GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I know it's too early to be thinking about winter now... and trust me, I really am NOT looking forward to it. Can fellow Vibers recommend a good set of winter tires? Same size as the stock 16".I am not too sure about my price range yet, so please just throw out some suggestions.thank you!

There are great tech specs, ratings and customer survey results for all types of tires including winter rubber at sites such as http://www.tirerack.com

The SAFEST winter tires are here: http://www.greendiamondna.com/Study it. Get literature.

Has anyone used them?

I have Dunlop Winter Sport M2s, very happy with them. They are an aggresive snow tire yet still have the H speed rating for dry weather performance.

I did a lot of research and also chose the Dunlop M2s. I had to call around a lot and finally special order them, because I got my Vibe in December, so a lot of stores were already cutting back on winter tire stocks. I've been really happy with grip, ride and especially sound, as many snow tires are really loud. I put about 12,000 Km on them; no noticable wear so far.

I went with 15 inch rims and tires,Dunlop Graspics they work good in the snow and slush>Got them at Walmart

Im going to stick with the NITTO brand for winter. I've found some NT touring tires that are M&S certified with a better compound that those damn Conti's. Supposedly Discount Tire will give me up to $50 for each Conti tire in which have only 100 miles on them.

I have Bridgestone Blizzaks for my other (rear wheel drive) car. They have been great. I got them with wheels at tirerack.com. (BTW, I got them and installed them in early December 2000, and on New Year's Eve that year, hit a pothole and blew out my right front tire and wheel and my right rear tire and wheel. Tirerack found two replacement wheels and sold them to me at cost, and searched their system and finally found two replacement tires (which needed to be the same model, since snow tires should be the same on all four wheels) in the middle of winter and sold them to me at below cost. They dropped shipped the tires and wheels to my dealer, where my car was laid up, to minimize my car's downtime. Tirerack's service was so great, I HIGHLY recommend Tirerack. I recommend you go to tirerack.com and plug in the information to their snow tires site.

Don't hesitate and put 4 good winter tires on. Remember that your life and your passenger stands on 4 "pieces-of-rubber-that-big" only !!!Also, winter tires are not only for snow. Read this: http://www.allianz.com/azgrp/dp/cda/0,, ... 4,00.htmlI installed 4 GoodYear UltraGrip Ice 16in. last winter and very satisfied.

The goodyears were my first choice...ultra grip ice, but they werent instock, so I went the the Dunlops

i will be getting a set of 17" studded tires to mount on my factory 17" rims. hopefully i'll be replacing the wheels with some nice looking ones for summer and use the factory tires. this should last me about 3-4 years or more!

With winter coming I am investigating winter tires for my Vibe. It will be my first winter with her. I spoke to the Toyo rep yesterday for recommendations on sizing for the winter tires. He suggested using the old fashioned method of making sure the overall diameter of your winter tire matches your original tire you are removing. Since my Vibe came with the Goodyear R-SA's, I went to their web site and found the diameter on the 16 inchers to be 24.8. Matching that to Toyo's brochure for the Observe G-02 plus I should put 205/60/15 on my 15 inch steel rims, which have a diameter of 24.8. Any ideas if this is right? thanks for your help.... Of course he suggested the Toyos since he sells them....

Salsa! has the Toyo Observe tires on 15inch steel wheels, if I remember correctly. Maybe send him an IM, or do a search because I know he stated what he bought in a previous post. Update Its actually in his signature:Winter: 15" steels - Toyo Observe G-02 (195/65R15)

depends on what rims you are going from... 16" or 17"?i have 17" OEM rims and tires and went with 15" steelies and 205/65/15 studded Hancook snow tires. the 60 was not close enough in diameter.also see this similar thread: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=6398

quote:With winter coming I am investigating winter tires for my Vibe. It will be my first winter with her. I spoke to the Toyo rep yesterday for recommendations on sizing for the winter tires. He suggested using the old fashioned method of making sure the overall diameter of your winter tire matches your original tire you are removing. Since my Vibe came with the Goodyear R-SA's, I went to their web site and found the diameter on the 16 inchers to be 24.8. Matching that to Toyo's brochure for the Observe G-02 plus I should put 205/60/15 on my 15 inch steel rims, which have a diameter of 24.8. Any ideas if this is right? thanks for your help.... Of course he suggested the Toyos since he sells them....Yes, your original 205/55 R16's are the same diameter as 205/60 R15.

thanks for your help....and backing up the info...

I have 16" stock wheels on my car and should I go with 1. 15" winter tire + 15" steelies ?OR 2. 16" winter tires with my 16" stock alloys?The total cost is almost the same, because the difference between 15" and 16" tires is about the price of a set of steelies.And what price should I expect to pay for a set of 16" Blizzaks ? thanks

Yes, good questions. I'm trying to decide which option I'm going to go with for the winter. I'd like the 15s, but space is very limited for storing my wheels if I do (I live in an apartment) and I imagine my 16 aluminums must weigh quite a bit, so actually transporting them to wherever they will be stored, will be hard enough for me. I kinda think it will be easier for me to store just the 16 inch tired and not the whole wheel. Know what I mean?

Well, if storage wasn't a concern for you... what would you do ?But instead, based on winter safety?

I'd probably go for the 15s - most prices I've seen are cheaper for the 15s including the wheel than getting a 16 inch tire.

Plus using a separate wheel helps keep the factory ones from getting destroyed by salt and debris on winter roads. I'm not getting new wheels for winter, but I will be removing my wheel covers.

I don't really care what shape my wheels are in. They seemed to survive last winter just fine. I don't own my car (its a lease) and as long as there's nothing major done to them, I'm not all that particular on how good they look or not. I just want to feel safe when driving in the winter.

quote:I'm not getting new wheels for winter, but I will be removing my wheel covers.Don't know if it's good idea to remove your whell covers, they are protecting center hubs, bolts and wheels from direct snow-salt-and so on. Unless you want to keep (covers) from original look without any possible scratch during winter, then buy aftermarket wheel covers (there are many nicelooking and inexpensive) and protect your wheels and hubs from winter...Now another tip; Winter: wax your original steel wheels and or put some "vaseline" (or rustproofing oil) on each side to protect from rust. Summer: Have mags clean-wax every wheels before storage and spray "ArmorAll" on tires before it goes to the shed, protecting rubber from cold/hot seasons. Doing it for nearly 30yrs now and always had nice looking unrusted wheels!!!

Some questions I have with tires in the winter: I live in northern VA and we have mild winters, sometimes like last year we have some larger storms. Now, are summer performance tires usually almost worthless in snow? If I buy some new wheels and tires I would like to get some all season performance tires, but I am not sure if I will be able to with the packages I'm looking at. Also, between a 17" and 18" wheel/tire package, will the 17" have much of a benefit over the 18"s in the snow?Thanks,

quote:It was a recommendation for people who keep their stock allows on if they go that way and ones who are keeping their Vibes.I wasn't replying to your post. Just posting in general - ie one reason I'm keeping my 16 alloys on and not going to a 15 steel. But thanks for the clarification

Summer performance tires, as a rule, are generally terrible in snow. My other car has them and I always use snow tires in the winter.Higher profile tires are better in the snow, so if you are going to get all season tires, the 17" would be better in snow than the 18". Where I am (Chicago area), potholes in the winter kill 18" tires.

Canadians ...Have you bought from this place ? http://www.tiretrends.com/sizeSelectResultSnow.phpI am leaning towards Blizzaks but Dunlop M2's price is pretty nice too.

I think I read that some people found the Dunlops unusally loud.But I can't speak from personal experience...

quote:Yes and no. The Dunlops that came with the Vibe's 17" OEM Rims are loud, which are Summer Tires I believe. I can vouch for that! I just got my winter tires on today (Goodyear Ultra-Grip Ice) and they're actually quite a bit quieter than the Dunlop 9000 17s. That's pretty bad. I would probably recommend the Blizzak as well. They're good tires. I like the Goodyears I bought though. They're a darn sight better in the snow and ice than those summer tires, but that really goes without saying.