three29

im sure most of you here already know this already, and really this is just a musing about why my car is depreciating and theres nothing i can do about it..

As you all know, GTS comes with 18 inch "performance all-season" tires (which of course is bs bcus anyone with a GTS knows that these stock dunlops are a deathwish if u choose to drive them in canadian winters, which i learned the hard way. anyone that has any appreciation for winter driving knows that you have to get winter tires for your gts, there is no way around it.

I know that there are performance 18 inch winter tires out there, but from what i hear you want a "taller" sidewall on your tires, and the only way you can get that is to switch to 17 inch rims (of course i may be wrong, im not exactly a car expert..) but what I began to realize over time was that, there is a difference in wheel diameter between my stock 18 inch tires, and my 17 inch winter tires. I knew that it would make a slight difference in my speedometer, since im assuming all cars calibrate their speedometer based on their stock wheel diameters.

What i didnt realize until boxing day (which was when i bought a garmin gps) was the magnitude of that difference~ if anyone out there right now is on 17 inch winter tires and has a GTS but no gps to tell you how fast you are going, i can tell you that when you drive at 120kmh according to your car, you are actually moving at about 110, of course, this difference increases as you go faster, and diminishes as you go to a slower speed (eg. i need to drive at around 43-45 to reach an actual speed of 40)

I realized this all the hard way, because before i got my gps i was getting to new places using google maps, and it was confusing me why the distances never made any sense. Google maps tells me to drive 60 km then turn right to highway 6, but im well over 90km on my pedometer before i even see a road sign that has hwy 6 on it.

After being 2 hours late for an interview and buying my gps, i finally realize that my winter tires are depreciating my car. What normally takes me ~90km to drive from toronto to waterloo, my car assumes it takes me 130km. building up over time, this essentially meas eventually even though i drove the car 90k, the car will read 130k =(

so anyways, the lesson to learn is that if you own a gts and u have 17inch tires, get a gps, and switch them asap when winter ends~

Pure EvoIX

iTrader: (7)

what you need is to buy the same diameter tires as your stock ones. Thats why your odometer is so off.

vicksen

iTrader: (22)

You could always buy wheels and tires with a larger diameter than stock to counter the effect of the smaller tires. There will be side effects, but if you get a good light weight wheel you should be okay.

absolute

u can bring it back to dealer to get to the calibrate it i think to ur new wheel size

homieG

i got 17's and yes i did notice this too. i always look at my gps to see how fast im goin. my tires are mad wide bc they came off my rx-8. thats the width it needed to clear the brakes. its all good though. im used it it.

I <3 Spool

Lancer's (of the non-evo variety) generally depreciate faster than a meteor falling to earth from space.

FACT: In 2003 I (foolishly) bought a loaded 5-speed, 120hp 2003 Lightning Yellow Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally Edition. I then proceeded to quickly (i.e. within the first 600kms) modify it with an AEM intake, HKS exhaust, 17" Racing Hart rims, Toyo Proxes T1S tires, Full sparco interior (yes FULL sparco interior including pedals, shift knob, 3-point harness, seats, both front and back....don't ask how i managed that or the cost), polished oil and radiator cap, S2000 antenna etc. I drove the thing one summer for 2513 kms or so....I then ordered a V6 mitsubishi engine the Aussies were swapping into their Lancers (which I am sure were called something else) at a cost of $7650 plus duty and shipping....the engine never made it into the car, a tree branch fell on it scratching the paint and a Toyota Supra came along that I could not say no to 'happened'.


To make a long story short(er).....In the spring of 2004 I put it up for sale for $22k, less than what I paid and far less than the mods on it (I had about $7k into it not including the engine) it didn't sell....it had sniffs, but all the sniffs were 18 yr old JDM tyte y0 fan bois that couldn't come up with the money. In the end I sold my $28k + mods lancer for $14,500....one year after I bought it.

So buddy, I feel your pain I really do. My advice to you however is this:

DO NOT BUY A CAR THAT YOU MERELY FANCY. BUY THE CAR THAT YOU CAN REALLY AFFORD AND DRIVE IT INTO THE F*CKING GROUND.....

Otherwise you'll enjoy a 15k depreciation just like me.....which still hurts.

(p.s. since then I have sold the Supra and currently drive a Volvo S80...looking to buy an Evo within the next 5 months depending on the cooperation of the dealership RE: financing....I could buy it all cash, but why use my money when I can get someone to finance for 0%.)

Good luck.

Tommy boy

I like the comment on the gts tires being a deathwish in candian winters and you NEED winters..... i have not bought any winters for my gts and so far no crashing..1.5 more months and im in the clear... altho i do agree that the tires are bad in snow, but drive carefully and your fine.. or at least i have been fine..so far.....

stone604

lol i wonder how the snow tires are on the west coast snow..cuz over in the east..its pretty bad.

n4s

Interesting. I never even thought of that when I was looking for winter wheels and tires.... fortunately (and unfortunately) i couldn't fit 17's on the evo so i ended up just slapping snows on the stock rims..

laksman91

iTrader: (4)

I was planning on slapping 16" one the ralliart - so this is just asking for trouble?

Infamous_pt4

i noticed it too,but i thought the gps was off,never thought about the tire difference

s21197

just get tires that have big enough sidewalls to make up the one inch difference in wheel size

Billy

iTrader: (8)

Assuming the factory calibration is spot on (huge assumption), then the proper way to do it is to compare the RPM (Revolutions Per Mile statistic based upon circumference) figure for exact year/make/model of the original tires with the replacement tires.

For this you need to be armed with the following info for both old and new tires...

width of rims (can be tricky if you have not yet purchased your rims yet esp. if you are looking for aggressive fitment and have a BBK to clear and are looking to plus/minus one/two) - will affect section width and thus RPM

date of manufacture (can be read from tires) - tires not only differ from make to make and model to model but can differ from run to run too. Really only matters if you're super picky.



From all of this you may have discerned that it is nowhere near enough to simply say, replace your 235/45-17 with 235/45-17, and all will be the same because it could be vastly different.

boostedgraphite

i was gonna complain to mitsu awhile ago but i got lazy...when i drove to california and back (stock rims) i noticed the mileage was off about 5% that is pretty signicant...but the way i see it is that when i have 105 000km on the car i will really have 100 000km ..so..in the long run it wont really affect the price of the car

mirza_GTS

Is the OP using 17" low pro tires or full size tires?

I'm curious if this is also a problem with 16" snow tires..... I got 205/60R/16 for my GTS a month after I bought the car. I didn't drive the 18's at all in the snow, I could just tell that they would be hell to drive on in the winter. The 16's seem to fill up the weel cavity about the same as the 18's. I never noticed the issue mentioned by the OP, but now I'm curious to know if my car is clocking more mileage then it should be. Anyone here with 16" witner tires on their GTS notice the same problem?