Originally Posted By: Indydriver
Originally Posted By: Sluggo0018
All of this is predicated on the assumption that dry road handling is not your priority during the winter months.
This is the wildcard in choosing winters. Where in NY do you live? Big difference in the decision path between living in the city and say, lake effect snow belt. Your solution is best in a heavy snow area where roads aren't always plowed and end up in a packed snow or sheet of ice condition. I live in a metro area where the streets are lowed and salted quickly so, heavy snow driving lasts for one day. The vast majority of my winter driving is in the city on salt-encrusted but dry, clear roads. Given this, I went with Blizzak performance tires LM-22s on my Speed3. I get through the snow just fine and retain most of the car's handling prowess during the 90% of winter with clear dry roads. I did not buy an extra set of wheels because I wanted to maintain the OE size for performance and because I struck a deal with my local Firestone store to give me free spring and fall swaps in exchange for all my tire and service business on my fleet of five cars below. Point is, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution for winter tires. Think through your driving conditions and priorities.
I don't live in the city, and the roads can remain unplowed for many, many,many days. BTW I see you have the same car I have, I badly bent one of the rims last year on a winter pot hole with a bad bulge in the the tire. A new tire and OEM rim, I couldn't find a single rim used, was over $800. So the steel rims are the way to go can't beat $59 each.