Cheap Winter Tires

[--e]

Hello!
I have a quick and simple question that I'm probably just too big a car moron to have found on my own, so I appreciate your patience. I'm the proud new owner of a beautiful blue '98 Z3 1.9. I live in Wisconsin, so I need a set of tires to keep the ass end of the car behind the drivers seat. The trunk is home to 3 bags of sand, but the wide summer tires are spinhappy enough to be dangerous.

The car is my wife's daily driver, but she's away on business the majority of the time. Because of this (and because we're broke), I'd like to avoid dropping a grand at tirerack.com if I could. Is there a set of skinny all-season radials I can put on steel rims? Do I have a chance in hell of finding steel rims at a boneyard? Am I stuck dishing out for blizzaks on alloys? Does anyone have any exprience with this? I really have no experience with tires at all, so specifics, brands, and sizes would be indispensible.

Thank you very much for your help,
Eric

 

[cngizbleevng]

You are right about spending a grand at tirerack. That's just what I did for my snow tires and alloy rims a few months ago. In doing my research, I saw it stated that all-season tires are a poor substitute for snow tires. I heeded that advice and got snow tires. As for the rims, I'm not sure if steel rims are readily available, but I wanted the look of alloys even though they were a few hundred dollars more. Steel rims on a z3 just doesn't seem right.

 

[MrElussive]

You can get a set of 15" or 16" snow tires with alloy wheels off of TireRack for as low as $744 plus shipping from what I found for your car.

For 15" or 16" snow tires, you can expect to pay around $70 - $100 per tire. I also found this other site which sells 15" and 16" hubcaps for $40 each, here: http://www.hubcaps.org/bmw.html
No idea if the hubcaps will work with the tires, though.

 

[coopernicus]

Winter tires on 16" steel rims is the least expensive option, and will work better than all seasons. If you get BMW plastic covers for the steel rims, the look is not too aweful, it'll be snow covered anyway. The plastic covers also have the added advantage of keeping snow/ice out of the wheel, whereas most alloy designs leave big holes between spokes where snow/ice can pile in. The ice lstuck in the alloy rims result in wheel imbalance, common cause of steering vibration at higher speeds in snow areas. Also if you hit potholes and dent a steel rim, you can bang it out or replace at low cost. For all these reasons, I got winter tires (Michelin Pilot) on steel rims, and over 4 winters they have worked well, and I commute early before the snow plows hit the road.