grantphillips

Hey everyone, I'm currently in a bit of a pickle. I bought a 2014 TL sh awd used and it came with the stock 19" rims and a set of expensive 18" rims with 18" all season tires (still a good season or two worth of tread of them). I live in a part of Canada where we get a lot of snow and ice, and I do a lot of driving for school and work as well as am an avid skier and am frequently driving long distances in bad conditions as those are frequently the optimal times to ski.

I've had people tell me that I should just use my all season through the winter until they wear out and then put 18" winters on my nice rims and get a new set of summers for the stock 19" rims but I'm not convinced these all seasons are going to be good enough. I'm well aware that with awd accelration is not a problem but its braking that is where the tires are going to make the difference as all seasons are no where near soft enough or have the proper tread for these types of conditions.



I don't want to buy 18" winters and be swapping them out with my summers all the time as that's not good for the tires nor the rims. I can either do one of 3 options.

A) buy new 18" rims and 18" tires for my car (works out to 1800 CAD for a nice pair of both rims and tires, maybe 1500 for some crappy steel rims),

B) Get 19" winter tires for around 1600K but from what I've read online since the 19" tires are bigger I will have less sidewall which can impact my performance in the winter, (although 19" is what the stock wheels are on this car) and I'm not 100% sure if that sidewall comment is true.

C) Use my all seasons until they wear through like mentioned above and get 18" winters and 19" summers when the time comes



If anyone has any input on the 18" vs 19" quality I would love to hear opinions, as it seems like the price difference is insane between the two sizes, the stock rims aren't ugly but they sure aren't super nice and for 200-300$ difference it seems to me like the new 18" rims and tires is the way to go. Any input is valid, thanks.

BROlando

You can also buy 17" wheels and tires for winter

That may be the least costly option.

The snow traction difference between 18 and 19" will be less than negligible. Either will work fine.

SlowLane

I would rather have more sidewall in winter depending on the pothole situation in your area. I would probably use 18" instead of 19" winter tires in your situation.

I've used 17" and 18" winter tires in the past. The last set I had were Pirelli Winter Sottozero, which performed great in the snow. I see the Veredestein Wintrac Pros get pretty good reviews on Tire Rack.

vertigo2

I'd just use the 18s for winter and get some good tires for those (I got 18" Continental Wintercontact SI rubber on another set of alloys for my sort-of-plowed winter commutes here in southern Ontario). 19" looks better to my eye for the summer when the car is clean, especially if the 19s you have are the stock Elite type.

echodigital

I would get Winter tires! There are a bunch of youtube videos comparing winter tire vs all season tire performance. I would choose the 'cheapest' option:

18 with 18 - All Season because it's a nice set of 18's.
19 with Winter

https://www.quattrotires.com/dimensi.../40/19/page/1?

Please upload a photo of your 18' rim package. Just curious.

REBATE10

10% off too!

vertigo2

+1 for Quattro... Have bought 5 sets of tires from them over the years and with no troubles.

grantphillips

Not the best photo but heres the 18" with the all seasons