Winter Tire Opinion
 

I like driving my 05’ up until the cusp on winter , when they start to put down the salt. Does anyone know of a brand of inexpensive winter tire I can use on my factory rims?

Michelin makes good all-season tires but they are not inexpensive

Inexpensive? Safety should come before price in this particular instance. I'd take a hard look at Nokian Hakkapeliitta for winter tires.

I’ve taken a look, and I can’t say that I’ll go with those. But thank you for the recommendation.

I'd suggest the Michelins too. Two things you should never cheap out on for any car are tires and brakes.

OP where do you live? I live where there is usually snow 7 months of the year. There's a foot on the ground now. My experience is any snow tire is better than any all season now matter how good on snow and ice. All seasons are a compromise in snow and winter tires on all four corners is the answer. You don't have to spend a lot. Do a search on line. I would start by looking at the large tire seller sites to get an idea of the makes and models in the size you're looking for. You don't have to get stock size. You can downsize width (actually better in snow) and up size diameter. Look again on line for sizes that are optional for the stock size. Dunlop makes excellent winter tires and Goodyears are good also. You can trust me. I've lived in snowy cold Alberta Canada for 72 years and driven on the white crap for 57 years.

Im not too familiar with how the tire world works, but could they stretch a smaller tire over my rear rims? And how small of a tire could I go, and could you elaborate on how the bigger diameter compensates for the width?

if I could use a smaller mm tire then it would really open up my selection.

edit: I should add I live a little south west of Cleveland, I don’t intend to drive in deep snow, a 1-2 inches at most

I opted for the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season run flat tires. I don't track or race my Vette, however, they perform nicely in colder, wet weather. Living in upstate NY, my Vette hardly ever goes out after November because of road salts, sand and snow and ice.

I'm not saying to get a smaller rim size. I suggest stock size but there are optional sizes that will work on your rims and for your car if you can't find a good selection in stock size.
You can usually go down a size in tread width but make sure it will work on your car.
for info example 245 45 r 18 means
245 mm tread width , 45 aspect ratio ( ratio of tread width to sidewall height) and 18" inside diameter (rim size).
I suggest with you're posts that you save yourself a lot of pain and go to e reputable tire shop. An actual good tire shop not a big box department or grocery store.

Generally you want to go to a narrower, taller tire for a winter tire. You can find a 235/40R18 front and 275/35R19 rear snow tire set such as the Vredestein Wintrac Pro for under $1K.

As an example, if I want a narrow, taller tire, wouldn’t a 275/40R19 work better then the stock 285/35R19 ?

I'm not following the conversation. The OP said until they put down salt. That should preclude driving in snow.

Although snow is a consideration for winter tires, unless you live somewhere where it snows all the time, temperature is more of a question. At present, the the chemistry to make a tire that is optimum across the entire temperature range encountered by cars does not exist.

Summer only tires start to go away when the temps drop below about 60 deg F.

True winter/snow tires (with the mountain/snowflake symbol) get greasy when the temperature gets up to 50 deg F.

All season tires are functional but sub optimal pretty much all the time.

If you are going to stop driving your Vette when salt season starts, all season tires are serviceable. Keep it under .7 g.

If you live near Cleveland start calling some of the better tire shops there and ask them the questions. Cleveland is a fairly large city and you can surely find good tre shops there. You can also go on line to the the big tire sites, put in your car info, fill in the blanks and you'll see what's available. You wanted suggestions and that's mine I'm outa here.

That certainly holds true, but then you run into trying to keep the traction control system happy with the proportion between front and rear tire diameters. Going to a 235/45R18 front and 275/40R19 rear yields a diamater difference of over 1.5 inches which conjecture says can cause some anomolies.

The 235/40R18 & 275/35R19 combination yields a 3/10ths of an inch difference from the stock diameters. Since you're not driving in deep snow, the slight loss of ground clearance shouldn't be noticable. Going with a winter compound tire definitely helps once the temperatures get below ~40 degrees (F).

Unless you opt for non-run flats there are no inexpensive options unfortunately.

Hello,

In the cheaper line you can get in C6 stock size, Pirelli Sottozero which I had on my vette for 10 years. Prior to that I had AvonTech M&S for cold weather.

Michelin has a cheaper brand that does a very good job (even better than PAlpin5), will find the type tomorrow.

Dunlop and Continental also make cold weather tires. You can go the down the Asian route if you want too, not to knowledgeable there.

Personally, I have been using Michelin Pilot Alpin recently but they don't fall in the cheaper brand category.

I would rate AvonTech < Pitelli Sottozero < Michelin PA4 from my experience in cold and snow.

The new German tires are apparently very good/better than Pilot Alpin, I am looking into those for this winter.