16 in or 17 wheels for my TDI which are better

Hey Folks wondering if the board can help me with wheels. MY 11 JSW will be out of warranty tomorrow ( 3 years 36,000 mile) after only 9 months ! Since I went from a Volvo XC wagon I figured I would get snows for the car so I bought a nice set of 17 in wheels from a fellow TDI member and plan on getting snow tires on those but since we did not get any snow after I bought them, they are still sitting in my basement. My car came with 16 wheels and the crappy OEM tires now have 36 k on them, so I was thinking on my 400 mile drive today, should I try to grab a end of season deal on snow tires and would it make more sense to put snows on the 16 or 17? I drive about 4000 a month and do not know if I am better with the smaller wheels for 8 months a year, I assume they will get me slightly better mileage than the 17 or should I have the 16 for snows and the 17 for the 8 months of non winter driving. The 17's Portos and the 16 are Bios if it makes a difference. Thanks

The 16's will be better for snows. When it gets cold and the rubber gets hard, you have more cushion with 16" 55-profile than with the 17" 45-profile. 16's will also be narrower, which is better in the snow. Wider tires float more in the snow.

Looks-wise, I don't like the Biolines, and would reserve them for winter duty for that reason alone. I like the Portos better. The 17's would be the better choice for a summer tire handling-wise.

I have 17" Goals on my JSW, and got 16" TireRack aluminum rims and snow tires. I do see the mileage actually go UP a couple of mpg when I mount them in the fall, and DOWN a couple mpg in the spring when I go back to the larger 17" rims. But that soon is remedied when the temperatures warm up and the mileage improves. Normally snow tires have a bit more rolling resistance and you see mileage go down with them, but the lower rotational inertia of the smaller 16" rim improves the mpg's more than the snow tires drop them.

^ yup
put SNOWs on 16's
and make 17's your SUMMERs

RomanL said:

^ yup, put SNOWs on 16's and make 17's your SUMMERs

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That's what I did too and couldn't be happier. I chose the lightest "elegant" wheel for summer driving, thereby improving the suspended/unsuspended weight ratio for a truly superb handling performance.

I'm in the same boat - car came stock with 16" and I bought a nice set of aftermarket 17" 5 spoke with Dunlop 3D winters on them. As soon as either the stock all season's or winter tires wear out, I'll swap them around so I have the 17's for my summer tires. I like the clean 5 spoke look much better.

Rob_MacCara said:

I'm in the same boat - car came stock with 16" and I bought a nice set of aftermarket 17" 5 spoke with Dunlop 3D winters on them. As soon as either the stock all season's or winter tires wear out, I'll swap them around so I have the 17's for my summer tires. I like the clean 5 spoke look much better.

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In my case the dealer credited the OEM 4 seasons in full and mounted the Dunlop WSP 3D that I brought him on the stock 16" wheels. He couldn't match the price that I got from you-know-who online so he played fair.

You need to know that winter tires are mandatory in QC and I would have risked a fine if I had driven it out of the lot like this (I picked it up on Jan 31).

There was simply no way for him to come even close to the deal I got. A few months later I bought a full set of pre-mounted 17" summer wheels from the same source and switched them myself in the driveway.

PS: I would have gone for 15 inchers winter boots but the GTI front brake calipers wouldn't let me do it. Bummer, as I still have 4 Michelin X-ice II in perfect condition in the shed from the Mazda6.

The 17" tire/rims that I bought were off Kijiji and not from a dealer. Got a deal too good to pass up. I figure I've got one more full winter on the Dunlops, then I'll put some nice summer tires on the 17's, and then winters on the 16's.
I wish that winter tires were the law here during snow season after getting stuck behind idiots spinning their tires trying to go up hills with bald all seasons on...

19"s for summer, 19"s for winter, call in sick on the days the snow is too deep

^^ you must call in sick quite often?

16 - good handling, good 0-60, good ride quality, great price (tires), good weight, decent looks

17 - better handling, worse 0-60, worse ride quality, more expensive tires, heavier, better looks

RomanL said:

^^ you must call in sick quite often?

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Actually, out of the 5 or so snows we got this season, 2 we got called off because there was over 2 feet dropped in a 12 hour period, and the other 3 I had no issues getting to work on the DWSs. One of those snows was a solid 6 inches of snow that I plowed the road myself because everyone was doing 10 miles an hour in the left lane and no one was in the right lane These tires have been amazing. Once they start getting up there in miles I might start having issues, but then again the same problem would be encountered in a snow tire that is 3-4 years old. The cool thing about the DWS is that it has a big S in the treads, once that is gone they are supposed to no longer be useful in the snow. I'll just end up keeping them for summer tires and buy a new set for the winter and start playing the switcheroo game. I just got tired of going from an awesome set of wheels during the warm months to an ugly set of wheels during the snow season.

Example of one of the snow storms I had to drive to work in

http://i.imgur.com/3LS97l.jpg

veedubfreak said:

Actually, out of the 5 or so snows we got this season, 2 we got called off because there was over 2 feet dropped in a 12 hour period,
Example of one of the snow storms I had to drive to work in

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was one of those around Dec 22nd i love CO / Denver/ Frisco, and want to move there soon.
i was there . on my 15's General Altimax Arctic's. dropped g/f at DIA and back up to the mountains i went...

Stick with the 17" and Continental DWS - had these tires on my 400hp Audi S4, you can't get a better all round tire imho

Interesting that VW puts 17" wheels on the premium package TDIs and they are rated for the same mileage... do people who buy the premium setup complain that their mileage is worse because of the wider 225/45R17H 17" all-season tires?

Dezender said:

Interesting that VW puts 17" wheels on the premium package TDIs and they are rated for the same mileage... do people who buy the premium setup complain that their mileage is worse because of the wider 225/45R17H 17" all-season tires?

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Seeing as the cars are rated for 42mpg on the highway and you easily get over 50mpg, the people with the premium package don't complain about their mileage. I used to get between 50 and 54mpg on my way home from work with 17" portos in my old Golf. Why would I complain about a 8 to 12 mpg increase from EPA ratings?

Our car came with 17" Portos with the Conti all seasons. We bought in late November, and the dealer was having a "special" on snow tires & wheel sets, so we negotiated a set of Dunlop Wintersport 3D on 16" Biolines as part of the purchase of the car.

I like the look of the Portos better, but the Biolines are good for winter as the openings are wider and the wheels are easier to clean. My usual swap routine puts the snows on before the first big storm or long distance drive over the passes (I usually wait until the last minute as it takes me all of 20 minutes to swap the wheels myself). The Portos get washed before getting bagged and stored. In the spring, I'll wait until we get a good weekend then wash the car from tip to tail, tire to roof rack, then pull each wheel, wash it, the wheel well, suspension and undercarriage and put on the clean Porto.

I'm happy with the Contis. They seem like they've held up satisfactorily, and they handle fine for the driving I usually do. No issues in the wet. I'm also happy with the Dunlop Wintersports. No issues with traction or tracking in the snow. I've had the car in pretty deep snow conditions on the highway (where the snow was slapping the bottom of the car), and it seemed to do just fine. I'm really not worried about driving in deep snow, its more icy conditions and unexpected black ice that can get you. So far I've been pleased with the JSW. Between the decent tires, the traction control and the ABS, the car handles pretty well. I'm coming from a rwd volvo with none of the fancy traction stuff, so I'm a fairly conservative ice driver anyway. Its rare that the traction control light comes on when I'm driving, and when it does, I know its coming on because I'm driving like an ass trying to get it to come on...

seth1065 said:

Hey Folks wondering if the board can help me with wheels. MY 11 JSW will be out of warranty tomorrow ( 3 years 36,000 mile) after only 9 months ! Since I went from a Volvo XC wagon I figured I would get snows for the car so I bought a nice set of 17 in wheels from a fellow TDI member and plan on getting snow tires on those but since we did not get any snow after I bought them, they are still sitting in my basement. My car came with 16 wheels and the crappy OEM tires now have 36 k on them, so I was thinking on my 400 mile drive today, should I try to grab a end of season deal on snow tires and would it make more sense to put snows on the 16 or 17? I drive about 4000 a month and do not know if I am better with the smaller wheels for 8 months a year, I assume they will get me slightly better mileage than the 17 or should I have the 16 for snows and the 17 for the 8 months of non winter driving. The 17's Portos and the 16 are Bios if it makes a difference. Thanks

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The OEM tires are not bad, it is just common propaganda people bash them. I had 16" Hankooks Optimo H725A's with almost 50K on them when I took them off, and they were fine when I removed them for (with at least another 15K-20K left on them). I sold all four of them on Craigslist for $80. I now have 17" Michelin Primacy MXM4's... which I got mail order, discount at $170 each to the door. Local stores wanted $220 each. They are great... worth the price? I suppose, but there are other great tires/brands for $120 or even $100 available, especially in the 16" size. CLEARLY the ride is a little more abrupt with 17" rim/low profile tires, when I hit a buckled roadway or pothole... I have higher chance of getting rim rash with the 17" than the 16".

Yes mileage went down from 16" to 17", but not as drastically as some report. For one, when going from worn tires (lighter, smaller Dia.) to new tires, with meaty tire tread, which makes them heavier and Dia. larger, it causes the Odometer to read a little lower... All this will cause loss in MPH actual (weight) and indicated MPG (due to OD error); for me I guess about 1%-2% less MPG.

Of course I had to buy new rims... On eBay I bought some nice Anthracite VW "Goal" (5 spoke) rims for $170 each. Nothing wrong with the stock rims. If I had to do it over again, I might have just stuck with stock 16" rims and got some lower price brand tires.... (many are close to Michelin). I can't say my Michelin's handle better on the dry. The only sporty thing I do is take a 270 degree climbing freeway on-ramp with slight bank and posted speed limit of 35 at 55 mph...Yipeeeee.... The OEM and Michelin were both were fine dry on this turn. Wet the Michelin's should be better, way better, than worn tires of any brand tire. I have about 5K on the new tires and little wet experience with them. When people say OEM X brand tire is garbage... they never say why... Very few people drive at the edge of traction. Other things like ride comfort or how loud they are at highway speeds are more practical metrics... again the worn Hankooks I had were fine.

So to recap 17" tires are more expensive than 16" tires; 17" will lose a little MPG and give harder ride with greater chance of rim damage. Benefit? Looks, which is subjective. So I paid about $1360 (with free mount ballance). If I went out and got some good 16" tires and mounted them on the stock rims I would have paid say $500-$600. Worth it.... not really, but then my new rims look cool... The "Bio-Line" VW stock 16" rims look cool to...

Hey all,
I wanted to get some options on my winter setup on my girl friends 2010 Golf TDI. I just put on Nokian Hakka R's mounted on 15inch steel wheels. She had 17inch wheels on prior with some decent tires. The difference in the way the car handles/feels now is very different. I almost feel that it's UN safe with how squishy it feels in turns or hard stops. I have always used snow tires on my 03 Jetta Wagon TDI and never felt such a difference. I have Blizacks on my 03. I always run 15inch wheels and my suspension is not lowered. I’m thinking that since her car has stiffer suspension is why it feels this way? I thought the Hakka R’s were going to be great tires but im not sure what’s the problem

Vwman2, you could just bring the pressure up a bit. I used 42psi only gold and it kept it very stable. Most likely the car is safe it just feels squishy because you got used to the 17".