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Winter tires recommendations??

A

andrew.gacom

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Hello all! I am super new to the boards here, I just bought a 2017 GTI SE Carbon Gray with the lighting package. I absolutely love/adore this car and as instantly hooked only have owning it for 4 days. That being said I live in good ole Cleveland, Ohio and the weather here can be a bit nasty in the next few weeks. Many people have already told me to get winter tires for this car so I went on tire rack to do some pricing.

I have seen that the Blizzacks are one of the top winter tires according to their website, anyone have any experience with these?? Also I am considering putting the tires on different rims all together but I am trying to save a little money since I just dropped a lot already on the down payment. I have a warranty with the stock rims against any dents, scratches etc and they replace them for free so I figured I would just put the winter tires on the stock rims.

What is everyone's thoughts?? Thanks so much!!

-Andrew


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M

MK7@55

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Maine
I ran Blizzacks on my Passat and loved them. I had been driving all wheel drive vehicles until my Passat and was a little worried, but they cut through the snow and slush really well. Granted, we didn't get our usual amount of snow here in Maine last winter, but we had enough to give them a good test. I was pleasantly impressed.


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L

lcubed

Ready to race!
Location
midatlantic
the blizzack ws80's are a great tire in the cold snow.
i downsized the wheels from 19 to 17" to get taller rubber sidewalls to deal with potholes.
(a side benefit is that tires for 17's are significantly less expensive than for 19's)
 
A

andrew.gacom

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Awesome, thanks for the recommendations guys! So you guys think I should just put them on the stock 18" rims since I have a warranty on them against dents, scratches, etc? Or is there a huge difference in drive quality downgrading to 17" rims


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breaking badly

breaking badly

Banned
Location
St. Olaf
I went for 17" winters and I couldn't recommend more going
that route.
There is a difference in ride, but there are more advantages.
Tires are cheaper, some 17" alloy wheels are fairly cheap, at
least slightly less risk to damage tire and wheel on potholes,
and machined surface wheels such as stock GTI tend to oxi-
dization when used under real winter conditions to name the
most significant.
If your SE doesn't come with a Performance pack you could
also go for a cheapo set of 16" steel wheels, but today there's
plenty of choice on that alloys are cheap enough to run them
in the winter period.
 
A

andrew.gacom

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
breaking badly said:
I went for 17" winters and I couldn't recommend more going
that route.
There is a difference in ride, but there are more advantages.
Tires are cheaper, some 17" alloy wheels are fairly cheap, at
least slightly less risk to damage tire and wheel on potholes,
and machined surface wheels such as stock GTI tend to oxi-
dization when used under real winter conditions to name the
most significant.
If your SE doesn't come with a Performance pack you could
also go for a cheapo set of 16" steel wheels, but today there's
plenty of choice on that alloys are cheap enough to run them
in the winter period.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the advice!! I do have the performance pack on the car, it comes standard now on the 2017 SE and autobahn models. Looks like I will look into maybe the 17" with some blizzacks. Thanks again!


- Best Regards,

Andrew
 
T

TheWombat

Go Kart Champion
Location
Vermont
Yeah, wrong forum but good advice. I've used Blizzaks, Michelins, and others, and really any good winter tire is fine. I also second the advice to drop a size (or two if you don't have the gigantor calipers).
 
A

andrew.gacom

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
TheWombat said:
Yeah, wrong forum but good advice. I've used Blizzaks, Michelins, and others, and really any good winter tire is fine. I also second the advice to drop a size (or two if you don't have the gigantor calipers).
Click to expand...



Thanks for the advice! Yea I'm still learning this whole forum thing all together so I'm sorry if I posted in the wrong spot! I do have the R calipers/brakes so I shouldn't downsize to even 17" rims/tires?


- Best Regards,

Andrew
 
breaking badly

breaking badly

Banned
Location
St. Olaf
Right, 17" is minimum and take care to get 17" wheels that fit over
your brakes since some don't due to their shape of the wheel barrel.
I run OE 17" Mk.V/VI GTI ('Denver') wheels that I still had sitting in
my garage. They fit closely but fine as any OE 17" VW wheel should
as long it's designed for the Golf. I'm sure tire rack will sell you the
correct wheels if you prefer getting new aftermarket ones.
Ask a moderator for moving your topic to the corresponding forum
(wheels, suspension, brakes).
 
J

jeffkro

Go Kart Champion
Location
United States
breaking badly said:
I went for 17" winters and I couldn't recommend more going
that route.
There is a difference in ride, but there are more advantages.
Tires are cheaper, some 17" alloy wheels are fairly cheap, at
least slightly less risk to damage tire and wheel on potholes,
and machined surface wheels such as stock GTI tend to oxi-
dization when used under real winter conditions to name the
most significant.
If your SE doesn't come with a Performance pack you could
also go for a cheapo set of 16" steel wheels, but today there's
plenty of choice on that alloys are cheap enough to run them
in the winter period.
Click to expand...

Don't forget strut damage. Hitting a really bad pothole on rubber band tires can be pretty hard on your struts.
 
J

jeffkro

Go Kart Champion
Location
United States
breaking badly said:
I went for 17" winters and I couldn't recommend more going
that route.
There is a difference in ride, but there are more advantages.
Tires are cheaper, some 17" alloy wheels are fairly cheap, at
least slightly less risk to damage tire and wheel on potholes,
and machined surface wheels such as stock GTI tend to oxi-
dization when used under real winter conditions to name the
most significant.
If your SE doesn't come with a Performance pack you could
also go for a cheapo set of 16" steel wheels, but today there's
plenty of choice on that alloys are cheap enough to run them
in the winter period.
Click to expand...

How much difference in ride quality is there. I have been thinking about switching to light weight 17's for a while.
 
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