I bought my Mazdaspeed3 after all the snow was done last spring, but am now starting to look into what I should do for winter tires. The car salesman said the Bridgestone Potenza performance tires will not do at all on snow. I live in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, and my Speed3 is my daily (i.e. only) driver, and despite any jokes someone may feel like cracking about Minnesota winters, most of the time, I'll be driving on dry pavement. But, I don't want to become housebound (or worse, workbound) by 2 inches of snow.

I've had various suggestions from getting 17" wheels with snow tires to just swapping some all season performance rubber (specifically Pirelli PZero Nero M+S Ultra High Performance All Season tires) onto my existing 18s or a second set of 18s. There seems to be agreement that 17s, but probably not 16s, will fit over the larger brakes of the speed3.

The main argument against snow tires is that I'll be driving on dry (albeit cold) pavement the majority of the time, and the snow tire tread won't last more than 1 or 2 seasons. If the Pirellis are good enough for winter traction while still giving reasonable tread life, the question then becomes whether to bother with a second set of wheels for daily use, or just drive the all-season Pirellis in all seasons.

Does anyone have any experience the can offer with the Pirelli PZeros, or even all season performance rubber in general? Any other thoughts or experience? I'll admit to being a newbie when it comes to optioning my car with anything different than it came with...

 

some mazda6 17's should fit, if you want to make it "stock" looking - those paired with some dedicated snow tires will make for a fun winter car. don't skimp on "all-season" performance tires, nothing beats a good set of dedicated snow's.

 

if your just looking for the cheapest way to do it, get 2 extra rims and mount some snow tires on them... unless you have access to a place you can mount tires yourself.... switching the tires on the same rims year after year could get expensive... try and find a junk yard with a Mazda 6 or 3 in it and grab the wheels off, that would be alot cheaper than buying new ones from Mazda.... or any sort of after market ones...

 

sorry to get off topic here. but this reminded me of a rather funny story... last winter a friend of mine wanted me to take a look at the new subs he put in his civic... so i open the trunk to find 3 bags of sand.... i was rather confused.... i asked him why he carried sand bags around... he seriously thought it would help him with traction in the snow.... in a honda civic.... just when i think im the dumbest guy in the world.... somebody else shows up....

 

I would suggest checking out www.nokyantyres.com. Probably hasn't filtered down to the Japanese cars yet but I wouldn't put any other winter tire on the Audi or the Porsche.

Just my .02
Hope this helps

 

I run Yokohama AVS winter tires and they are the ish!They are 18's and fit on the stock rims with a nice low profile so that no one will think they are winter tires.I paid $1400 Canadian for them so they were a little pricey but they perform very well in the snow(last winter here was insane with tons of snow and a city that doesn't give a **** about snow removal).Good luck.

 

my trouble isn't with snow traction, (have new michelins energy mxv 4 plus not sure how they will do in the snow, will find out soon enough!!! hopefully not after i slide into a huge ditch!) but with ice build up in side my rims which makes for a serious out of balance wobble! any one eles with this problem? (stock 16 rims with 205/55s) so I'm always washing off huge ice chunks!

 

you could try waxing them really, really, ridiculously good - that might keep the water and crap from sticking long enough to freeze

 

or do what I do with my wheels in the winter.. take a stick and poke the snow out.

 

or that - i'll do that too, use my brush to get the snow off the car, then do a "once over" on the wheels, if they look bad

 

You could always buy some cloth/plastic wheel/tire covers like the ones used in auto shops. Than way, no ice/snow would collect on your rims/tires at all. It'd be a daily routine of removing them (if snow is prevalent in the forecast), but might be worth it. But as far as a tire recommendation... I live in the south, so in short, it don't snow that much down here.

 

I run dunlop sport m3 on my wifes mazda millenia the grip in the snow and ice is great and the dry performance is also very good.

 

I can attest to that. The stock Potenzas are terrible in snow.

I just picked up the P-Zero in 18s, but haven't had them installed yet. Of course, it's not snowing yet in VA, either.

 

I can't imagine living in Minnesota and not having snow tires. I'm a Central New Yorker and drive a Mazda 3, I bought a set of Blizzaks on cheap rims all around...(just put them back on yesterday as a matter of fact). They actually hold up pretty well on dry pavement and are priceless on ice and in slush, let alone snow.

We had a pretty mild winter last year and for all the dry road I drove over, the tread looked great when I examined them yesterday.

 

Even in Rochester I don't ever see cars with snow tires on during the winter.. but I sure do see a lot of smashed up cars on the side of the highway. When will people learn? The only people I've seen running snow tires in Rochester are one of my roommates and myself.. and we're both from out of state :P

Glad to see there's at least someone smart in upstate ny :P