17" wheels for snow tires

Hi,
I am hoping to pick up a set of cheap wheels for snow tires before the snow begins to fly. I have seen reference to people using 17" CX-7 wheels on their CX-9's for this purpose. When I did a quick search on ebay I saw several auctions listing Mazda wheels that fit the 3, 5 and CX-7. Will any 17" Mazda wheel work on a CX-9?

Thanks,
Stu

Stuart Pidassle said:

Hi,
I am hoping to pick up a set of cheap wheels for snow tires before the snow begins to fly. I have seen reference to people using 17" CX-7 wheels on their CX-9's for this purpose. When I did a quick search on ebay I saw several auctions listing Mazda wheels that fit the 3, 5 and CX-7. Will any 17" Mazda wheel work on a CX-9?

Thanks,
Stu

Click to expand...

People sometimes put that information to get exposure to their listing. I personally would stick to CX7 or CX9 wheels because of the weight capacity on the wheel itself. I would not feel comfortable riding on a Mazda3 or Mazda5 wheel on such a heavy and big vehicle (in comparison to the MZ3 or MZ5).

There were some pretty good deals on 17" rims on tirerack when I was looking for a set to put my snow tires on. I ended up buying some 18"'s for around $140 each, I think...

I have 17" snow tires on aftermarket steel wheels and they work great. Can't speak for using CX-7 or the 3 wheels specifically but 17" wheels/tires will work in general.

See pic in avatar for the steel wheel cop car look.

Aron

Hi all,
This was an original post from last winter (’09) that I am finally posting…with our resolution see below.
Okay, it is that time of year and we are finally purchasing our dedicated winter snow tires. I have a 09 GT-AWD with 20" rims. With all of our previous vehicles (Jeep Grand Cherokee, Subuaru, Toyota Truck, we have always had studded tires. We live in Truckee, CA, a mountain/snow community, and I drive a steady 10% grade approx. 3/4 mile long, and other slopes on mountain roads daily. We also get the lowest temperature gradient in the nation, highs to lows, so we go from ice, snow, slush, etc. in a day.

I have finally convinced my husband to go from studded to non-studded tires for the Sexy-9 (he is getting studded tires again for our Cherokee, our last set lasted 5 seasons, and now we removed the studs and use the tires for summer), and our local tire shop convinced him to get 17" rims instead of 18", which is originally what I wanted. Anyhow, the best option for this size rim seems to be the BLIZZAK DM-V1 $130/tire), which are new this year, replacing the DM-Z3. We are going through our local store vs. tirerack.com as they will switch out our tires 2x/year on both cars free of charge.

UPDATE: I absolutely loved the BLIZZAKS! Drove all ’09 winter and felt very secure. Stops quickly and no sliding, skidding at all. The Sexy 9 reacts responsively and handles the 10% grade with no problems. The 17" rims looked great, don't know if it would be any different from the 18". Had them on the car from Nov to April, and don’t see much wear yet. I also loved not having the ‘click-click-click’ of the studded tires. STUDLESS is definitely the way to go if you are on the fence like we were.

By the way, we did not get the TPMS and although the light was on the dash (I got use to it) it didn’t bother me. When we switched back to our standard 20” tires, the TPMS activated right away, light off, no problems. I will post a picture of how it looks with the 17” rims soon.

In case anyone is interested, I ended up going with a package from Tirerack. The whole thing with Blizzaks, wheels, center caps and lug nuts came in at $1000. I skipped the TPMS as well. I usually wait until the first forecasted storm before I take off my summer tires so I can't give any reports on how the tires handle yet as they I have not put them on.