Got snow?

Xi2/steel rims still in the garage (it's 10°C today!). Ordered WeatherTech mats (black, 1st and 2nd row) last week and received an email shortly after stating that they are backorder and that they'll send my another email when that are ready to ship.

 

The rims and tires showed up today. Tire Rack is an amazing company. They look great. No word on the mats. I have not recieved an email claiming they are back ordered. I would not recommend doing business with WeatherTech.

 

We didn't get much, but is was enough of an excuse to swap on the snow tires/wheels (Enkei SC05 and Blizzak WS60) It's still early so I might swap back to the OEM summers for another month or so.

 

The same as the OEMs (17x7 50mm offset) but these weigh about 4lbs less each. I could have gone even lighter but liked the look of these for snows. To me they kind of look like snowflakes. I didn't seriously consider going down to narrower/tall 15's for the slightly better traction they would give since I wanted to stay with the general appearance of of the 17's.

 

Personally I think the "concerns" about 17's are unfounded. If the overall diameter of the tires is kept close, which can easily be done with either 15", 16" or 17" tires, and the offset of the wheels stays close to stock, there really should be no issue. Since there is plenty of room in the wheel wells to accommodate the wider 17's the others both fit easily.

The business about weight is silly because they themselves picked a very heavy 17" rim. If that was such a big concern they could have chosen something lighter. And most 15" and 16" rims will be lighter. The rims I chose for my winter set shaved 4lbs off each corner and I could have doubled that with a different style. But after much research even I came to the conclusion that even that substantial amount would be tough to notice with my driving style and the normal loss of fuel economy during colder weather. Of course if I were a rally driver or competition hyper-miler things would be different.

So to me which to choose comes down to standard trade-offs like appearance, ride quality, cost, fuel economy, etc. and not a one size fits all kind of answer.

 

I am still waiting to put the winter tires on. Here is a pic of the new 15" rims with Michelin X-Ice Xi2. I think they look way better then the stock 15" rims.

 

Great pics of the car in the snow.

 

Thanks. I suppose Blizzard Pearl is kind of like camo for the winter.

 

those are some nice looking rims to put on snow tires btw.

 

Thanks. I had been looking at some even lighter ones but liked the snowflake theme of these so much that in the end I caved to appearance over weight. Although even these are still 4lbs lighter each than stock.

The other consideration was size and even though I could get marginally better traction from taller narrower 15's I like the look of the 17's sooo much better. I've had lots of experience driving in the white stuff and normally don't bother with dedicated snows so I figure even with the wider profile I'm still better off than I normally would be so why not smile every time I walk up to the car.

 

This may be a stupid question, but how did you get your fog lights on without our headlights also turned on?