Blizzak is supposed to be the best. Or buy a used focus for winter.

 

I'll second the Blizzaks, and agree with the 215/60/17 size. I would also suggest using plain steel wheels. I know they're ugly, but they stand up to winter better than anything else. Aftermarket aluminum wheels don't stand up to salt very well. I have seen them develop leaks around the bead and valve within a couple of years due to corrosion.

 

Three-peat on steelies and 215/60/17 Blizzaks, you'll recover the cost of the steelies in no time, and having a dedicated set of winter tires and wheels makes for easy swapping season to season.

Not to mention the benefits of the Blizzaks, they really do make a huge difference when you have all four installed.

Congrats on the new ride, post some pics when you take delivery.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the Focus Def67, but I've already got a 2010 Sonata that I'm daily driving (with Blizzaks for the winter, BTW). It's a matter of storage and the additional cost of insurance, etc. or I would keep that car. I bought it new and oil sprayed it annually, so it is actually in good shape, plus it only just turned 103K km, so it's low mileage to boot. It will probably go to my daughter in Sault Ste. Marie.

I've looked, but haven't found, hub centric steel wheels. The ones I listed above are very close to the 17" Ford wheel on the standard Ecoboost, both in offset and hub size. We've got a Rogue with alloys that has gone through several winters with no issues on the beads, however, every tire and rim combo is different I suppose. I found steel wheels at Costco but they were 17" x 7", and a multi-fit type. If anyone can suggest where they got steel wheels, I'll look into those as well.

 

Check steel wheels directly from Ford, they're not as pricey as you would think, and you know 100% the fit and offset are correct.

Had a buddy with an F150 do that, price was pretty close to aftermarket, and after all, the steelies are used for the spares.

 

If you're looking at an Ecoboost without the Performance Pack, then yes you can put 17" on. With the Perf Pack, 18" is the minimum size to clear the brakes. Assuming you can go to 17", the only thing Ford lists for the S550 is the base alloy wheel which gets sold for a reasonable price in sets of 4. Lots of aftermarket choices too of course. Ford has no "approved" steel wheels for cars that never came with them as factory equipment on a base model.

The dealership I work at, we've used the 03-up Crown Victoria police 17" steel wheels on S197 and S550 cars too. The offset is good, and the hub bore is the proper size. Another lower cost option is a certain S197 factory 17" alloy wheel that Ford has on clearout pricing, you can do a Google search on part number AR3Z-1007-C to see what they look like.


cheers
Ed

 

 

+Vote for Blizzaks