I’d like to get dedicated winter snow tires for my ‘14 F Sport. My preference is to get a set of Blizzaks but apparently they don’t have 19” to fit the stock wheel. If I get a tire/wheel combo, can I run an ‘18 set on my car?

Thanks!

 

I run 18s on my awd fsport in the winter with blizzack ws80 tires.

 

18's are not a problem.

Blizzak's are overrated, they perform very well brand new(which is why they get top marks in reviews) but the tread wear is horrendous and by the second season(<10000miles), their performance degrades noticeably.

Just my 2 Canadian cents..

 

Mine has Vredestein Wintrac XTreme S Xl and absolutely love them went to Danmark last week with pure RWD Ice roads, snow, rain and the car keeps handling very well. I run 18" on my 450h

 

ive had blizzak WS60's in the past, lasted 4 winters and if i ever slammed on the brakes hard youd slide but as soon as you release they dug into the ice and snow like grappling hooks.

blizzak WS80 - honestly felt squirrely on pavement but performed admirably as well

right now i have michelin x ice3's on my gs350 and on pavement they feel like a regular tire and sliding around corners quickly it feels like it has alot of grip, wont let me slide around like the blizzaks did. although i had my blizzaks on a different car. im very impressed with the michelins.

so it depends what kinda driving youre doing, if youre doing city driving on pavement and want more ice traction, then get michelins. if youre doing more driving in deep snow, blizzaks. just make sure to get the proper speed rating (so the sidewalls stay strong) and you cant go wrong with either tire to be honest. nokians are supposed to be great but ive never tried them.

 

FWIW unless I typed the wrong thing in, Nokian does not make a tire that will fit a GS AWD F-sport, unless you go off spec a little bit and go for a larger tire.

It's a shame because they make a killer snow tire. I had a set of WRGV2s on my old Camry and those things would not let go in snow/slush/etc. The only downsides to their product is it is generally noisy as hell, not a tire I would want to leave on the car outside of winter for any length of time, on dry roads it becomes
really noticeable at speed. I mean all snow tires are noisy, but the Nokians I've had on my Buick and Camry always made a racket.

-Mike

 

I also have, and love, the Michelin X-Ice's. We had a bad storm last week (1/4" of freezing rain followed by 5" of snow) and had no trouble getting around. I got them in the stock 19" size to put on the OEM F-Sport wheels. It gave me an excuse to get new, lighter, aftermarket wheels.Halfway into their 2nd season and show very little wear. Couldn't be happier.