[Nevin]

I work at a tire shop and I can get any tire I set my mind to for a reasonable price.

That said, I just kept the 225/50r16 for my snow tires. Going to a narrower tire will make the car feel a bit more "wallow-ey." That's not a bad thing or anything, but it will change the handling of the car, so just be prepared for that. Going to a snow tire in itself will change the handling of the car anyway, so that's not like it would be a big difference. But it really comes to preference. If you live in an area with HEAVY snow, it's not a bad idea because as previously mentioned, it decreases the tire contact patch and thus increases the tire pressure on the road giving you more "grip."

Here in the midwest we don't really get a lot of snow at once (usually) so that's a reason I decided to keep the stock size. I figured that a heavy car with a GREAT awd system didn't need too much help putting the power down.

And Blizzaks are great, but I've had 3 different set of Firestone Winterforce on different cars, and I recommend them to lots of people. I've put lots of sets on many cars and have heard very good things about them. They're also cheaper than the blizzaks. I know others are not in the same boat as me, but I have really been impressed with them, espescially for the price.

I look forward to putting on some of the new coopers though, as we are a cooper dealer, and I've run coopers before as well. The snowies they had before were pretty good, so I'm curious how the new line is.

My $.02.