new tires?

the firestone firehawk gta's that came with my car are getting pretty low, and i think i'd like to get a new set of tires before the snow starts falling.

i'm having a hard time deciding what though. i stopped at a couple local tire places and was completely blown away, i had no idea choosing some freaking tires could be so complicated! :eek7:

i've got the base stealth, so i'm not really set up for super performance anyway, but i'd like to get something with a decent speed rating and good performance, but i'd also like something that handles decent in the snow (not asking for much am i?). (i'm in iowa btw)
i'd probably put performance a bit over snow grip, because i honestly don't foresee myself having much of a snow problem anyway, after driving an 86 plymouth gran fury around for a couple years before my stealth, i think i can handle just about anything :icon16:

the rims are aftermarket i believe, as they don't resemble any i've seen in other pictures, and the tire size is 205/65r15. i'm almost wondering if i should change rims to a more common size so i could get a better selection?

Check out www.tirerack.com, they have the best prices I've ever seen anywhere. I saved $70 per tire on my vr4. They also have a nice website that helps alot in choosing tires by categories, and they give customer ratings as well. Overall a great site IMO.

wow, what a great site! :eek:

it looks like these (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ContiExtremeContact&partnum=065VR5CEC&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes) tires would suit the bill well, but i'm almost wondering if i should get something that handles snow a little better, as iowa can get quite a load of snow from time to time...

They look a hell of alot better suited for snow than what I got on my vr4. They are all-season tires, so you should be good with those. Also remember that those ratings are based on consumers...not independent testing...so take them with a grain of salt.

Oh yeah, one question...you really have 15" wheels on your stealth? Don't they look quite small on it?

they look enormously small! :eek:

there is about a 3inch gap between the tire and the well, and it almost looks silly. i considered going to larger tires, but am concerned it would throw things off (maybe not?), and i also considered lowering it, but it's quite low as it is, and would be quite a bit of money to do :(

I'm not positive, but I would think you could toss 17s on it without any negative effects.

I bought Yokohama Avid's for my GT. I've been real happy with them, but not worth a hoot in the snow. It might just be the car and not so much the tires but I can't say for sure because it never snowed here before I got new tires.

sorry i didn't respond earlier, i went out of town for a while then completely forgot :eek:

17s would be nice, but i'm still not sure about the gear ratios and such...
15-17 is only two inches, but it does seem like a fairly large difference...