I’m looking to put winter shoes on 17” wheels for the G35 Coupe, so I called my tire guy and he tells me that I have to get the following sizes. 225/50/17 (front) & 225/55/17 (rear). He says that if I don’t get these sizes, that he can’t guarantee the safety of the car. So I tell him that I know many people running the 215/50/17 tires all around and he says that having the same size tires all around will give me issues with ABS brakes.

Also he tells me that since it’s already the winter, there aren’t that many choices of winter tires left. But he can get the Michelin Alpine PA3s from tirerack. He says these are one of the better snow tires anyways. And my OTD cost with installation will be $830. Seems a little high, no?

So my questions are:
1) Is what he’s saying accurate? Are you guys running these tire sizes for your winter setup? Any issues if you guys run the 215/50/17 setup all around?
2) Any thoughts on the Michelin Alpine PA3 tires?
3) Should I go with this setup or look somewhere else?

I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

 

Any thoughts?

 

You can run the tire sizes vs your stock though the miata tire calculator but at a glance, he's more right than you.

As a dealer of tires, he going to only recommend the stocked sized tires (or something close) as a matter of safety

215-50-17 is DEFINATELY smaller than front and rear of a stock coupe.

I'd try to buy an used set of winter tires here or on craigslist in your area in the oem sizes vs trying to fit those small tires you want to use.

 

225/50/17 (front) & 225/55/17 (rear) is correct to keep the tire diameters consistent with stock. I ran these sizes on my 350Z.

 

Thanks for your input, guys.

To be clear, I'm not saying that I prefer to put those smaller tires (215) vs what was recommended. I was reading the winter setup threads and that's just what seemed to be the common size. So I just wanted to make sure that the shop wasn't trying to take advantage of me by recommending bigger and more expensive tires.

More thoughts would be appreciated on this topic. Thanks.

 

If you are not experienced in matching tire sizes, just buy the equivalent oem tires sizes in the winter tire of your choice. You can get the tire sizes by looking at your tires.

 

You can find out if it's a good price simply by hitting Tirerack.com and spec'ing out the tires, see what he's charging for mount/balance/install. You can also check availability of these and other tires like BS Blizzaks or GY Ultra Grips or Hakkapalitas (sp?).

 

Good idea.

The exact cost of those four tires including shipping is $671.91 at tirerack.com. So that means I'm being charged like $160 just to have them installed. Looks like I'm being overcharged...

 

That difference probably includes applicable taxes, valve stems, etc., since you said it was OTD. May not be overcharging you, but you could always make a couple calls to other shops and see what they would charge for the same work.

 

TireRack also has winter tire reviews. Read the reviews there and shop Discount tire in your area to avoid shipping. They will often discount 10-15% if you ask them to match the TR's pricing. They will also have them in stock and be there for any warranty issues.

 

These are all good advice. Thanks guys for the help!

 

1) 225/50/17 and 225/55/17 is the ideal size
2) haven't heard much about them
3) for the price, you can definitely do better. if you look at the classifieds you can get a set of wheels/tires mounted and balanced for that price. its up to you...

 

Make sure you get a second set of wheels with the tires. It's cheaper (long-run) and easier than re-mounting and re-balancing every tire change.

You should find an ample supply of used OEM wheels for sale in the classifieds section of this forum.

 

Tire rack recommends 225/50-17 (front) & 235/50-17 (rear). Before I had purchased my set, the sales rep advised me that the sizes mentioned above (225/50-17 front & 225/55-17 rear) can be used as an alternate setup.

When I spoke with a sales rep at Discount Tire direct, they advised me that I could run 225/50-17 all around, so I would be able to rotate the tires (I purchased new wheels as well).

Nevertheless, I ended up going with a set of Yokohama W.drive tires from Discount Tire. 225/50-17 (front), 225/55-17 (rear). I wanted to maintain the same ratio & height of the rear tire. As mentioned above, this is closest to the OEM setup.

Great tool: http://www.rims-n-tires.com/rt_specs.jsp

On a side note, the W.drive tires performed very well during our 1st big storm just before Xmas. Also, the dry performance is very good with these tires.