JasonJ

Good morning all,

Got my Blizzaks on all 4 corners... 255/45/20's just like my regular summer weight tires!

I know, a lot of you will tell me the wisdom of having a narrower and different profile tire; but I wasn't ready to get another set of rims.

Got a full tank of fuel, too...love having the extra weight today.

The only thing I really worry about is those other drivers!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Jason
New York
'14 SQ5

I

Redd

Well, if you figure four new Audi OEM rims, that's beaucoup bucks.
But with third-party rims, which can be $100 each but let's say $150 each for fancier ones...
Mounting four tires, at ten bucks each, $40. That's awfully cheap for alloy wheels and ignoring the fact that eventually, your wheels will be damaged by all the remounting.
And $40 more to remount the spring tires, so that's $80 per year.
Times four years before you wear out the tires, more likely five years, since now the tire wear is being spread on two sets...
That's an easy $400 in tire mounting fees, optimistically, and could easily be $500-600? Plus your time at the tire shop?
Oh, wait, the tires need to be balanced after each mounting...that could bring the $400 up to a fast $800. Dynamic balancing is never thrown in free. Especially on alloy wheels, if they're using proper "inside" weights.

Comes out to a wash versus just buying four aftermarket wheels for the snows. I know, it is still cash out of pocket, but the logic I see for "snow wheels" is that you never have to book time at the tire shop, and you never have to ask which monkey scratched your wheels.

Just one man's opinion. (And math.(G)

MurrayA4

My god my head is spinning ! Yes there's no doubt whatsoever that winters mounted on wheels makes economic sense.I've been doing it for like 25+ years.Biggest benefit to me is I put my winters on when I want to.Nice sunny Sat.in the driveway and it's done.

Coolieman1220

The best part about having a second set of cheap winter wheels, If i get a bad winter pothole and crack a rim or bend it. It's $120 for a new wheel. Not $500 for an audi wheel.

Red pretty much hit the button on the head with his cost analysis. He types a lot but he is right.

JasonJ

Well said guys,

I'll get a set of steel rims for next year, and keep the snows on them.

Meanwhile...it's friggin' cold outside!

Warhead

agreed, it is currently -37c here with the windchill.

Redd

Jason-
The first time I was snowshoe backpacking, we all woke up the first morning and practically killed the one poor soul who was actually going to look at a little zipper-pull thermometer to see just how cold it was. Since our water jugs had frozen in the night, and the butane lighters wouldn't ignite waxed paper from milk cartons, we really didn't want to know how much colder it was.
Couple of years after that, a couple of us had just made it back to the cold-soaked car and fresh hot chocolate, and I spilled a crop on the console. Before I could reach down to wipe it up with my napkin? It had frozen solid on the console. Couldn't wipe it up until the car warmed up.
Frozen on contact: Now, THAT I call friggin' cold.

And historically, NYC Harbor froze over, and folks literally could walk or drive carriages from Brooklyn to Staten Island, 1775-ish. For more than one winter.
THAT I call friggin' cold.

But what we've been having so far? Nah, doesn't make it to the friggin' meter yet. Although I did wish I'd taken my car in for the heater recall a week earlier. The gnomes are working on it today, and I certainly missed it for the first five miles this morning.

DonnyK

Guess I don't understand the logic of buying winter rims/tires and keeping stock 20's as summers. I went the other way and put winters on my stock 20's and am keeping that as my winter set-up. I figure if i'm putting money into rims and tires I might as well get a nicer summer set then using my stock 20's in the summer. To each their own. I understand the pro's of buying smaller winter rims in 18's or 19's, but i'm not a fan of stock wheels on my vehicles in the summer.Maybe it'd be different if my SQ5 had come with the 21's, but the 20's are just too plain looking for my taste.

.

Redd

Presumably, if Audi sold you a car you are at least 14 or 15 years old (even the farm states have minimums!) and you should be encouraged, and capable of, choosing your own shoes, sox, and even car parts.(G)

" I figure if i'm putting money into rims and tires I might as well get a nicer summer set then "

I had a car stolen, partly stripped, recovered. New wheels would have been about $500 each but I found a clean set at a junkyard for $300. Pre-internet and shipping via Grayhound or motorfreight...that took about 6-7 weeks and was not very convenient. So when a second yard called me two weeks later and said "$200, we got a set" I said ship 'em, and a second set. Just coincidence, the "mint-iest" set wound up on my snow tires. Funny thing, no one ever walked up to me on the street and said "Mister, you should swap those wheels."

Your car, your money, YOUR opinion is really the only one that counts. Just please as a personal favor, don't put in magenta headlights (yes, they exist) or paint the car some of those odd Korean barf green metallics.(G)

Coolieman1220

That works to, Nothing wrong with that.