Help for Tires needed! - brand new owner

[Rivercrab]

Hey Homies,

I just got my Taycan GTS delivered and noticed some noise and glitches. Turns out, it came with summer performance tires in frozen chicago iceland.

I’m not a hardcore track racer and have always used all-season tires on my other cars. Now, with the crazy Chicago winter, I need to swap to something more practical. I’ve got two options in mind and need some advice:

Option A: Replace the summer tires permanently with all-season tires

• Question: What do people typically do with their summer tires after replacing them? Are there recommended places to trade or sell them?

Option B: Get a set of winter tires and rotate seasonally

• Question 1: What are the main advantages of using different tires compared to all-seasons? Do you feel the value?
• Question 2: Where do you store your extra set of tires during the off-season?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions!

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[SergeyIndy]

I have dedicated winter and summer sets for SUVs and my dealer swaps them seasonally and offers storage that has been free for many years, but now they charge $100 per set to store. I would have done this for the Taycan but decided not to and went for All Seasons from factory and that set is lasting 15k miles for the fronts and 20k miles for rears. I would certainly not be driving on a summer set in Chicago in the winter.

The value of the summer set is that it offers better grip and should have less noise than all seasons, but it wears out much sooner.

My recommendation would be to get a winter set and ask dealer to swap and store them for you. My dealer would match the price that Suncoast would sell a wheel set.

A set means a dedicated wheel and tire combo. Summer would be a 21-inch wheel with summer tires and Winter would be 20-inch wheels with winter tires.

 

[Rivercrab]

I have dedicated winter and summer sets for SUVs and my dealer swaps them seasonally and offers storage that has been free for many years, but now they charge $100 per set to store. I would have done this for the Taycan but decided not to and went for All Seasons from factory and that set is lasting 15k miles for the fronts and 20k miles for rears. I would certainly not be driving on a summer set in Chicago in the winter.

The value of the summer set is that it offers better grip and should have less noise than all seasons, but it wears out much sooner.

My recommendation would be to get a winter set and ask dealer to swap and store them for you. My dealer would match the price that Suncoast would sell a wheel set.

A set means a dedicated wheel and tire combo. Summer would be a 21-inch wheel with summer tires and Winter would be 20-inch wheels with winter tires.

Dealer sort of saying swap of tires costs 400 plus tax each time, does it sound reasonable?

 

[jwarner]

Dealer sort of saying swap of tires costs 400 plus tax each time, does it sound reasonable?

summer tires in Chicago winter sounds dangerous, I am surprised you ordered the car with summers without having a set of winter tires and wheels ready. All seasons are a compromise but will be safe in the winter.
My dealer charges $100 for the swap and tpms reset, plus $400 per year for storage.A dealer I used previously charged about the same.
I am surprised at a dealer who didn't warn you about all of this.

 

[jwarner]

summer tires in Chicago winter sounds dangerous, I am surprised you ordered the car with summers without having a set of winter tires and wheels ready. All seasons are a compromise but will be safe in the winter.
My dealer charges $100 for the swap and tpms reset, plus $400 per year for storage.A dealer I used previously charged about the same.
I am surprised at a dealer who didn't warn you about all of this.

to clarify, by "the swap" I mean swapping winter set of tires and wheels (20") for the summer set of tires and wheels (21").

 

[Rivercrab]

summer tires in Chicago winter sounds dangerous, I am surprised you ordered the car with summers without having a set of winter tires and wheels ready. All seasons are a compromise but will be safe in the winter.
My dealer charges $100 for the swap and tpms reset, plus $400 per year for storage.A dealer I used previously charged about the same.
I am surprised at a dealer who didn't warn you about all of this.

It's a used one from a Jeep dealer from FL, they don't seem to have any knowledge about this car like at all.

 

[SergeyIndy]

Dealer sort of saying swap of tires costs 400 plus tax each time, does it sound reasonable?

I am not sure if tires on the same wheel set swap is a good idea. My suggestion was to get a dedicated winter wheel and tire set and swap it for $100 each time.

 

[kmcdonal]

Winter tires will give you way more confidence in the snow. If you can, get winter tires and swap them. Summer tires are going to be treacherous in Chicago during the winter.

I have had two sets of wheels on some cars, but these days I just go with one set of wheels and two sets of tires. Pros and cons of having one set of wheels versus two.

 

[whitex]

Definitely don't drive on summer tires in the winter. Besides being awful on snow and ice, summer tires start turning into "glass" at about 45F, you start losing traction with every degree down. This means your stopping distances and handling will be abysmal - we're talking many extra car lengths of stopping distance for summer tires from 50mph on snow/ice in freezing temps. Below 32F summer tire compound can physically start cracking, meaning become unsafe to drive afterwards at at temperature. As a matter of fact, some summer tires say to never store them below 32F as even storage at that temperature can weaken or damage them.

For anywhere where it snows regularly, I would suggest two sets of tires - winter and summer. If you must compromise on only one set, go with all climate tires such as Michelin CrossClimate2's. The CrossClimate2's are actually snow peak rated, unlike usual all-season tires (which are known as 3-season tires, all but winter).

Tires give you traction, so better acceleration, better handling, shorter stopping distance. The latter two affect your safety. If you're planning on keeping the car for while, you will go through more than one set of tires anyways, so if getting both winter and summer sets, you are wearing them approximately half as fast. This means your tire costs is no different when having one set or two sets. There is the up-front cost of rims, but at least you are always on more optimal tires. If you take care of rims, you can get some money for used ones afterwards, or even buy used ones for the winter tires from the get-go. Getting a dedicated set of wheels for the winter tires allows you have different size (e.g. summer 21", winter 20") but also cheaper swap (some tire shops will do it for free if you buy your tires there - no different than a tire rotation). Personally I just swap them myself, quicker and done to my satisfaction (I do my car and my wife's car together). I use the Porsche NF0 rated Goodyear UltraGrip for winter tires for my Taycan.

 

[whitex]

Option B: Get a set of winter tires and rotate seasonally

That would be the option I would recommend (see previous post).

Question 1: What are the main advantages of using different tires compared to all-seasons? Do you feel the value?

This might help answer:
https://www.rallysubaruedmonton.com/winter-tires-2024/

Question 2: Where do you store your extra set of tires during the off-season?

In my garage, but different places offer storage services (dealers, tire stores, Costco in some places, public storage units).

 

[KLHubb]

I have Cross Climate II's on my Cayenne here in Upstate New York, and I love them.
They are great in all sorts of temps/weather, and are quiet and very compliant with the suspension...like having a great pair of running shoes.

 

[Ken D]

Dealer sort of saying swap of tires costs 400 plus tax each time, does it sound reasonable?

first, get a set of dedicated wheels for your extra tires so you’re not changing tires and rebalancing each season. Then you can just have your local corner garage quickly swap the wheels out. My local guy charges me $60. Takes his tech all of 5 minutes With the air gun.

 

[KLHubb]

....or if you are handy, do it yourself...it's not hard....just be sure to torque correctly

 

[SergeyIndy]

....or if you are handy, do it yourself...it's not hard....just be sure to torque correctly

You have to be careful if you have PSCBs as you need to screw in a pin before removing the wheels to slide off safely without damaging the discs. I would not trust a corner shop to do it if they are not aware of the procedure. PCCBs require 2 pins to be screwed in before removing the wheels. Manual states exactly how to do it. I did it myself once to repair the wheel and it is not hard to do with the correct jack and torque wrench but not worth the time if it can be done by the dealer for $100.

 

[TreyWaters]

What I did on my last car (2018 BMW M550) was have a dedicated set of wheels with A/S tires and a set with summer. I'd just keep them in my garage and swap myself early winter and early spring. That said, it did get a little tedious after a few years, so I ended up just leaving the A/S tires on for the last two years or so. On the plus side, I pretty much got back the money I spent on the spare set selling them.
Now, to say that summer tires turn to glass at 45F....wtf? I hope that was hyperbole. I drove on my summer tires this afternoon at 30F, and they didn't shatter. Sure, I'd bet my grip is nowhere near where it should be. And I would NOT drive in ANY wintery precip. I'm just waiting for these to either shred in the cold weather or I use them up this summer before replacing with a set of A/S.
For reference, I'm in central NC, so generally fairly mild winters here.

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