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Winter Tires and Rims - Canadian Availability

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I did a search through the Canada section to see if there was an existing thread to jump into... a few close, but not quite what I'm thinking about, so here goes.

Winter is coming. Who'da thunk-it? :biggrin:

I'm pondering my options for winter tires and wheels. I've always bought a set of 'winter wheels' and tires to avoid swapping tires on and off twice a year and to avoid salt damage to the good wheels.

I know I'll get Nokians, since they've been my go-to tires for as long as I can remember. Unless they are shown to be ugly for rolling resistance (other threads don't seem to be concerned that they are). So the rubber shouldn't be an issue.

Which brings me to wheels. I bought the basic 19" rims for my car. They look OK. Just OK. So I see two options for buying new rims:


  1. Cheap(ish) wheels for winter - 19" presumably, with the expectation that they'll look like crap after a few seasons.
  2. Nice wheels to replace the stock 19's for summer use and sacrifice the OEM 19's for winter use.

Option 1 is what I've always done... but I'm giving Option 2 some thought since I think I could easily get a better look for summer than with the stock wheels.

Option 2 would allow me to go up a size if I wanted... I've seen that 20" seems possible. I don't think I'd go to 21" because I don't want to sacrifice ride comfort or be stuck to pay for expensive low profile tires that don't wear well.

I'll probably have close to 20,000 km on the Primacy's by the time I do the swap, so I'd have a partially worn set of tires to deal with if I change rim size. I've been happy with the Primacy's (although they apparently don't repel roofing nails...).

So... wondering about Canadian experiences with different aftermarket rims. If possible I'd prefer to avoid bringing them over the border (tire rack dot com comes to mind) if possible. I'd like something a little nicer than the usual Core Racing from Kal Tire. What wheels turned out to be a good deal and which should I avoid?
 
Have you looked at tirerack.com? I ordered from a tuner shop in Richmond who have a wholesale account with tire rack. I just went to tire rack's website and picked what I wanted, they got them shipped to their warehouse in Blaine, WA, they import them, and resell them to you at a better price than buying directly from tire rack. This only works if you don't mind going for a drive into the City sometime.

I chose the Rial Luongo's like many others here and got Michelin x-ice3's mounted on them with no name tpms', which have performed very well in the Vancouver climate the last 2 winters. Although with not quite as much snow as you will get in Kamloops.

I like the Rial's better than my oem wheels so my intention is to keep using the Rials with my winter tires, then when I purchase new all seasons (probably next summer) I will mount the all seasons on the Rials and transfer my winters to my oems. My oems are all scraped up any way - it's quite embarrassing when people look at them.
 
I'm going with your option 2 myself, and putting my winter's on the OEM 19's and in the spring I'll upgrade to a 20" or 21" summer wheel.

I do a lot of highway driving, and for much of the winter through the GTA roads will be clear so while I was originally going to go with the Nokian's they're more of a snow tire so I'm thinking of doing something like the Xice3 instead which I've had on other vehicles and been happy with. Will also save me a few $$$.

I've been looking at Tire Rack for wheel options, nothing's really jumped out at me except for a set of OZ wheels, but they're $6k US for the set without rubber, so I'm not going there.
 
I'm going with your option 2 myself, and putting my winter's on the OEM 19's and in the spring I'll upgrade to a 20" or 21" summer wheel.

I do a lot of highway driving, and for much of the winter through the GTA roads will be clear so while I was originally going to go with the Nokian's they're more of a snow tire so I'm thinking of doing something like the Xice3 instead which I've had on other vehicles and been happy with. Will also save me a few $$$.

I've been looking at Tire Rack for wheel options, nothing's really jumped out at me except for a set of OZ wheels, but they're $6k US for the set without rubber, so I'm not going there.
Nothing really jumped out, as in looks? I saw some really nice looking rims there for a couple of hundred dollars each.
 
I use 19" Tsportline for summer, and the basic rims that came with the car for winter. I have tires and TPMS on both. I love the Tsportline rims so far. It's worth getting OptiCoat on whichever you choose.

Tsportline isn't quite the deal it used to be because of the dollar. I also got free shipping to Blaine and brought them across the border. They may negotiate with you.

FWIW, I paid $400 US for each rim, free shipping to Blaine, then tax at the border. No duty, although technically they could have hit me with it. They may be produced in the US now.
 
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Currently looking at same thing here. Will probably get rims at tsportline also but the dollar is so awful right now I think I will wait a little. Probably will switch my winter tire on OEM rims and leave them on it and order rims later for summer tire. Fore tire I was looking at the Michelin Xi3. They are currently on tirerack at around 1350$ US shipping included to my door. If you look at pmctire.com wich is canadian they will be at the same price but canadian. So I think I will order them at PMC.
 
I went with the OE cap graphite silver Rial Lugano's from tirerack.com. Then I picked up the dark centre caps from Tesla (cheap), as they will fit these rims. This will be my first winter with them, and if I like them better than the stock 19's (which I do really like), I will swap and make them my summer rims. These rims are only $199 each, and the silver version is $209 each. I live close to the border so I shipped to the US and picked up. Was only charged HST coming back over with them.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseUpServlet?target=runWheelSearch&initialPartNumber=LU85932TR727GS&wheelMake=Rial&wheelModel=Lugano+OE+Cap&wheelFinish=Graphite+Silver&showRear=no&autoMake=Tesla&autoModel=Model+S&autoYear=2014&autoModClar=60
 
Currently looking at same thing here. Will probably get rims at tsportline also but the dollar is so awful right now I think I will wait a little. Probably will switch my winter tire on OEM rims and leave them on it and order rims later for summer tire. Fore tire I was looking at the Michelin Xi3. They are currently on tirerack at around 1350$ US shipping included to my door. If you look at pmctire.com wich is canadian they will be at the same price but canadian. So I think I will order them at PMC.

Thanks for the recommendation. Bought a set of Braelins(Gun Metal) and Xi3s with TPMS.... Whole deal works out cheaper than the OEM kit ( Thanks to our Canadian Peso). Shipping's $28 via Purolator. Saved myself around USD300.
 
I ordered Rial Lugano 19" turbines from Tire Rack complete with TPMS sensors. I liked the look of the Tesla turbines, but didn't want 21's. At the time I ordered the 19" Tesla ones weren't out nor were the T-Sportline lookalikes. I wanted the Rials for my summer tires and had my winter tires mounted to the stock Tesla 19" wheels.

I ordered Nokian Hakka R2 tires (ultra low rolling resistance, by the way) locally from Kal Tire and had them do the tire mounting and balancing. I do the seasonal changeover myself in my garage.
 
Beeeerock, the choice for me is purely cosmetic so I will have bias in my comment... I like the 19" Cyclones - perhaps a forum member would have a set for sale you can get inexpensively and shipped to Canada? The 20" TSportline Turbine clones look great too. Although if I had to buy a set of aftermarket rims it would likely be stock (Tesla) rims as I prefer the OEM look in general.

Okay, maybe these have caught my eye a few times...
14394115825_78b8466e7f_b.jpg
 
I ordered Rial Lugano 19" turbines from Tire Rack complete with TPMS sensors. I liked the look of the Tesla turbines, but didn't want 21's. At the time I ordered the 19" Tesla ones weren't out nor were the T-Sportline lookalikes. I wanted the Rials for my summer tires and had my winter tires mounted to the stock Tesla 19" wheels.

I ordered Nokian Hakka R2 tires (ultra low rolling resistance, by the way) locally from Kal Tire and had them do the tire mounting and balancing. I do the seasonal changeover myself in my garage.

I went with the FOBO solution instead of paying almost $400 USD for the TPMS from tire rack....I am using them on my summers now as well and I love it. I love the app the tell you exact pressures, and the fact that they can be transferred over to another set simply by unscrewing from the valve stem.
 
I ordered Rial Lugano 19" turbines from Tire Rack complete with TPMS sensors. I liked the look of the Tesla turbines, but didn't want 21's. At the time I ordered the 19" Tesla ones weren't out nor were the T-Sportline lookalikes. I wanted the Rials for my summer tires and had my winter tires mounted to the stock Tesla 19" wheels.

I ordered Nokian Hakka R2 tires (ultra low rolling resistance, by the way) locally from Kal Tire and had them do the tire mounting and balancing. I do the seasonal changeover myself in my garage.
Several responses mentioned the Rial Lugano, which I agree looks pretty good. The T-Sportline offerings are nice too, but the exchange is an issue these days as was noted.

I've run the earlier incarnations of the Hakka's and been very satisfied. I didn't realize that they were good for rolling resistance though, so the R2's will be a no-brainer for me! :)

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I'm going with your option 2 myself, and putting my winter's on the OEM 19's and in the spring I'll upgrade to a 20" or 21" summer wheel.
This is essentially the idea I'm coming to accept as well. I'm not in love with the stock base wheels, so they will very likely get delegated to winter use and that will give me several months to decide on a new summer wheel!

- - - Updated - - -

Beeeerock, the choice for me is purely cosmetic so I will have bias in my comment... I like the 19" Cyclones - perhaps a forum member would have a set for sale you can get inexpensively and shipped to Canada? The 20" TSportline Turbine clones look great too. Although if I had to buy a set of aftermarket rims it would likely be stock (Tesla) rims as I prefer the OEM look in general.
I have to say, I like pretty much everything I see on the wheel websites more than the stock base wheel I have! LOL... the trick will be narrowing it down to something I *really* like.

I'm pondering the idea of going to 20" for the appearance. I don't think I could bring myself to go all the way to 21 though - I'm getting too old to not include comfort in the decision process... :redface:

Another issue, besides the actual wheel design, will be the finish. My car is MC Red. I'm leaning towards a dark grey or maybe even black finish. I wonder what finish is most durable? I had some old alloys on a car I'm getting ready for collector status refinished - not cheap!

The cheap Core Racing rims I've used as sacrificial winter rims before this did NOT look very good after a couple of winters. How much of that is winter conditions, how much is cheap rim and how much is 'OEM is just better quality' I don't know. I just know I don't want to buy new wheels for summer and have them looking worse that the OEM's used for winter...
 
I went with the FOBO solution instead of paying almost $400 USD for the TPMS from tire rack....I am using them on my summers now as well and I love it. I love the app the tell you exact pressures, and the fact that they can be transferred over to another set simply by unscrewing from the valve stem.

Do you just put up with the TPMS error on the dash all winter? When my TPMS sensors kept going bad, I couldn't stand the throbbing yellow triangle and associated error message below my speedo constantly. I wish there was at least a way to acknowledge the message and make it go away.
 
I bought the TPMS set at the Mississaguga service centre and brought all this to the local tire shop. All is good.

Were the sensors cheaper from Tesla? I just bought them from Tire Rack and had them install them in the rims. Interestingly, the Tire Rack sensors have been rock solid, but I've had 6 of the Tesla ones replaced so far (1, then all 4, then 1 of the new 4).
 
Were the sensors cheaper from Tesla? I just bought them from Tire Rack and had them install them in the rims. Interestingly, the Tire Rack sensors have been rock solid, but I've had 6 of the Tesla ones replaced so far (1, then all 4, then 1 of the new 4).

I don't remember if they were cheaper. Kal Tire dude told me to get the original ones so I did ;-) Wow, 6 TPMS replaced! I've had no issues with any of mine so far (95K, 2 years).
 
@hingisfan @mknox, the TPMS are way cheaper from Tesla than anywhere else. You only pay $200ish + tax. The error from the screen will be very annoying for half of the year!

I just checked my Order History on Tire Rack. I payed $97.00 US each (installed) for my TPMS sensors. This was in March, 2014 when the exchange rate was much better :wink: