Yes, I can move on with my great plans of putting new Winters on the stock black rims on the Fit, then get some alloys (as we discussed ), put my stock all-seasons on those, and be ready for next spring. My finances won't allow me to make all the purchases at once, but I figure I have this summer, next fall, and next winter to make it all fall into place
can winter tires be used other times of the year, like if you were carrying them around for some reason, and got a flat, and your spare was flat too? I don't know how that would happen, but just a hypothetical question.
Winter tires crack badly under warm temp. If you drive them year long, you're greatly reducing their life. Also, there's a lot more friction and noise, best to switch to summer/all seasons.
I thought the only downside to having winters in the summer was teh tread wear, other than that, because it has soft compound, it should be more slick than general all-seasons. And carrying a winter around as a spare is just unneccessary dead weight. The "doughnut" wheel is more than enough.
i much prefer a full size spare. the "donut" in the STi is the same circumference as the rest b/c of the AWD but you still aren't supposed to go over 55 mph. i have full size spare in the corolla b/c i had to get 4 new rims so i kept one of the old ones and the best tire the next time i bought new tires. bingo, full size spare