Just in case the regular forum members are getting tired of the repetitive questions newbies such as myself are always asking, I thought I'd share the story of my quest to find a performance winter tire for my lowered '99 Corolla. At the very least, it should be worth a few good laughs =)
The story started this summer when I upgraded from the stock 14x5.5" rims and all season tires to 15x7" rims with Toyo T1-S summers. The difference was night and day, and when it came time to buy winter tires, I was determined to keep some of the wonderful handling characteristics of the T1-S's. I'm sure that for the veteran winter tires buyers out there, the alarm bells are starting to ring...
My initial plan was to make use of my stock 14" rims. In this rim size, H-rated winter tires are pretty much non-existant. The choices at my local tire dealer were the T-rated Kumho KW17, Yoko AVS Winter, and Toyo Garit HT. The KW17 looked like a copy of the Yoko, and the Toyo used a soft rubber combined with deep siping. I chose the Yoko in the hopes that it would provide the best dry weather handling.
It only took a one-hour highway trip before I knew I couldn't live with the Yokos. The lack of stability and the susceptibility to cross winds made it a white-knuckle drive. I put the rims and tires on my father's Tercel (which worked out quite well) and started back at square one.
Clearly, I needed to plus-size in order to get an H-rated tire. But with a 15" steel rim weighing in at 30 pounds a piece, that meant getting alloy rims. With my stiffer suspension, putting on heavy steel rims would have killed the handling. I chose 15x6.5" Motegi Trak Lites in black (the proper winter rim colour =). These were slightly narrower than my summer rims to provide more clearance for snow build-up and better snow traction. They weigh in at 10lbs each.
Even with a 15" rim, my tire choice was limited by size. My summers were 195/50-15. Only the Kumho KW17 and Pirelli Wintersport 210 came in that size. I had read the Pirelli wasn't very good on ice. I decided to try 195/55-15. This opened up a few more possibilities.
Based on the positive posts in this forum, I picked the Toyo Garit HT. I didn't want to risk going with the Yoko AVS Winter again, and the Hankook W300 (also highly recommended) wasn't available in the size I needed. I didn't want to pay the price premium of going with a Michelin or a Blizzak. I ordered the whole package from 1010 tires in Vancouver (unfortunately TireTrends didn't list the Trak Lite rim).
After putting the tires on the car, a short test drive quickly revealed that they were too big. The tires rubbed in the back when going over large bumps. Also, the Garit HTs were very squirmy when cornering and accelerating. On the positive side, they also felt very grippy - more so than the Yokos.
With the last days of November ticking away, things were looking pretty desperate. None of the local tire dealers had even the KW17 or Pirelli 210 in stock. Finally, one dealer, to whom I am very thankful, pointed out that the alternate tire size for the Corolla is 185/55-15. This opened up some possibilities, although I had to repeat the tire size several times when I called around because it was so rare.
The two tires in that size available locally were the Blizzak LM-22 and the Hankook W400. I went with the Hankook on the hopes that it was as good as the W300 and because it was considerably less expensive. I'd also read that the Blizzaks wear quickly.
The short story is, they fit. Hurray! The long story is, the W400 comes closest to summer handling out of the three winter tires that I tried. No tread squirm, very predictable grip through corners, and excellent highway stability. Hopefully they do as well in the wet, ice, and snow. I wish I'd started with this tire, although it was worth going through the trouble to find it.
What's the moral of the story? Well, I can think of a few. If you don't like hassle, grin and bear it and stick with your stock tire size. If you want to play around, stick with a local tire dealer. I'm now stuck figuring out what to do with the Toyos, since the shipping and restocking fees make returning them unattractive. In retrospect, it would have been better to just order the rims online.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... =)
