I'm looking for advice, I'd like to buy a 2006-2008 Civic Si or EX but I'm worried how they handle snowy roads. Can anyone out there give me the scoop? I live in Ohio so sometimes we get a decent amount of snow so I just want to know before I buy a new car and I hate winter driving! Anyway, thanks for any advice you can give!

 

Get a set of steelies for cheap, and slap snow tires on them. No worries.

They'll handle just fine on the stock rubber, but where I'm from (Michigan) snow tires are a necessity on any FWD

 

Thanks Fourty04! I hate to sound like a compete idiot, but what are "steelies"? (Sorry!) Thanks for your help!

 

No problem, we were all new to this stuff at some point.


Steelies are just the stock wheels that Honda puts on a lot of their base model cars. They're black steel, usually covered by a plastic hub cap.

 

Thanks (again!) so my next question is, are the 17" tires good on snow? Or should I get smaller tires? Sorry I'm so clueless when it comes to this stuff! [&:]

 

Good is relative.If the snow is really bad, I'd drive a beater 4x4 on Trxus MTs. You don'tlose traction much unless you drive crazy and you don't really worryabout any yahoos plowing into your nice car.

Barring that...For most snow you'd want the narrowest tire tread with thesame overall tire diameteras stock, on the smallest rimdiameter that will fit over your brakes. A good guideline is usually the stock size for the base model, as long as the brakes clear on the model you haveand the weight capacity of the tire is enough. This often leaves enough room for snowchains in the wheelwells too.

One of the best winter treads for something like a Civic is the Blizzak WS-50. Check out them and other winter treads at www.tirerack.com.

 

You'd be better off just getting some 14" steelies, MUCH cheaper. And with having just the 17's, you'd have to have your tires switched every spring and fall (from snows to summer tires, and vice versa) and that crap would get annoying

 

Get the smallest skinniest snow tires you can find. Nokian makes great snow tires, I used them last winter

 

I had this same conversation with the Honda dealer (Canada) and they told me the smallest rim the 07 Si can take on the rear wheels is a 17" since there is a component on the rear schocks that makes it impossible to go to a smaller rim. This is only on the rear wheels. No problems for the Ex as it uses 16" and deesn't have the sport suspension the Si has which causes the problem. I went to www.thetirerack.com and went through the guide to select tires for a 07 Si and it said in red text that the option to go to 15" rims wasn't and option to save some $'s. Th dealer told me 17" is the smallest rim that can go on the back wheels.

 

...sounds like the dealer trying to get you to buy THEIR 17's. Got pictures of this "suspension component?"