I am having a tough enough time trying to find any tires that come in the stock 18" OEM size 225/45 and 245/45, but I am also trying to decide if I should go with All Seasons or Summer tires. I live in NJ, and a few days out of the year it will snow. Any driving in the snow I would have to do would only be in light snow, so I was considering all season tires. But the thing is, for the 99% of the rest of the time I dont want the tradeoffs (if any) of having an all-season tire on dry roads, which is why I am considering a summer tire..

How much better are all season tires in the rain than summer tires? Are summer tires allright in the rain too?, and somewhat bearable in a slight bit of snow? I prefer a smoother ride, does that have anything to do with chosing between a summer and an a/s?

And there is only an extremely small selection of tires in the stock 225/45, 245/45 size, and only one all season tire in spec size (Avon M550) - Is it possible to run 245/45, and 245/40 in place of 225/45 on the stock 18" wheels? Would I run into any performance issues when it comes to handling? Will it throw off things like VDC and ABS?

Any help is greatly appriciated!

 

summer tires = 100% good in summer / 0% good in winter
a/s tires = 50% good in summer / 50% good in winter

if you get summer tires, be prepared to get winter tires as well as 17s.

 

Thanks.

Does anyone else have any opinions?

 

You CAN'T get summer tires and expect to drive them around in the winter. I put some all season Falken Ziex's on the 18's. I'd search around and you'll read the Falken's do VERY well and made it through the winter just fine for me. Of course you do get more snow than we do.

 

Pratik! You are just the one I am actually looking to talk to about this.

Didn't you go from Stock 17's to Stock 18's as well? Thats what I am doing. If that is correct, just let me know. Thanks