I have Pirelli 20" summer tires and ceramic brakes on my ptt with 5.5K miles and driven in washington dc area. As winter will be upon us in November, should I invest in:

a) winter tires OR
b) get the Michelin A/S+ all season and keep the original summer tires in storage for the duration.

Also, would it make monetary sense to invest in a new set of winter wheels, besides one of the 2 options? I am sure some of you have tossed the idea around and have written about it. Was seeking some advise and clarity.

Many thanks
Nick

 

We live out in Western Loudoun, so we see significant snowfall each year. Because we have other cars with AWD/4WD and winter tires, I don't plan on running anything beyond the optional A/S Pirellis that came on the PSeH this winter. They should do a marginal job on those days when the wife takes the wrong car.

We always have extra wheel/tires for the winter, rather than swapping just the tires. If you have the storage space, it's infinitely easier to swap rather than trying to mess around with mounting tires. IMO

Find a set of suitable take offs on eBay. Get them powdercoated to some bad-*** color.

Nokian is my winter tire of choice. I don't know if they offer anything in the WRG3 (A/S) or Hakka R (winter/snow) in the Panamera sizes, though.

$0.02

 

I have used summers for summer and winters for winter. Figured that these cars deserve the best tires for the conditions we drive in. No compromises for over $100K cars! While the all seasons are probably good, there are countless threads/discussions/real world tests that favor the 2 season tire method. Regarding swapping with a winter set, I've done both... A dedicated winter setup is nice since you can just swap in your own garage, etc. when you want. Did this for a few years with my M5s but when you eventually change cars, your left with dealing/selling your extra set. It's ok but can be a PITA. Currently I have a set of Dunlop SP winter sport 3Ds 265/35/20s tires that I used on my M5 which will fit (so I'm told) on my turbo IIs. This time around I'll just use OEM wheels w/Dunlops in Nov. to avoid tying up cash in a winter setup (wheels/TPMS/tires can be expensive and just simply not sure it's worth it). Just trying to simplify this time around. It's all preference though.

 

If you're going to swap tires seasonally, get proper snow tires. All-seasons only really make sense if you plan on using them year round.

Further, most "all season" tires are really 3-season, and not very good in snow. Lots better than slick summer tires, but still only marginal in snow. A few all-season tires are better optimized for snow, but you really need to research the particular tire.

An extra set of rims won't save you money, but it will save you considerable time. I've had a tire swap take over an hour, even when no one else was ahead of me. Getting low-profile high performance tires on and off is a royal pain, at least according to the tire installers I've talked to. Switching wheels is nearly trivial.

I don't have my Panamera yet, but I bought a set of Panamera S rims from eBay for $600 shipped. They're in really nice shape, you'd never know they were used from the visible surfaces.

I kind of wanted a set of black-and-silver rims, but I found it difficult to find rims that fit. The Panamera seems to have relatively unusual offsets. I found some in 20" that I liked, I don't want 20" rims for snow tires. That means wider, lower profile tires, which is going to make iffy snow traction worse.

 

Thank you all. From what I can gather it seems a new set of wheels and winter tires is what I should be shooting for.

 

"all-season" is marketed to the south and west coast.... all season in areas of the country with NO snow! I would rock 2 sets of wheels. your nice ones with summer/all-season, then another set for winter rubber. Salt, road debris, damage, etc... is not cool with an expensive set of wheels. It's nice to have a set of wheels that if damaged you're not upset about.

 

Use the factory ones for winter set. Then save up get a nice set hre etc to run during the summer months

 

possibly. However the factory ones are beautiful and only got under 6k. Will look into the hre definitely as an option. Thanks for the idea Ben.

 

i am at toronto, i have a set of 19in winter tires, pretty good in snow

 

Chen, did you have to make any modifications to put the 19inch tires on a car that has 20inch wheels and tires for the summer? Thanks for your advise.

 

Nick, all you need are the specs for the wheels/tires you have now and then you can easily determine whether there's a chance another set will fit, even in a larger or smaller diameter.

I like this calculator because it provides a visual comparison of what each of the different specs mean and do to a wheel/tire combo. It explains what the offset PLUS the wheel width will do to the suspension and body clearances.

http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

You're looking at primarily at diameter and offset. You must also consider brake clearance which can be unique to a specific set of wheels. Ie, one set of 19" might clear your calipers, while another won't.

 

Nick, you can't use the 19s as you have PCCB. Only those with steel brakes can use 19s for their winter set.

 

used 20 inch OEM rims with Bridgestone snows last winter in New England. Car much more stable vs all season

 

I'm in Northern Virginia too. I used to do the winter/summer swap with an M3 years ago. After many years, I got lazy and got a set of all seasons. They were fine for the roads here, despite being a RWD car.

Now, with the Panamera GTS as my DD, I opted to go for all seasons too. In this area, with all-wheel drive and the relatively low amounts of snow we get, you don't have to get winter/summer sets.

The modern high performance all season tires are really pretty good if you are driving sanely on public roads---it would be hard to take them to the limit and be sane.

 

Very helpful. That is what I am considering now. Get the Michelin A/S+ for dc weather. If it snows, take the kids car