Considering all the rave reviews, I was thinking about getting myself some Bridgestone Blizak LM-22 winter tires. Before shipping, these will cost me about $660 for 4 225/45 HR17s at Tirerack. And I'll have to pay about $50 at Les Schwabs each time to have them mounted/removed, so basically $100 a year.

Tirerack has a steel wheel/tire deal for 4 215/55 HR16s Dunlop Winter Sport M2s and 4 16" steel wheels for $632. This is not only cheaper, but will save the me hassle and $$ of having to mount and balance the Blizaks twice a year.

First of all, will the 16" wheels fit on my 2K1 SE AE with the 17" wheels? And how bad will the smaller wheel and thinner tire adversely affect my performance in the snow/ice and on dry pavement?

The Dunlops had pretty equal reviews with the Blizaks. The tire/wheel combo seems pretty sweet to me, but I wanted to get some opinions since the tire/wheels sizes are definitely different than my OEMs.

Tony

 

Tony, get the 16" Dunlop package. The 16s will fit your Max and will work much better on the snow than the 17" ones. 17" winter tires are going to be too wide to cut through the snow effectively and you'll have to keep remounting tires on your stock rims. It'll also save your Nissan rims from getting all that yucky corrosive winter crap all over them.