Winter Tire Time - Should I buy 15s or 16s?

"I just ordered an extra set of used original equipment toyota 15" alloy wheels and a set of the new Nokian R tires."



I'm thinking of doing the same thing. Will you be using Toyota TPMS valves or ordinary valve stems on the OEM alloys?

Paul, Boston

 

We got our Prius a week ago and asked about snow tires at the time. The Service manager said he would sell us Corolla steel wheels ('cause there weren't steel for Prius) but that the fit was slightly different and Toyota wouldn't warranty the practice. They didn't suggest buying alloy but I think that was for price, not corrosion (alloy corrodes?)

 

The multi-fit steel wheels I got from Canadian tire fit Corolla, Prius, Matrix, etc. No difference in fit that I can determine

Good luck finding winter tires now. With the new law in Quebec, apparently all the popular sizes are sold out

 

We bought steel wheels and use the regular lug nuts, they do loosen a bit so I just check them a couple times during the winter. You don't even notice the TMPS light after awhile. We use Blizzaks, but looks like we'll only get about 20K miles from the set. The front tires wear notably faster than the rears, so swapping front to rear each winter will maximize the usage. Admittedly our winters are more freezing rain than snow, so more wear on the winter tires than in a real snow climate.

Next time, I'd like to get Nokian WRs and run them year-round. Did you like okay in the summer? Did they last a reasonably long time?

 

For steel wheels, you should use the old-fashioned acorn-style tapered lugnuts. I had the Toyota lugnuts become dangerously loose on my steel wheels.

You can get the regular lugnuts at NAPA, $20 will take care of this problem