Stuttgart ST9 Alloys and Winter Tyres

[Chris the Sheep]

I live out in the country with a really steep driveway so winter tyres are a must. I crunched some numbers and decided that it made more sense to buy a cheap set of 18" alloys complete with tyres than it was to change over tyres twice a year on my OEM 19" R3 alloys.

So here they are - Stuttgart ST9 18" x 8" ET42 in bronze fitted with Bridgestone Blizzak LM25 225/45/18. A staggered fitment with 9" wheels at the back was available but I wanted the standard setup and in addition I don't think the wider tyres would have helped in the snow! The open spoke design makes cleaning them a doddle compared to the OEM alloys. They show off the big brakes nicely too

I also weighed both the new wheels and the OEM wheels with tyres out of interest -
R3 BBS 19" x 8" with Bridgestone Potenza RE050A 225/40/19 (brand new) = 20.0 kg
Stuttgart ST9 18" x 8" with Bridgestone Blizzak LM25 225/45/18 (brand new) = 21.4kg

And the pictures...

[DanBass]

Very nice. You can really tell the arches were made for 19's though!


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[Bulldog]

I like those wheels and good choice on the tyres

[brix79]

Those are indeed some fine looking wheels.

[Chris the Sheep]

Thanks guys, very happy with them.

Very nice. You can really tell the arches were made for 19's though!

Yes, 19" is wheel utopia! Unfortunately, this purchase was a balance of cost. I worked my way through the wheel options from the cheapest available and these came in at £480, not bad! Adding a quality set of tyres brought the entire package to £1,050. That was enough for me and there was no chance I was sacrificing the quality of the tyres for bigger wheels.

I was interested to see the difference in feel with a thicker profile tyre on the 18". Not much difference if I am honest. Our Mercedes ML is an Edition 10 with upgraded 20" rims from the standard issue 19". I went for 19" rims for the winter tyres on this car and the ride quality is way better.

[HwAoRrDk]

I worked my way through the wheel options from the cheapest available and these came in at £480, not bad! Adding a quality set of tyres brought the entire package to £1,050.

You overpaid a bit on the tyres. Should've checked the club tyre prices - Blizzak LM25s can be had for £101 each at present.

[Chris the Sheep]

You overpaid a bit on the tyres. Should've checked the club tyre prices - Blizzak LM25s can be had for £101 each at present.

I did check! That website is a great tool.

Camskill and mytres appear to offer the best deal. Tyre prices are a bit variable but mytyres are showing £115 per tyre today which comes out at £460 all in delivered (unless I am missing something?) Add in another £50 for valves, fitting and balancing which is what it would cost in Aberdeen, and you're talking £510. Add that to the cost of the wheels at £505 (incl delivery) and you have a total cost of £1015. So I could have saved £35 but for ease I just opted to have then fitted and delivered all in one go. Saves multiple trips to the garage loading the car with rims and tyres!

Incidentally, I did try to wangle a further discount from LK Performance on the basis that buying such an expensive package that the fitting should be free. However, they weren't budging and I couldn't find another site that did the rims cheaper or did the rims and tyres I wanted.