Went to Erin Mills Mazda to ask about snowtire packages and got told:

"This the only package you can get, its $1699 + Taxes."

17" Rims in Dark Grey or Silver - I thought they were Motego, but tough to tell, i didn't look real hard - and Toyo Garit HT 225/50/R17 .....

I asked what other choices they had for tires, and he told me 'nothing else is gonna fit buddy. Buy em like this or don't drive the car in the winter'.

Now, Anthony at Avante had told me in the summer (I've been in calgary , and just got back this week, which why I'm looking so late) that they were offering packages with steel rims up to nice rims, and that I should use 225/55/R17 tires...

Getting a consistent, honest answer out of these guys. I know the dealer here was 'snowing' me *grin* but come on, do they think we're all idiots?

 

You need a dealer like mine... The service manager is actually a member of our RX-8 club. He takes damn good care of his customers.

You should totally order the package I just bought.

 

Don't listen to the fools at Erin Mills Mazda. Basically, you have two options: you can stick with the ridiculously thin-sidewalled 18" snows, or you can click down to the 16" tire sizes specified in the manual; the US RX-8s ship with 16s, or so I hear. The 16s will give you a little more sidewall, a lot less tire width, all of which give you better snow/ice performance and feel.

Plus, the cost less. Don't bother with anything more fancy than steelies with covers, unless you like tearing up alloys on salt.

 

This may be good advice for some US car owners who have standard suspension cars and brakes--16 inch wheels are fine.ALL Canadian cars come with sports suspension and BIG brakes--you should try fitting 16 inch wheels!!!!

 

We tried last year to fit 16" wheels on Canadian RX-8's, I even tried 16X8 factory RX-7 wheels. THEY ALL HIT THE FRONT CALIPERS. Every day you wait to buy your winter package the price will go up, especially if you buy quality tires (Blizzak, Michelin Ice). Our supplier have raised their prices twice so far and after today they will increase again. The averge cost of a decent 17' alloy wheel that will fit is about $150.00 (wholesale) give or take, and the average price of a quality tire is about $200 to $250 dollars(wholesale). If you do the math without install or balance you will see why prices are where they are. There is no doubt you can alway buy cheaper stuff, but rest assured you will get what you pay for. One big pothole or expansion joint and your money you saved on your cheap wheels is gone.

 

16" do not fit on Canadian RX8's....

 

Oops. My bad. Come to think of it, that would explain why I've been seeing RX-8s in Montreal with the stock alloys and snows. Crazy.

 

Still wrong - ideally, you should use 215/55-17 - narrower is better when it comes to winter tires, and a 215/55-17 is one size narrower, but the same diameter as the stock 18' tires. 225/55-17 is too tall - if you're stuck getting a 225, go 225/50-17.

Check out packages from http://www.tiretrends.com - they're out of Vancouver, and do internet orders to Canada and the US. I bought my 17" Konig Holes and 215/55-17 Garit HTs from them 2 years ago. I just looked, they don't show the 17" Holes for the RX-8 right now (they did a month ago), but they have 4 other alloy wheel choices, the Garit HT 215/55-17 or 3 other choices in that size in stock, and the price for the Garit HT and their least expensive alloy wheel was ~$1650.

Regards,
Gordon

 

The going price around Toronto is between $1600-$1900 depending on which brand of tire and weheel you buy. The correct 17" size is 225/50/17 as the 215 doesnt really have a sufficent load rating for the car. Most of your Mazda dealers have stock, but it is going fast and new stock will cost more!

 

IMO you can go a lot narrower before the load rating becomes a factor and narrower is way better. My old Audi 90 winter car is very similar in weight to my 8 and the "high traction" tire specification is 175 which I have run for years in winter and never had a problem, they are skinny like bicycle tires. My Legacy Outback has 215 winters down from 225 summers as per Subaru spec and it's 400 lbs heavier than the 8. 215's are still pretty fat though for winter tires. Neither of those cars has the nice even weight distribution of the 8, the Audi is like 90/10 ;-) I think the issue has more to do with the smallest 17" rims being too wide to safely accommodate a much narrower tire i.e. you don't want the tire distorted in a "V" shape (hence the dealers taking a conservative stance). To put some perspective on things, I had to replace all of my winters this year, 8 new Hakka RSi's which are real premium tires (in smaller sizes) mounted and balanced including taxes cost me about $1100. $1600-1900 that one shells out for the 8 almost buys a junker, my old Audi is probably not worth any more than that and it will never rot out. I have a couple boxes of spare parts from another car and pretty much fix everything myself so it's not very expensive to keep on the road. This way I feel no pain following behind salt trucks and have way better handling in bad weather than the 8 could ever give even with the best snow tire package in the world . . .

 

I agree, you are best off going to tiretrends.com.

Dealer offered me 3 tire packages, Yokos ($1360), Bridgestone ($1475), and Pirelli's ($1660) with steelies. Plus taxes and $89 install.

I paid $1388 (incl taxes and shipping) for 17" FRD silver rims and Hanook Ice Bears....much cheaper than the packages I was quoted from the dealers (who did not offer me the Hanooks). The tires come installed and balanced.

Bridgetones from tiretrends were $200 cheaper than the dealer quoted me with the silver rims instead of black steelies.