Help deciding which winter wheels to get

[The dude]

So my old winter tires are looking like they have maybe one season left in them, so I picked up a set of 18" winter tires while they were on sale with the idea that I would buy a set of mercedes E55 AMG wheels to put on them so my car would look nice all year round. The problem is every place that I've tried to order the wheels from has said they no longer have any stock and won't be getting any stock of those wheels for a long time. So now I'm starting to scramble to find something else and am looking for suggestions on what to get, I was thinking I could just get some S4 avus wheels, but now I'm starting to lean towards just chucking the tires on some steelies and running those until I can find a set of the mercedes wheels. I'm hoping to not have to run my 16's again this winter since they lower my car about 2" closer to the ground so last winter I was scraping everything, so I'm hoping to just sell those off when I get my new wheels. Any help would be appreciated. Here is my car:


Here are the ones I'm looking for:

[PRY4SNO]

Re: Help deciding which winter wheels to get

First off, changing wheel diameters only affects the inside diameter. The bigger the wheel, the smaller/stiffer the sidewall. So for winter a sidewall isn't such a bad thing (re: potholes, etc.).

So by lowering your ride height you'll have less room to travel under the fender before the tyre rubs. High quality suspension will help avoid this.

17" Avus wheels can be had for about as cheap as steelies, plus you can actually re sell them to an enthusiast.

[The dude]

Re: Help deciding which winter wheels to get

The diameter of the tire is actually the wrong size for my car on the 16's, they came with the car when I bought it. So I've been meaning to replace them but I didn't have the money last year so I just used them for last winter. The physical height of my car (bottom of my bumper to the ground) changes by 1 1/2 - 2 inches when I put the 16's on. I should have clarified that. So far I haven't had much luck finding a used set of Avus wheels, and the new ones are about $300 more than a set of steelies. Which is ok if I decide to go with the Avus.

[PRY4SNO]

Re: Help deciding which winter wheels to get

Here's two recent ads on Audifans.com

clicky #1
clicky #2

More from Audizine, posted yesterday:
clicky #3

Haven't even started with Motorgeek, VWVortex, or the papers and kijiji and Black Gold etc.

They're out there.

[The dude]

Re: Help deciding which winter wheels to get

Thanks! (although the first two are for 17" wheels) I'll look into the third one.