Hey folks, going to order a set of steel wheels and snows from Tire Rack this winter for my FIT. It's my first year driving it in a NY winter so it should be interesting. Last time I had a FWD vehicle I put blizzaks on it and had no problems. I have a couple of choices the first is 14" wheels with Dunlap wintermax snow tires, or 15 wheels with Blizzaks. Price diff w/o TPMs is $152 bucks in savings if I go with the Dunlops and 14 wheels for 555 delivered. Are the Dunlops decent tires, I can't find any reviews on them. Also without the tire pressure monitors I understand I won't be able to disable the traction control. Is that an issue? I've never had to disable it and I really don't know why I would want too. Any help and or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bill

 

on my 09 i run WS40's on 15". since 09 didnt have vdc i dont use tpms on my snow tire set.

on my '12 different issue. i need tpms in order to turn off vdc... so i run DWS and the tpms inside my aftermarket 16x7 wheels.

 

Dunlops are ok tires, but for Winter tires Blizzaks are better IMHO. I would personally go with 15'' and Blizzaks. I'm not sure about TPMS - it's up to you if you want them or not. However, I'm not familiar with Fit TPMS tech and I'm wondering if there is a way to disable TPMS absence chime annoying sound or TPMS light on instrument panel?
As for VDC - I am not a racer type of guy, so for casual driving I can think of only 2 scenarios when you need to turn VDC on:
1. If you are stuck in snow and want to spin off your wheels as hard as you can go to finally get out of snow trap.
2. If you are on incline on slippery road and your wheels need to be spinning to slowly climb up the hill, otherwise VDC will choke power to wheels and you are going to have hard time moving up the hill.
All IMHO.

 

I have an '09 Fit Sport and run Blizzak WS-60's. Tires mounted on 2007 15" Fit Sport alloys and sized the same as base model Fit tires (175/65-15) without TPMS sensors as my car doesn't have VSC. My car is an absolute monster in the snow, goes anywhere without a problem. I work very early in the mornings before the plows are out in upstate NY and would drive through anything. Highly recommend Blizzak's.

 

Thanks everyone, I'll take the advice and spend a little more for the blizzaks on larger rims. The guy from Tire Rack mentioned the TPMS and the traction thing. I know I have a button on my dash for something related to it but will have to check the owners manual. Either way I don't think its worth installing new TPMS on the new rims. Great to hear a FIT with Blizzaks eats up the snow in NYS!

 

Up here in Canada I would go with Micheline or Nokian Haka's for city driving. The compound is softer on these two, much better on ice. If I had the money I'd do Nokian's. I've heard from friends that Blizzaks are good for heavy deep snow, trucks, suv's and such... I know you've made up on what you want, just not sure if you've considered these other brands on choices.