Hi,

I've got a 2010 Fit Sport and I'm having a tough time making a decision on my winter tires this year. I've searched this forum, Tire Rack and elsewhere for the past several days but still don't feel informed enough to make a decision. Here's what's on my mind:

1. The stock wheel fitment looks awful, especially in back. I worked on Forza Motorsport 3 and actually filed a bug when I saw how bad the rear offset looked, then found it was correct. Funny that I ended up buying the car. So, if part of my winter tire purchase plan could provide for a way to fix the offset appearance, I'd be happy. To this end, I'm considering keeping the stock wheels & using an adapter-type spacer. I'm also looking at aftermarket wheels for non-winter use in different offset to correct this appearance issue.

2. Problem with using the stock wheels for snow tires is the limited options. I was sold on the Continental ExtremeWinterContact but for a 16 inch wheel, I've got to go wider than stock which is not ideal. The only 16" snow @ tire rack is the Blizzak WS60 which is probably overkill for snow performance for the Seattle area and will be too squishy for all the dry/wet road days around here. It's also $106 ea vs. <$80 ea for the Conti's.

3. When I tried to select a steel wheel package at Tire Rack, they don't list any options and force you to go with alloys. I'd rather have cheap steelies than cheap alloys @ 2x the price. I can't believe there isn't an appropriate steel wheel that Tire Rack sells. Last night I tried putting together a 14" package for a GD Fit but found stock was low in my preferred Conti EWC. Doh! Can anyone suggest a steel wheel @ tire rack that will fit a GE Fit?

4. I looked at getting 15" Conti EWC's shipped without wheels & having them installed at Discount Tire but they charge more for the wheels ($55 ea) + mount and balance so going that route is a bit costly and more hassle. I also tried buying the whole package w/steelies from Discount but the price was about the same as getting alloys @ tire rack and is still a hassle w/drop off, etc.

5. I'm now cruising Craigslist for a set of 4x100 steelies that'll fit my fit but I'm concerned that there will be some unexpected clearance issue similar to what Tire Rack reports. This can't be *that* hard. Are there steelies or stock alloys from other popular cars (e.g. Civic, Integra, Saturn, Mini Cooper, etc.) that will work? I read that 14" will fit the GE but I'm thinking 15 would be better for my application (shorter sidewalls, less flex for dry roads).

So....I'm looking for someone to provide some specific "this worked for me" option that's relatively inexpensive, is <= the 185mm stock width, ~the same diameter and will provide a decent all-round winter + dry road experience.

Thanks in advance,

Joel

 

Update: I thought I found a bug in the Tire Rack site. Last night I was playing around with a 14" tire setup for the GD Fit, found low inventory on what I wanted and gave up. Today I looked again for the GE Fit and found they've added a 14" steel wheel option since last night. Soo...I ordered a 14" steel wheel + 185/65-14 Continental Extreme Winter Contact package for $530 shipped.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on Tire Rack's 14" steel wheel stock! The stocks on my 2009 Sport are almost done (I drive ~18,000/year) and Minnesota's first snowfall of the season (almost a foot so far) convinced me to purchase a winter package. I ended up ordering almost the same thing as you, except with the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 (our snowplowers here are amazing and roads usually get cleared pretty quickly; that tire supposedly does very well on dry too). Total after shipping and MIR came to $570.

 

hmmm, the 185/65-14 doesn't seems to be the ideal 14" size tire. According to my calc spedo will be off by 2.3%. Tire size calculator

Seems like a 175/70 14 or 185/70 14 would be closer in diameter to our stock tires...I am talking about 2nd gen Fits.

I'm guessing you went with that size because tire rack suggested it?

 

185/65-14 was their "Alternate" size for 14in wheels; their recommended was 175/65-14, which when I calculated it was off by ~4%! 2.3% I don't mind much, especially since it's in the direction that helps keep me out of trouble with the cops

 

So, I got my X-Ice's put on last week and conveniently got a chance to put them to the test in the big blizzard MN had last Saturday (2ft of snow, 30mph wind, temperatures falling below 0F, and visibility so bad the plows were forced to stop plowing for a few hours). Verdict: amazing! Only times I got stuck were in my unplowed cul-de-sac, where the snow was so high it was ramping my car's wheels off the ground and it was even causing problems for my housemates AWD Subaru. Grip on turns in the snow is 10x better; almost no fishtailing now, which is almost disappointing . A passenger even asked if my car was AWD. It seems good dry too, though maybe a little noisier than my stocks (could just be the break-in period) -- nothing to complain about though.

Very pleased with my purchase; would highly recommend it to anyone else who has to deal with snowstorms. With the hubcaps on the wheels, while definitely chunky, they don't even look half-bad.

 

Consumer Reports ratings for winter tires are;
1. Michelin X-Ice Xi2
2. General Altimax Arctic
3. Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5

Any one of these should be great...go wider if you need, provided it is within the tire design rage of rim widths.

I have the previous design Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi on my '07 Sport Fit and love them. I bought X-Ice Xi2 for my other car...

 

I stumbled across the 14" steelies on TireRack a while back too and got some Pirelli Winter Carvings on closeout in 185/70/14 to go on them. So far so good. The only tricky part was that at first TireRack contacted me to tell me that that size wasn't recommended for my car and that they wouldn't ship them without further confirmation that I indeed wanted that size. It's closer in size to stock than the stuff they recommend though, and it's extremely close to their recommended 205/50/16 alternate size for regular tires, so I told them that yes I did want them. I like them so far...except we've hardly gotten any snow since I put them on.

 

When your only criterion is price… I hope you find out the hard way, that you get what you pay for.