I've been using snows on steelies and summers on nice rims and swapping on my cars in Ottawa for he last 20 years and have found a huge difference driving here in winter.
My HHR comes with all-season. Is anyone running the all-seasons in Ottawa? Will I get away with it?
Is there a market for these all-seasons if I replace them with summers while they're new? and put on some snows on steelies...
How about snows? You folks that are using them? Who do you like?

Thanks, Ottawa, see you out there... I'll be in a Silver Panel

PS... Great place, just popped in googling hhr stuff and found out about the eco-rebate, the 2K extra crap cdn vehicles need; both making me feel somewhat better about my purchase in cdn dollars, thank you.

 

to the site Mikey!!!

 

Hi Mikey, welcome...

I'm commuting to/from Ottawa daily and currently own 3 sets of wheels for my HHR:

1) The LS OEM 16" steel with the OEM tires (about 5K on the set)
2) A set of 17" alloys with summer performance
3) A set of 15" (from a Saturn) with 195/65 winter tires

I haven't tried the OEM in the snow and frankly, I don't want to. I'm like you and feel that the added grip from snow tires is worth the expense. The OEM set is really an extra for me at this point, and I may try to sell it down the road, although I don't expect to get much for it. The reason that I kept them around so far was in case of an accident or an early major problem with the car, I could return/sell it with OEMs on it.

My combination of smaller wheels and narrow tires for winter really works well for me right now, and I have the Goodyear Nordics from CT.

Member Black Rose here has used his OEM Firestone for a winter or two already, so I'm sure that he'll chime in here any minute.

Yves

 

Perhaps an obvious question to most but I'm over 50 and can't keep up any more... Will my Toyota rims fit on the HHR ?

 

Highly unlikely. Are they 5 x 110 ? I had steel rims from a Malibu that I couldn't use (5 x 115), and that was from the same company...

As far as I know, only the Saturn L series, Cobalt SS and a couple of other GM models (Equinox and maybe the G6, but I'm not 100% sure) fit. If you go aftermarket, it's not a common size, but they're not hard to find. Offset has to be close to +40mm.

Yves

 

WELCOME

I am using the OEM all seasons here in the Rocky Mountians snow belt and so far so good, mostly short local trips though.

 

Mikey, you'll do OK on the OEM all-seasons for the first winter.

I'm on my second winter with the OEM all-seasons (almost 32,000 kms on them now) and they are OK, but not great.
I seem to be sliding around a lot more this winter than last, and actually got stuck this winter as well.

I wanted to get winter tires and steelies, but didn't have the $$$ to buy them.

 

Thanks, Rose... thanks to you and that fella in the mountains, I figure the stock all-seasons should get me to spring and then through the summer alright. Save some money (HA!) for Blizzacks and steelies next fall. Then get some summers on the alloys for the subsequent summer. When the lease is up, I'll give them back their all-seasons.

 

just picked up 16" blizzaks on steelies from tirerack.com for $500, on rims and balanced.
Welcome to Ottawa, most days the all seasons are fine, but that one day will come when you white knuckle and wish you had 'em ...

 

It's the winter slush and freezing rain capital of Canada here in Windsor, Ont. I've been using the Firestone OEM's for 2 winters now and no problem. (38,000 kms)

Clare