Re: 2003 WRX- Best value wheel/tire combo?

For winter, I highly recommend a set of real snow/ice tires on your car. I think that once you go that way, you'll never want to go back.

I just got my new winter tires (Hakka Q's) mounted on my car ('03 WRX Wagon), and am real happy with the performance so far. Only thing I've noticed is a drop in the fuel economy around town (~ 2-3 mpg) compared to the stock Bridgestones. These have very soft tread blocks compared to stock. However, the mileage may be attributed to my trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to drift the car around corners. With these tires, it takes considerably more throttle, than with the stock rubber in snowy conditions. I should know better what the effect is after a long highway trip.

I had these tires mounted up on a set of factory WRX rims that I ordered from the Tire Rack. Even with shipping to Canada plus the exchange rate it worked out cheaper than buying steel wheels from the local Subaru dealer. At $69.00 (USD) per wheel, I recommend checking out the Tire rack (assuming they still have this deal).

My only reservation on winter tires would be if the temperature is rarely at or below freezing where you live. If it is warmer, I imagine the life of the tire would be dramatically shorter. If it is cold, the lack of snow should be an issue. I imagine most places in north america have bare streets and highways through most of the winter anyway.

-- Bill Bobyk b bobyk at sasktel dot net

If you're driving in such little snow as you mention, I'd get a good all season tire. Un-studded snow tires are softer so that they are compliant at lower temperatures. So they wear faster on dry road. I actually read that they wear very little on snow. Studded snow tires are harder to accomodate and handle the studs. So they usually ride harsher on dry roads. You'll do fine with a good all season with the WRX AWD. This is my third winter in a high snow area with my WRX and I just got snow tires (Arctic Alpins) yesterday. The RE92's were fine the first winter, but I could tell a significant loss of grip last winter. Now it's down to the wear bars anyways, so I opted to mount snows on the factory rims and get super sticky summer tires on 17 inch rims later. But I think you're wasting money if you drive in as little snow as you mentioned to get snow tires. Just my opinion.

Kiss your snow tires goodbye driving like that. You will wear them out and they will be no good for snow.

Steel wheels are apparently pretty cheap at Price Club, and I highly recommend Canadian Tire Icetrac's for cheap snows. Mine were $75 CAD each (on sale) for 205/55/16. I'm on the third winter with them, regularly drive from Ottawa to local and not-so-local ski hills, and like them enough that I'll probably buy them again. That or Nokian WR's. See below...

I've read somewhere (like a tire company's site, so possible bias) that winter tires should be used on dry pavement anytime it's under 7 degrees C (45 F), due to summer / all-season tires being harder at those temperatures. That's probably overkill, but I can attest to being happier with ice tires than summer tires on cold wet roads even above freezing. The point you mention above about lack of snow applies pretty well to anywhere that salts the roads, basically you end up on dry roads most days, which is why I went with ice tires instead of snow tires.

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Define normal...

Keeping in mind that there are trade-offs helps. Snow or ice tires work well because they're made of softer rubber, with deeper tread blocks, so they'll definitely wear down faster (and be louder) on dry pavement. They'll also be squirmier, and won't grip as well on warmer pavement.

You might want to check out Nokian WR's, they seem to be the perfect tire for your situation, and were well reviewed by someone on this group a while back. IIRC, he was from the PNW, and drove an Outback.

Personally, I don't feel it's bare road that cause the very quick wear, but warmer temperatures. When much of the winter is -15 to -20 °C, and the coldest temperatures are in the -40°C range, a soft tire won't wear too quickly. On my last car ('94 Integra GSR) I had some cheap winter tires (Winter Kings, made by Michelin apparently). They were 4 years old when I traded the car in on the WRX and they probably had at least 2 seasons left on them. They worked very well on bare ice and still were amazing in deep snow.

I'd rather risk them wearing quickly under the dry road conditions, and have the ice and snow performance when needed. The Nokians will (by everything I've heard) outlast a set of Blizzaks by far, and give most of the ice performance. That was a trade off I was willing to live with. So far I've got a 1000 kms on these tires, and the nubs (hair) haven't worn off yet.

In the winter around here, the biggest potential problem is glare ice not snow. So far, these tires seem to work amazingly well on that for both braking and corning traction. The all-wheel-drive basically takes care of the acceleration issues, but the tires of course add to that as well.

I bought the extra set of wheels so I can flip back to the all-season performance tires once it warms up without having to take it to a tire shop.

| > I just got my new winter tires (Hakka Q's) mounted on my car | > ('03 WRX Wagon), and am real happy with the performance so | > far. Only thing I've noticed is a drop in the fuel economy | > around town (~ 2-3 mpg) compared to the stock Bridgestones. | > These have very soft tread blocks compared to stock. | > However, the mileage may be attributed to my trying (mostly | > unsuccessfully) to drift the car around corners. | | Kiss your snow tires goodbye driving like that. | You will wear them out and they will be no good for snow. | | | |