Unfortunately I must drive my 03 TL-S in Wisconsin winters. Sometimes even heading up north to real snow country. Anyone have expierience w/ snow tires? Is it best to down size to TL-P 16" wheels and tires? Or put snows on stock 17" rims? Your thoughts would be helpful.

You southern owners may not know what snow tires are for, but up here they come in real handy. Remember the wider the tire the less snow traction you have.

 

It would be best to put 16" on your car as you seem to already know... the more tire contact you have the worse your traction will be.

A lot of the guys from the CL forum put the 16" TL rims on their cars for the winter... that's probably the route I'm going to go....

 

17inch snows are very expensive and don't perform that well in true snow conditions (ie. they are somewhat of a compromise between snow performance and dry performance)

The money you save by going to 16 inch snows will more than pay for a set of 16 inch rims over time.

You can probably find TLP wheels for cheap.

 

I kept my stock TL-P wheels and stock Michelin tires (which are actually great in the snow) when I upgraded, with the purpose of putting them back on in the winter.

I keep seeing 2002-3 TL-P wheel sets on eBay for <$350, and I think it's worth the investment.

 

joeracer49,

I just bought a set of 16" steel wheels and put Michellin Pilot Alpines on them... Suffice to say they saved my ass a couple of times...

TLS RULZ

 

save $$$ on the winter wheels and put it towards some nice summer tires. Go with 16" for the steel wheels ....and as B said, wider isn't better in the snow.

 

16" is good in the snow. But unless it snows all winter long, a lot of performance is sacraficed by using narrower and higher-profile winter tires during the winter time when the road is nice and dry. My perference is to use wider winter tires (225/50/17) to compensate for the performance handicap of winter tires over summer tires.