Winter wheels

[LukeT]

And another one... I have a second set of wheels on my current car for the winter. I think winter tyres make a real difference, cost no more long term in tyre wear and I have storage space, so I'm strongly minded to do the same again.

The £2300 tesla option - is this regarded as ok value? It's a lot more than I'm used to but then it's a different car.

I'd rather stock wheels than obviously aftermarket ones, but only if I'm not paying a significant premium. And if I don't select this option do they sell it to existing owners later?

Thanks all,

Luke

 

[theoceanwaves]

I would just take the standard wheels and tyres and use them for summer, then get another set of winter tyres from blackcircles or discount supplier and get them swapped over when the time is right. Tesla charges too much for tyres in general however if you have a puncture and have to be recovered to the service centre you will most likely have to buy a new tyre from them.

What size wheels were you thinking of going for? 19 or 21”?

 

[LukeT]

I was going to go for 19s. They should give a better ride on poor surfaces, I understand they're marginally more energy efficient plus they're a chunk cheaper and usually tyres are much cheaper for smaller rims.

Yeah I was thinking I'd leave the decision for later, because I do always have the tyre-only option, but I'd prefer a second set of wheels to make this job really quick. Hence I'd maybe take the £2300 option if its a good deal but prefer to do it later and prefer again to do something a bit cheaper later if that's an option.

Why go to a Tesla garage to fix a tyre? I tend to buy online for the choice, delivered to a local tyre place. Any reason not to carry on that way?

 

[LukeT]

Nokian Wr A4s (Well, A3 in my size) are my current winter tyre and I've been really impressed with them compared with others I've had, albeit on a car of much lesser performance but I expect to drive my MS like my mum anyway. At £150ish in MS size they seem good value too.

 

[theoceanwaves]

£2300 option

I believe this is the winter tyre only cost from Tesla no alloy wheels included for the second set. Yes you are right Tesla isn’t the place to go for tyres but they do offer a service if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere to come and get you towed to the service centre for a replacement tyre (unless the terms and conditions have changed). I would still recommend having the backup of a proper breakdown service like AA or RAC.

£150 for Nokians seems like a good price. Check out some videos from Bjorn on YouTube he talks about winter tyres and recommends some manufacturers

 

[WannabeOwner]

I expect to drive my MS like my mum

Your Mum a car thief then?

Nokian Wr A4

I put Nokian WRA4s on mine, they were £660 for 4, delivered. My local tyre guys (who are excellent and not National Chain) couldn't get me what I wanted but were happy to fit mail-order rubber (£10 a corner I think), so I got mine from Camskill but worth shopping around of course

Might be worth a look (eBay?) for some 19" (and probably including Summer Rubber too) from someone who has changed the Stock to Carlos Fandango. Then stick some Winter Rubber on the rims (and sell the Summer Rubber or keep - but you are going to go around 40,000 miles before you need new Summer Rubber, and if you have Winter Rubber for 5 months of the year that's probably quite a while)

I normally swap the Summer/Winter wheels myself on all the family cars, but going to take the Tesla to my Tyre-guy .

 

[LukeT]

Your Mum a car thief then?

Only on weekends!

Reckon I get about 40k at the mo too, I assumed partly because I buy good tyres. I'd guess it'll be worse on a car this powerful but maybe not. Are you all suggesting tyres last longer on Teslas? Is this because of gentler deceleration under regen or better stability/traction control or some such? I drive 23k p.a. but even then it's 3+ years tyre life over 2 sets.

The idea of picking up second hand wheels would be sensible, esp if winters are a bit more likely to get damage. Is there a UK for sale bit to this forum?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Are you all suggesting tyres last longer on Teslas?

Mine do a high proportion of motorway miles, with little change in speed, almost none of it "sudden", so probably not a good example. But it also did loads of Launch-demos-for-mates when new, and pleasantly surprised that didn't prematurely wreck them ...

AutoPilot follows at reasonable distance, so likely to be a bit more gentle than me on my own ... maybe.

 

[arg]

I bought the wheels and TPMS from Tesla and the (Nokian) tyres elsewhere, working out less than the Tesla winter set. I thought I posted details on here, bu if not I can dig them out later.

Quite a lot of standard Tesla wheels appear on Ebay or on here with people switching to fancier ones - I didn’t go for that as most are sold with tyres I didn’t yet need, plus my car needs the older TPMS and most wheels in the UK will be the newer type; by the time I’d changed them it was working out similar to brand new. YMMV.

There are also third-party TPMS cheaper than Tesla: probably perfectly OK, but circumstances (failure of one of the existing TPMS just at the point I was doing this) made it expedient to buy from Tesla.

 

[LukeT]

Mine do a high proportion of motorway miles, with little change in speed, almost none of it "sudden",

That's a fair description of my driving too.

So the TPMS is easy to fit? I'll perhaps keep an eye for wheels on ebay over the summer.

Is there a for sale sub forum on here or do for sale items commonly get posted here? I see one at the moment.

 

[arg]

So the TPMS is easy to fit? I'll perhaps keep an eye for wheels on ebay over the summer.

As I understand it, trivial once you've got the tyre off the wheel, impossible with the tyre on. It's not a Tesla-specific thing, any tyre shop should be familiar with them on lots of cars nowadays.

If you are buying a new (or recent) Model S/X, then most of the wheels you see advertised probably have the right TPMS on them already (and probably summer tyres of some state of wear), so you've just your new winter tyres to add to the cost (and consider whether you will ever get around to re-using the tyres you are taking off the bought wheels).

Details of my purchase from Tesla in dec 2018:

- 19" 'aero turbine' wheels @ £220.83+VAT each
- TPMS sensor (old type) @ £54.17+VAT each
- Wheel center cap @ £10.83+VAT each (I thought you could swap these when swapping the wheels, but Tesla claim not...)

So total of £285.83+VAT = £343 per wheel.

Plus the tyres: I bought Nokian WR A4 245/45 R19 102V XL at £156.30+VAT each.

So a grand total of £442.13+VAT = £530.55 per wheel
£1768.52+VAT = £2122.22 for the complete set of four wheels.

If you go for the third-party TPMS, then knock another £100 off the price.


It appears that the price of winter tyres rises as winter approaches - I bought mine in October and other forum members were struggling to match that price later.