Snow tires or winter wheels/tires

[sandwich]

Hi all, I decided to take the plunge on buying a genesis after hemming and hawing for many, many years on it. I'm coming out of an Alfa Giulia (maintenance and repairs have been killer) and am moving into a 2015 V8 non-ultimate.

Anyways, I live in the Boston area and need something to handle winters. It doesn't snow heavily out here and I don't travel to the mountains nor do much long road trips in the snow. Still, I want to be able to handle the occasional snowstorm and cold weather driving. It looks like my car is coming (buying via Carvana) with summer tires, which means I can't even just survive through the winter, I'll have to swap them.

So, my question is do I replace my summer tires with staggered winters, or buy a square 245 setup on winter wheels and swap the whole mess over? Will 245s on the rear handle OK? I don't predict doing any burnouts in Nov-April...

 

[2450NW]

For safety, I urge you to get winter tires. That should be the go-to for anyone driving when there could be ice on the roads. If you can avoid driving when (or where) there's ice, then all-season are OK. But ice--and it doesn't take much--can ruin your day. I know this from experience. I have a steep driveway and driving a pick-up it had snowed just a bit...maybe 1/4". Putting the brakes on at the start of the slope had no effect. I slid 75-feet or so and "wham" into my garage door. Minor damage to the already-old pick-up but replacement-needed damage to the garage door. Had the garage door been open, it would have slammed into my BMW 750....

 

[sandwich]

Will definitely buy winter tires. Just not sure whether to buy a staggered setup to have installed on factory rims, or a 4x245 square setup with wheels installed. The 275s are for traction, but sometimes narrower tires are better in the winter. Just looking for advice if anybody has been there.

 

[glennk]

Made my comment on the other post. Tire Rack says if you do go for 18" rims, to stagger them with 245/45R18 (Front) and 275/40R18 (Rear). In which case, there is only one tire that fits...Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3.

If you keep the 19's while staggered, you get three tire choices:
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 (highly rated)
Michelin Pilot Alpin 5
Vredstein Wintrac Pro

 

[glennk]

And, these tires aren't cheap. You're looking at 1200 large just for the tires.

 

[sandwich]

If I put in 2015 V8, I get the option of 19" wheels with 245mm tires all around, or 245/275 as an additional option. I'm thinking squared with narrower tires in the rear.

The wheel/tire package looks to be about 2100 shipped, and 950 for staggered winter tires in 19". This is for the vredstein tires.

 

[SuperKing]

I'm up in Canada and I've never bothered winter tires... the first winter with my car, I decided to give the DWS06 a go for one winter before deciding whether I need winters the following year. The car was fine... a big part of traction is weight and the car is near 5000 pounds with tank of gas and a driver. I didn't even need to use snow mode... I was actually driving in sport mode most of the time in the snow. I found it gave me the most control but I like the ability to slide it a little... If there's ice, winter tires are better but they still suck. I wouldn't go out if it's icy unless I had studded tires.

Also please note, every 2015+ Genesis sold in Canada is AWD except for the coupe.

 

[sandwich]

Thanks for the tip, it's more helpful than you think. This car is RWD, not sure if I specified that. I've had a similar experience with AWD and all seasons in the winter...reasonable traction no matter what. It's RWD that I don't have experience with....aside from an MR2 back when I was younger and dumber...

 

[SuperKing]

Thanks for the tip, it's more helpful than you think. This car is RWD, not sure if I specified that. I've had a similar experience with AWD and all seasons in the winter...reasonable traction no matter what. It's RWD that I don't have experience with....aside from an MR2 back when I was younger and dumber...

Funny, I drove MR2 Turbos for 10 years in the winters here. I still have it rotting away in the garage for the past 10 years waiting for me to find time to restore it. That needed proper winters but with winter tires, the car is unstoppable because the weight was over the drive wheels which you don't get in the typical RWD car. They tell you to throw sand bags in the trunk.

 

[sandwich]

Funny, I drove MR2 Turbos for 10 years in the winters here. I still have it rotting away in the garage for the past 10 years waiting for me to find time to restore it. That needed proper winters but with winter tires, the car is unstoppable because the weight was over the drive wheels which you don't get in the typical RWD car. They tell you to throw sand bags in the trunk.

That's interesting. The one I had was NA with an open diff in the rear. It was pretty amazing to drive in the snow (with snow tires) until you got stuck. Without the limited slip, you could get stuck easily- you had to keep momentum up, which was fine as long as you could keep momentum up!

Anyways, I'm assuming your car is AWD, is that correct?

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[SuperKing]

Correct, both my 2015 Genesis and 2020 G90 are AWD

 

[JonBoy1969]

Hi all, I decided to take the plunge on buying a genesis after hemming and hawing for many, many years on it. I'm coming out of an Alfa Giulia (maintenance and repairs have been killer) and am moving into a 2015 V8 non-ultimate.

Anyways, I live in the Boston area and need something to handle winters. It doesn't snow heavily out here and I don't travel to the mountains nor do much long road trips in the snow. Still, I want to be able to handle the occasional snowstorm and cold weather driving. It looks like my car is coming (buying via Carvana) with summer tires, which means I can't even just survive through the winter, I'll have to swap them.

So, my question is do I replace my summer tires with staggered winters, or buy a square 245 setup on winter wheels and swap the whole mess over? Will 245s on the rear handle OK? I don't predict doing any burnouts in Nov-April...

I am in NY so similar to Boston. My 2015 3.8 RWD needs tires. Would love to get snows, but then come Spring I would need a whole new set of summer tires. And 4 extra rims? I have never owned snow tires before. Am I correct in this, 8 tires and 8 rims? Or do people just swap and unmount the snows every spring without replacing the rims?
Too bad we can keep the snows on all year

 

[2450NW]

I am in NY so similar to Boston. My 2015 3.8 RWD needs tires. Would love to get snows, but then come Spring I would need a whole new set of summer tires. And 4 extra rims? I have never owned snow tires before. Am I correct in this, 8 tires and 8 rims? Or do people just swap and unmount the snows every spring without replacing the rims?
Too bad we can keep the snows on all year

JohnBoy,

You don't need 8 rims; 4 will do. I live in Central Oregon and we have snow and ice in winter. Sometimes lots of it all. Before my GV80, I had a BMW 750 and, more recently, a BMW 640. For those vehicles, I purchased a set of snow tires, and when the time came, I took them to the tire shop and had them swap out the all-season tires, putting those in the car to take home, and putting the snows on. In the spring, I repeated those steps. Yes, I always had 4 tires sitting in my garage, but the upside of the saga is that my tires lasted (about) twice as long as they would have. So over the long-term, the cost was, about-but-not-quite, a wash.

I urge you, and anyone asking the same question as you, to forego any doubt and do have tires on your car appropriate to the environment. I have experienced driving in icy conditions with just all-season tires and--trust me on this--it was a scary ordeal. Two years ago at the sudden start of cold, snow and ice storm, I was driving back home after just that day having the winter tires put on. Traction was...manageable. I came to a stop light and something caught my eye in the rear-view mirror. There was a car behind and coming my way, rotating 'round and 'round as he approached. He hit the back of my 640. There was virtually no damage because he was going very slow when he finally hit me. He didn't have snow tires on. And the next day, the local news reported dozens of similar stories because of the sudden change in weather. So get good-quality snow tires and just swap them out in the spring....