Winter tires and insurance for your new ST

[JeremyT]

Age
Zip Code
Driving Record
Marital Status

All of the above factor in on the price of insurance. Not just the fact that we bought an ST.

[Macky21]

So the bolt pattern is 5x108 on the ST and I've found that 2000s Sables and Taurus' have the same pattern. Has anyone had a chance to try some 16" steelies from one of them? Once I take delivery of my ST, I'm going to head to the junk yard and try one on to see if they fit. Cheap winter wheels!

[MisterH]

Geez some of you pay A LOT for your car insurance. I pay a just a little bit over $400 every six months (State Farm).

[20Focus13]

I ended up getting the Wheel and Tire set since it will divide the wear between both sets and I could hardly see spending the time and money to get the tires switched back and forth every Hot to Cold and backseason change. I also had the TPMS sensors installed in my new Cold Weather setup and I already have the sync tool for them from my GT500. I am not sure about the insurance cost till I get my ST3 later this month.

[shineboy]

This is strange, my insurance went down from 2012 SEL Focus to the ST

[JeremyT]

Originally Posted by 20Focus13

I live in St Louis Mo and that is what I did. I bought new wheels and a set of Ultra High Performance All Season tires from Tire Rack and had them install the TPMS sensors so I can easily change them back and forth. I already own the sensor sync tool from my Mustang.

So I have new tires and wheels for a car that I don't have yet! My build date is 10-8-2012 so maybe I'll get it my car by the end of October. That is not a problem and I will post when I get it so other members can see how long it takes from Build date to dealer getting the car.

I bit the bullet and had the all season version of the stock tire, Goodyear Eagle F1 asymmetric all season, put on for the winter. I'll switch back to the summer tire in the spring.

So far they are an excellent tire. Haven't driven them in snow yet but even if they only perform adequately I'll consider it a fair trade off. Snow days here in Indy are far less than cold and rainy days.

[aernan]

Through progressive I think I'm paying $960 a year. But I have been a customer for a long time and I have a perfect driving record and multiple vehicles

[shineboy]

Originally Posted by MisterH

Geez some of you pay A LOT for your car insurance. I pay a just a little bit over $400 every six months (State Farm).

Geez u pay a lot too... full coverage 480$, 3 cars for 6 months:13 ST, 11 Accord, 04 Cobra (Allstate, dropped the crooks at state farm this year after a long time...)

[scottso]

Today I had a set of Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme tires installed. I've had 3 sets of Nokians on previous cars and loved them for all year 'round driving but with the ST I'm only using them for winter. The tire dealer I've been going to for years sells both brands and was really hyping the Vred's so I checked them out, called the company, read lots of info and decided to try them.

Since it's not snowing or raining, just cold, I can only discern two things so far:
1. The Vredesteins are quieter than my previous Nokians.
2. The Vredesteins do not "track" pavement like the Nokians do.

I haven't figured out what I want to do about wheels yet so I just swapped the tires on the stock rims. I'll get another set of rims in the next couple of months. Might be another set of ST rims, or maybe a set of white HRE R43 rims!

One of my tires was not mounted correctly from the factory!! Prior to removing the Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 2 tires from the wheels I had the tire dealer put them on the Road Force balancer to determine what has been causing a vibration. Since I picked up my ST3 a few weeks ago I've noticed a rhythmic out-of-round type of vibration at all speeds but hadn't done any high speed driving until last weekend (50-70mph on tollways). It turns out that my right front tire/wheel assembly had radial runout and was exerting excessive road force. All four wheels checked out to be near perfect. The right front tire was the problem but the machine reported that the error could be corrected so I won't concern myself with this until April.

So my ride to the tire dealer was a bit bumpy, but the ride home on the same tollway was smooth as glass!

Question: Can a poorly mounted tire (out of round) cause wheel hop? I think so, how 'bout you all? I have no wheel hop in any mode with the new tires. With the Goodyear F1's on I had hop in Normal, and Sport modes, but no hop with both shut off. I'm not conviced that the engine mount is "causing" the wheel hop issue, especially after discovering one of my tires mounted improperly. I'll have to wait until spring to find out for sure when I put the F1's back on.

[suss6052]

Originally Posted by scottso

Question: Can a poorly mounted tire (out of round) cause wheel hop? I think so, how 'bout you all? I have no wheel hop in any mode with the new tires. With the Goodyear F1's on I had hop in Normal, and Sport modes, but no hop with both shut off. I'm not conviced that the engine mount is "causing" the wheel hop issue, especially after discovering one of my tires mounted improperly. I'll have to wait until spring to find out for sure when I put the F1's back on.

I wouldn't doubt the tires having an effect on the wheel hop, but seeing a video showing just how far the stock motor mount seems to be moving with the stock rear motor mount I would also have difficulty to say that it wasn't at least contributing to the wheel hop/ axle hop.