain and pretty decent in the minimal amount of snow driving I've done. If the stock tires don't handle rain well, I'm going to need some new ones right quick.

 

"Cue the stunt driver...now hydroplane, out of control"

With these Potenza's, we could do 720's

I'm not sure if it's the low profile, or the width vs car weight, but these were way skittish in highway puddling. I couldn't go anywhere near 100 with them.

Seriously, the highway (89 through Vermont) had little channels in the road from truck traffic or whatever, during a pretty heavy rain anything above 50 or so I'm skipping slightly left/right right/left etc. I hate to hit a real puddle at any speed in these things.

As far as a snow tire, It seems the 205/55 r16Dunlop Winter M2s can be got for 89 the M3s for 105 ea at tire rack now. That seems a common size that matches our stock dimensions within a few percent using a 16 steel wheel.

I've never bought a performance snow tire before, but I've liked Dunlops i've had before - SP5000(good in rain) with my 95 Passat and Sport A2's on my Talon TSI back in the early 90's (good all weather performance with the AWD).

Would a 15" with a higher profile give better controll?

 

Winter tires? What are those?

 

It'd be funnier if you had your location in your profile. I'm guessing SoCal. Or maybe Florida.

 

on my old car i had Dunlop sportA2's and those almost seemed to handle better in wet weather then in dry... i dunno if they come in our "shoe" sizes but i liked em... tread wear was kinda annoying though

 

even tho i got some 18's for summer time, I am kinda concerned about hte 17's for winter, because potholes here are NASTY and those probably would be easy to get dented or scrapes. I once had a pair of rims dip into a pothole and curb the whole side of both rims on that side. it sucked pretty bad. But there isnt much you can do about it really....but we'll hafta make sure and get some fog lights or something to help us see I guess.