Winter Tire Package

[Fotomkr]

If anyone is interested I had my winter tires installed today. I made up the package myself. The dealers were charging around C$2600. So here goes:
4 18 inch winter rims from canadawheels.ca C$726 These wheels are direct fit hubcentric so no hub rings etc.
4 Genuine Kia TPMS sensors from eBay out of Korea C$111 and they work perfectly. No programing.
4 Pirelli Winter Ice FR tires from Kaltire C$757
Lug Nut Kit from Kaltire C$ 35
Installation, Balance and Alberta Tire Recycling at Kaltire C$96
Total comes to C$1725 + GST (except for the sensors-No tax)
By the way I have a GT LTD AWD with Brembo Brakes. No fitment issues at all.

 

[orangeoranges]

What the offset for those shown?

 

[Fotomkr]

35

 

[Matt2f]

Since yours is a GT, the original tire size would be 19”.
I’m wondering how you chose the sizes for front and back 18” tires and if installing non-factory size tires would mess up the center diff (AWD) ? Was there any programming related to that ?

 

[CVD]

If the tires have the same overall diameter as each other you will have no issues with the differential. They need to have the same overall diameter as the original wheels and tires only for the purpose of keeping your odometer and speedometer perfectly accurate. This is also quite easy to do even when going from 19’s to 18’s. In my previous car with 18’s I even went down to 16’s for the winter. Taller sidewalls on the tires gave them identical overall diameter as the 18’s.

225/45/18 is the correct size to match the factory 19’s.

 

[I Stung U]

For anyone who really wants to go the budget route, Durham Kia actually, yes actually has 18" steel rims that fit over the Bembro Brakes, and for further budgeting, they put Ovation winter tires on .. Yes, they're not great quality tires, but just putting this out there.
For $882 plus tax !!
I'm gonna go with these rims, and with the Nexen Wingaurd Sport 2's for my package... Simply Tire in North York has great options and prices.
Nexen is not top brand, but they actually make good tires, so I just discovered, researching.

These winters are in 3rd place on consumer reports Performance winter category, beating out many of the normal brands/models we'd normally go to first..
This will run me just a tad over $1500/taxes in. No TPMS thing.. I can live without that.. OH, anyone know how to override and turn off the low tire light that will come one ?

I'm going with the 18x8, w/235/45/18. 225 is suggested winters, but I like to keep the handling decent when not snowing out.... Oddly, why are the summer front 225 ?? for a sporty sedan, shouldn't they of been 235 anyways ? And a small % (usually under 3% Overall Dia. is allowed and safe).. These 235 version are 26.38 " instead of the 26" they come with.

Look up Simply Tires (on Toro rd, Keele, S. of Finch) area. Tell them Stavros Referred you. Hurry up, I may be able to get more $ of my set..

 

[Geronimo]

Did I understand that you are getting rims from Durham KIA?

 

[I Stung U]

Me ? No. I am aware of them and they have a fair price on 18" Steel rims and Ovation winter tires.

 

[Geronimo]

Oh I see,
When you wrote:"I am going with these", you meant rims shown on the attached picture.

 

[I Stung U]

Got my Winter Rims and Tires.... Rims are OPTI, I think the guy at Simply tire called them "Venom".. they look similar to the last ones on this link, but a bit of a twist to the design, where the main spoke design, is more diamond shape (like a spider shape), than just straight out design like the ones in the link. Mine, zoom in, you can see that difference there.. Pretty cool design.
JR4 or S507 were my second choice... Gun metal grey may have been a bit cooler/brighter look ? All good.
Car Needs a cleaning.. I'll take another pic all clean.

Opti Wheels

 

[Geronimo]

Got my Winter Rims and Tires.... Rims are OPTI, I think the guy at Simply tire called them "Venom".. they look similar to the last ones on this link, but a bit of a twist to the design, where the main spoke design, is more diamond shape (like a spider shape), than just straight out design like the ones in the link. Mine, zoom in, you can see that difference there.. Pretty cool design.
JR4 or S507 were my second choice... Gun metal grey may have been a bit cooler/brighter look ? All good.
Car Needs a cleaning.. I'll take another pic all clean.

Opti Wheels

Looks good, even with mud.I went with Durham KIA package.

 

[I Stung U]

Looks good, even with mud.I went with Durham KIA package.

What trim/colour Stinger you got ?
Pics ?

 

[I Stung U]

oh, I went with the Nexen Winguard Sport 2 tires. They have very high results in testing from Consumer reports. See attached.. For the price and performance, it's a no brainer, but that said, they are only 9/32" tread depth, which most other high end brands are 10/32" for same high performance winter tire category. but those are approx. $500-$600 more to get than these... So they'd last one season more but that's almost enough to buy these again, so I'm satisfied for this set up.
Comparison 1, shows it compared to the highest regular winter tire category (that they tested, so others maybe better but not in the report)
Comparison 2, shows it compared to the two tires that were # 1 and 2 (these were 3rd place).
Comparison 3, shows it compared to the #4-5 in same category... and below these were even more TOP brand name models, but with lower scores.
Even some tires like Michelin X-ice Bridgestone W80's and other top brands have Excellent scores for snow and ice, but they have below average stopping in the first 3 Categories of the test, Dry,Wet braking & Handling tests.. so they're great on snow ice, but more chance of rear-ending someone on the cold dry/wet days when no snow or ice...
so the Nexen have good balance across the board... Better rolling resistance wold have been nice too... I gotta say they are more comfy ride than the factory rims too.

 

[Geronimo]

oh, I went with the Nexen Winguard Sport 2 tires. They have very high results in testing from Consumer reports. See attached.. For the price and performance, it's a no brainer, but that said, they are only 9/32" tread depth, which most other high end brands are 10/32" for same high performance winter tire category. but those are approx. $500-$600 more to get than these... So they'd last one season more but that's almost enough to buy these again, so I'm satisfied for this set up.
Comparison 1, shows it compared to the highest regular winter tire category (that they tested, so others maybe better but not in the report)
Comparison 2, shows it compared to the two tires that were # 1 and 2 (these were 3rd place).
Comparison 3, shows it compared to the #4-5 in same category... and below these were even more TOP brand name models, but with lower scores.
Even some tires like Michelin X-ice Bridgestone W80's and other top brands have Excellent scores for snow and ice, but they have below average stopping in the first 3 Categories of the test, Dry,Wet braking & Handling tests.. so they're great on snow ice, but more chance of rear-ending someone on the cold dry/wet days when no snow or ice...
so the Nexen have good balance across the board... Better rolling resistance wold have been nice too... I gotta say they are more comfy ride than the factory rims too.

Mine is GT LTD, Thunder gray, black letter.I just like to be different. When I was at Durham KIA, there was another guy for the same package.He came all the way from Ottawa, 350 km for that deal.
It does not look bad at all.Kind of like Batmobile.

 

[Geronimo]

Mine is GT LTD, Thunder gray, black letter.I just like to be different. When I was at Durham KIA, there was another guy for the same package.He came all the way from Ottawa, 350 km for that deal.
It does not look bad at all.Kind of like Batmobile.

Not black letter , black leather lol.

 

[I Stung U]

today, was minus 12 out and light snow was falling and there was thin layer of snow on the ground, mostly everywhere, and I did a break test and a bit of a push around a turn with my new Nexen Winguard Sport 2's and they held/gripped very well. Bit early still, but impressed with this first mini test.

 

[I Stung U]

FYI. My Winter set up was in the $1,500 range, taxes in.. CALL Simply tire and get quote for yours, if haven't got winters yet.
Yours will very if you want different tire brands, but be aware, not all top brand/models are necessarily the better tire.
I'm putting my faith in consumer reports. If you don't have their membership, just ask me about a few tire options and I'll check the results, if they tested such models.
You need them !

 

[Geronimo]

FYI. My Winter set up was in the $1,500 range, taxes in.. CALL Simply tire and get quote for yours, if haven't got winters yet.
Yours will very if you want different tire brands, but be aware, not all top brand/models are necessarily the better tire.
I'm putting my faith in consumer reports. If you don't have their membership, just ask me about a few tire options and I'll check the results, if they tested such models.
You need them !

Thx for the offer man, but as I posted earlier I went with Durham KIA and their package.

 

[I Stung U]

I made video of getting my Winter set up.

 

[Geronimo]

Cost of package?