Tires! Tires! Tires!

[italgal02]

Unfortunately it has come to that time where i need to buy new tires for winter
I abused my car my frist year i threw on about 24,000 miles and its not yet a year old.... and i need new tires from all the dirving!
I live in CT and this winter sucked, i barley made it out of my own neighboorhood a few good times so i want better tires for my 3 (turida)!
If anyone can help and give me some suggestions this way i can check some prices and start saving up!


My car has been through ALOT.... Some old woman smashed my front bumper while it was parked in the parking lot at work... SO SO SAD... atleast she came up and found me though and paid the 1600 dollars in damage~

[]Deace
Sally

 

[wongpres]

The best solution to deal with winter is to get a dedicated set of winter tires. This allows you to have the optimal solution - dedicated winter tires and dedicated summer tires. All-seasons are really "no-seasons", so they do nothing the best. Having said that, my opinion for the best all-season tire that is available in the Mazda3 OEM 17-inch tire size is the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S (and do not mistake the A/S version with the Michelin Pilot Sport, the Pilot Sport is summer only). However, this tire is expensive, and even the cheapest winter tire will outperform it in winter conditions.

I've also moved this thread to the Tires section.

 

[03.5MSP]

I have Dunlop Graspic DS-2 tires on my MSP and they are really good in snow, and winter weather.

 

[goldwing2000]

I put Kumho Ecsta ASXs on just before last winter and they did a lot better than the Badyears in snow. Not as good as a winter tire would have but I'm a cheap bastard and don't want to buy two sets of tires, much less a second set of wheels.

 

[tsunami]

i would suggest waiting until some deals start appearing on ebay and tire rack for a set of steel wheels... you can usually get them for 50-60ea in the 16 inch size...(as low as a mazda 3s can go b/c of brake clearance) then buy a nice set of snow tires.. even the cheap ones will do you well... and then once your tires are done that are on your stock wheels get a nice set of kumhos or sumitomo... cheap but good summer (3 season) tires.... i would figure after its all said and done you looking at

60x4=240 (steelies)
80x4=320 (winter tires)
80x4=320 (summer tire)

plus the expense of having the summer tires mounted on your stock wheels, if you buy the wheels and tires from the same place they usually mount and balance for free
so you lookin at over 800$$

though you can deffinatly find cheaper tires then 80 i just choose that price b/c its better then the bottom but not as good as the top....

just an idea of what you are looking at...

 

[mobomelter]

see i thought of putting stealies on my 3 for the winter. then i realized "where the hell am i going to find 17" steelies?" i don't think you can put 16 inch steel wheels on the 3s.

 

[TGH10]

i would suggest waiting until some deals start appearing on ebay and tire rack for a set of steel wheels... you can usually get them for 50-60ea in the 16 inch size...(as low as a mazda 3s can go b/c of brake clearance)

I have black 16" steelies on my M3S with BF Goodrich winter slalom tires, Tsunami is correct in saying that we need 16 min. to clear the breaks. I have had no fitting problems and tires work great in the snow. Did cost me almost $1000 (cdn) though.

I bought my car in December of 03 and it took me less than a week to realize that I need a proper set of winter tires. Probably a life saving decision.had some close calls this past winter.