2000 SL1 - Studs or Not?

Saturn (the headquarters) told me that if they are legal in my area I can put them on, but that they don't recommend using anything other then the stock recommened tires. What are comments/thoughts on this?

if you get studs, do 'em on all four wheels. Otherwise your rear will spin 'round your front when you brake and corner.

Junkyard steel wheels are insanely cheap since the car goes back a decade from your model year, and the bolt pattern is common with a bunch of other stuff too. They'll save you the cost of remounting twice a year.

With snow tires, thinner is better-- 175-70-14, the base size, is perfect.

If you do a lot of highway driving, the noise will drive you insane. The tires will be a bit "squirrely" on dry pavement, so these are best left off the car as much as possible, except during the dead of winter. : )

Living in northern New York state and being a skier I can atest that four snow tires are the way to go in the winter months. I've never had a problem except in super deep snow (shouldn't have been out, but gotta ski) where the studs wouldn't be of any use anyway. I have four cars (lots of teenagers) and a variety of snow tires. Tires have gotten better over the years and are a lot quieter and provide good dry road handling (too good sometimes, if you drive them too hard you'll wear them out real fast) In fact the Michelin Artic Alpines' on my Jetta are a lot quieter than the summer Kumho Ecstas (never again). If you got a wide high performance tire go for something thinner. If you just have the 185/65/14 standard on the SL1 then it's probably no big deal to stay with the same size. I have that size on my SL1. I got some Winterforce tires from Tire Rack last year and have been happy with the snow traction and dry road handling. Not that noisy either. FYI, the steel wheels on the 2001 SL1 have a slightly different flange shape than most generic wheels. The hubcaps won't screw back onto the lug nuts!!