snow tire question

[asyed]

So I have a bit of a dilemma here. Winter is coming and I am planning on getting winter tires + steelies
Now I have 3 options


1) tires and rims from Walmart (I know I know but my dad works there and is getting a good deal on some semi decent tires .... although in my personal opinion they are probably shit)

2) Mazda dealer tires+ steelies... more expensive and not sure what tires they use but its got to be better than Walmart right???


3) Simply tire buy some more expensive (but still good investment) tires and steelies combo (I'm leaning towards this one as I already have a set of all seasons from them and they seem to be one of the best tire shops in the GTA :P




So what should I go with?

[peterm15]

Good quality Mazda specific steelies, probably from simply tire, And tires from Walmart.

As long as the brand name is good ( and reviews are good) tires from Walmart are the same as anywhere else. Your dad gets a discount so why not.

[FoXy]

+1

You want to make sure you get the right rims, and if you can get a deal on some decent winters then I would totally go for it.

[Default User]

Option 1 - then sell it next year.

Steelies are steelies - as long as they fit properly - you'll be good. Make sure of the fitment yourself.

The tires - if they are at least semi-decent (which I'm sure they are) and you're not paying full price for (which you aren't) will be good at least for this year.

I ran cheap Walmart winter tires on my previous winter beaters with no issues. They were loud - but that was my only gripe.

My suggestion is to use your dad's WalMart hook up, get 16" or 17" steelies and winters (as there will be more of a resell market for them). Use it for this year - write up an honest user review. And sell it next year if you don't like em.

I strongly suggest you write the review so the next guy has an honest opinion on the tires.

[asyed]

Walmart it is.... I will post a review sometime this spring

[midnightfxgt]

Don't base your purchase solely on where they are coming from. The most important question is: What tires are you looking at?!

-John

[Harbour Rat]

Yep, Wal-Mart, like Canadian Tire, sells some good tires and some not so good tires. If you can get a respectable brand name tire for a good price at Wal-Mart then take the deal.

[asyed]

Yep, Wal-Mart, like Canadian Tire, sells some good tires and some not so good tires. If you can get a respectable brand name tire for a good price at Wal-Mart then take the deal.

I will have to see since my dad is probably going to opt for the cheaper tire .... Ill see if I can get him to upgrade to the more respectable tires instead of the crappy chinese (no offense ) tires

[Harbour Rat]

Some of the Chinese tires are OK. Not great, just OK. Nexen tires seem to be one of the OK ones, maybe comparable to CTC's Motomaster. They seem to wear pretty quickly but I gather they generally don't de-laminate or burst sidewalls like some of the really cheap ones.

Sounds like Triangle and Wan-Li are brands to avoid. It is probably best to avoid any obscure brand you have not heard of.

[Cab0oze]

You may want to investigate buying some used alloys off kijiji rather than buying new steelies. Same price, but wont rust.

[Johns 08 3 GT]

A quality steel wheel should not rust. I've seen more cheap aluminum wheels corroding and needing to be resealed.

[Cab0oze]

A quality steel wheel should not rust. I've seen more cheap aluminum wheels corroding and needing to be resealed.
I've seen alloy wheels corroding a bit (ex. my 04 mz3GT ones started bubbling), but there is no such thing as a quality steel wheel. They will rust. Period. The metal used has zero corrosion protection and relies 100% on the paint job. Hell, even if you baby the shit out of them (i.e. painting rust chips front and back) they will still rust in less than 3 winters due to galvanic corrosion, or corrosion started at the wheel hub. Have you noticed that the wheels always look rusty where they attach to the car? Well that will spread under the paint on a steel wheel, the alloy wheels will do a better job keeping that localized.

-edit-
Just to give another example, my gf got steel wheels when she bought her car. I repainted them with tremclad EACH YEAR, and after 3 years of touching them up i took them out of storage and they were so rusty i just said fnck it they're a lost cause. Thats right... they will even rust while in storage due to humidity. Its hopeless unless you store them in a humidity controlled environment lol

[Harbour Rat]

A quality steel wheel should not rust. I've seen more cheap aluminum wheels corroding and needing to be resealed.

Yep, when I worked in the shop we saw a lot of alloy wheels leaking around the bead because of corrosion/pitting. We didn't see the problem anywhere near as much with steel wheels. We saw enough alloy wheels with pitting in the bead area that it became standard practice to use a bead sealer compound on alloy wheels as a pre-emptive measure to avoid having people come back complaining about their new tires going flat every week or two.

Also, alloy wheels are much more prone to getting corroded to the hub and requiring a big pry bar or even a sledge hammer to remove. This problem is most common with people who actually buy the line about all season tires and just leave the factory tires on for 2, 3, 4 years without having the wheels removed, not even to rotate the tires. Even so, we did see it to some extent in the spring when changing some cars back to the summer tires, more so with alloy wheels.

[sube]

Walmart has Nexen tires, they are a pretty decent tire. In my humble opinion the worst winter tire will always be better than the best all season.

Pat.

[mikey32235]

hey guys what do you recommend for my ms3 in snow tires? i was planing on going 2055017 ( i have the mazda 3 snowflake rims)... any ideas?

[boo-ninja]

I have 205/55/r16 Firestone Winterforce on steelies on a gt hatch

[mikey32235]

thanks, but 16 is a little to small i don't want to go lower than 17. thanks!

[Cab0oze]

I picked up some barely used Michelin Xice Xi2s for my speed on rims for 600 and i loved them last year. Just get the best brand make you can get a good price on tbh

[win-]

Nokian Hakkapelliitta R. Best winter tire I've ever used.

[mikey32235]

what about the blizzak ?

[09ms3]

what about the blizzak ?

I am on the Blizzak LM series. absolutely fantastic tires

[mikey32235]

yea i have a friend selling them in 215 55 17 for 700... brand new used for like 1000km he claims.. they still look brand new, no marks or anything. i think I'm gonna take them!