Miata as my winter car? Yuck.

Regarding width: any time I've ever gone narrower on snow tires I hated them. They're already squishy enough - narrow makes the ride even more wobbly. EQU's been preaching the same lately.

I have R3's on the truck and I like them. They not horrible at all in the dry. I haven't driven them in snow yet.

Should have locked the thread after Josh made that comment. :)

Wow overall you got a deal plus I think $13k is also a great deal for the buy out, I know you don't want to keep it but if you did purchase it how much could you really lose over the years ...

I couldn't agree more ... these Miata's are so small to begin with and considering people really can't drive in the snow I really think I would be very nervous driving this little car in the snow.

Sorry FC not trying to be a downer but even driving my A6 which is a much bigger car I am always worried some idiot is going to crash into me. The last storm a couple of weeks ago a guy behind me almost slide right into me.

Carvana says they'd pay $11.5 for it. $13k doesn't sound great. :dunno:

To be clear, the Miata will never be a winter car to get me through "bad weather." I just know that some of the worst conditions for a car's paint are wet roads (from melting snow) mixed with salt or sand. That is the kind of weather I'd use the Miata in. This happens fairly often. If the roads are bad, I'd take the LR4. If roads are cold but dry, I'd take the M3.

I definitely wouldn't go narrow on the tires then. That helps mostly for deeper snow.

20 years ago I remember driving my mother’s Miata in the snow on a set of Blizzaks. It wasn’t so bad, death-trap wise.

I think the miata would be fine in the snow. Either x-ice (we have on the 535i) or the blizzak ws (we have on the GTI) would do the job. The x-ice is a smoother riding tire, the blizzak may have more snow traction. The 5 struggles a bit more than the Golf, but it's not FWD and no real diff unlike the GTI that feels incredibly good on the white stuff. The 5 feels ok on the white stuff, just enough traction for fun but maybe not steep hills in deep stuff. The ride & drive of the michelins is superior to blizzaks off the white.

Do it, return the e-golf as that tech will change and it will eat away at you. The miata on winter tires will be pure fun and not as dangerous as it sounds. Actually far less people die on the roads on bad weather days than on good weather days. I'm sure there are more fender benders and accidents overall but not so many deadly ones.

I drove an e46 with dunlop snows for the cold, hard winters of 2004 and 2005. It was great. I assume a modern-day miata will do as well as an e46 from 15 years ago.

The Miata front end is pretty beat-up as it is (and the car has a few dents), so it's solidly in "I don't care" territory. Might as well let that car get the abuse from salty/sandy spray.

Oh, and I checked with one of the few local places that sell Hakka's and their price for the tires-only, installed on my own rims, is almost $900. So, no. I can get a set of Michelins on alloy wheels from Tirerack for that much. I might just do that. WS80's are another $80 more due to rebates.

Currently, because the previous owner was an AutoX junkie, I guess, the car is fitted with 225 tires (as opposed to factory-spec 205's). Going with WS80's in 195 may feel way to weird to me. The Michelins are 205 and a smidge more sporty.

[quote=equ;542415

I drove an e46 with dunlop snows for the cold, hard winters of 2004 and 2005. It was great. I assume a modern-day miata will do as well as an e46 from 15 years ago.[/QUOTE]

The E46 330i was very predictable/confident in snow with proper snow tires. We lived on a hill back then, and if I planned it well enough, I never had any problems getting around. The M3 with the LSD was even better, although less clearance.