jim pittsburgh

my experience was that my winter traction problems were due purely to the crappy tires on the stock ES... I added a winter only set of Michilin Alpines and have had no problems driving through Pittsburgh the last two winters.

no upgrading the tires to a high performance 3 season tire made a huge, if not remarkable difference in handling. It was my only complaint with the ES350... I relish the quiet and the comfortable ride. Surprisingly , neither the ride nor the noise suffered all that much, but they are a little lounder and a little stiffer..., ... I'm very happy with my decision and look forward to spring when I can get the winter tires off... I bought an extra set of stock rims on ebay so the swap out only takes a few minutes.... Merry Christmas

look down the top list a bit...."235/50/17 Tires Awesome" Have had no clearance problems at all.... and if you read a bit you'll find a fitment calculator (or search fro Miata tire calculator) That will answer a lot of your questions.

I tied into the existing accessory outlet to power my XM radio... mounted to the console with a Ram mount BTW... I've also tied into the lighter wire and put a permenent wire along the glass/ dash for my Garmin GPS...

well the summer tire season has come to an end.... the Extreme Contacts were an awesome experement... until the temps dipped down into the 20s and low 30s ... then they are just not happy... coming back from Cleveland it was 26 and they were wondering on the highway.... so Sunday the Michelin winter HP tires went back on.... very different ride. I'll look forward to the warmer weather and the ECs going back on the car in the spring Overall I'd have to give the ECs a 9.5 out of 10 for their performance.... they handled great, show minimal wear, stayed quiet... only put about 7500 miles on them April thru Nov.... I had run the car down 250 in WV into Virginia on the old stock tires, the trip which help make the decision to upgrade... I took the same great road on the new donuts and it was soooooo much more fun...put a smile on my face again.... WV 250 is really a great road if you haven't had the opportunity... take it.If you like linked corners and big elevation changes! It's not the Dragon but it's not bad, not too bad at all!

http://www.miata.net...e/tirecalc.html This site will let you play with sizes and profiles. I'm using 235 /50/ 17 and have no clearance issues... you might want to use that for width... measure around the 18" and see how much more room you have.. I don't know how you can compress the front to the max though to see what's left ...

I've put about 7000 miles on the Conti Extremes so far... and they show no sign of wear... are still very quiet, handle the rain as well as any all season tire I've had... and handle much better than any all season tire I've driven.... If you can afford to have two sets of tires... I still very highly recommend them. The ride and handling is much better than stock, really changed my opinion of the car for the better.... I've played with the tire pressures and seem to like 33F and 32R the best so far...

I've read the post that indicates that there are both a summer and winter position for the wiper arms... but I could use a much more detailed description on how exactly to change the wiper arms from one postion to the other... I tried to pull up on them and move them into another positon but that had no effect... I was a bit too cautious to push on them too hard... thanks

I purchased my used 07 from Tower Auto Sales in the Pittsburgh area, they specialize in low mileage Lexus... I know they ship all over the country. http://www.towerautosales.com/ my salesmens name was Jerrod.... I have no connection with Tower... other than being a very happy customer.... it was the best car buying experience I have ever had... and I've certainly bought way more than my share of vehicles....

if you do a web search, you can easily find a web page that will give you a tire size comparison, I happen to use http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html Tells you the effect on your odometer/ speedometer, width, radius and circumference difference.... then go out to your car, turn the wheel all the way to the right or left... stick your hand between the tire and the fender liner and feel around for how much clearance you have... the tires the I bought are almost exactly the same circumference, just a little wider... 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch...no clearance problems at all... And even if the rubbed a little when the wheels were at lock... how many times do you ever drive the car with the wheels at the stops?

it's just a simple stick on base that the guy made that sticks to the side of the counsole.... comes right off, no damage to the plastic... they made the mounting piece out of black plastic that they molded to the edge shape of the console... then they mounted the Ram base to that.... looks great actually... I'm ordering a RAM piece that will hold my IPod next week.. then I can just interchange the top piece between the XM and the IPod if/ when I want to... but I'm pretty addicted to the XM unit... having the portable unit stops the need for multiple subscription costs... I'm I'm just as picky as you about what I do to my cars...

actually it is very small unit, smaller than a pack of cigs and half the depth.. I have the RAM mount mounted on the passanger side of the console. With the RAM mount it looks very "factory" , it is slick and the adjustability is very nice. The other benifit of the portable unit is that I can listen to it like an MP3 player, or hook it into my stereo anywhere in the house.... can't do that with a head unit.

I have one of the small portable XM receivers and I had one of the cradles for the unit mounted in my car... I used a RAM mount for the cradle and then paid a local car audio shop $100 to run the antenna and the power. I had them run the audio line out from the cradle into the storage box between the front seats so I could unplug it and plug in my IPod when I want to use it... works perfect and the RAM mount with their shortest stalk is the perfect height... their ball mounts give you enough angles that you can get the right one to see the screen easily.

had mine in for the recalls and while there I had them look at the tranny "flare". They confirmed it was doing it and did a software upgrade. The car now shifts, better than ever.. very happy with the change.

sorry was off line for a short bit I'll take and post some pics ASAP... OBTW still love the tires...

sorry, I've been off line for a short while and did not see your post.. Uphill is my driveway.... it is pretty steep and fairly long, and the usual non 4WD method for getting up the drive when there is snow/ ice is to get a running start and gun it/ spin the tires... the traction control cuts the gas to the point where the wheels will actually stop moving, even while you continue to hold the gas pedal down and I have actually slid backwards ... not a good thing.... have been using the run and gun method for a lot of both front and rear wheel drive cars, a common practice here "in the Burgh"... has always worked like a charm LOL. Also have a very, very long steep hill as one of the ways to get into/ out of my neighborhood... traction control would not let me get up that hill twice this winter... even my old Lincoln Town Car (our van when the kids were little) would turn off the traction control when you shifted out of drive...

just an FYI I've been a bit dissatisfied with the handling of my 07 ES 350 since I bought it about a year ago... Seems that most of the problems were related to the crappy OEM tires... installed a set of 235/50/17 ( within 1% of stock dia) Continental Extreme Contact DWs and they have made a world of difference... huge improvement in handling, traction (wow) and body roll... and they fit just fine! They are a very tiny bit louder than the stock tires, which has been the only "con" so far... have less than 1000 miles on them so far... just took off the winter tires a few weeks ago here in Pittsburgh. just passing along the info .. that this size fits perfectly... and that I like my tire choice after soing a whole bunch of research.

As I indicated under the winter tires discussion... this winter I made the switch to winter tires because the stock tires were the worst tires I've ever driven on... I bought an extra set of rims and TPSs... thank you Ebay! and now I'm looking for a much better set of 3 season tires... I'm looking at going to a 235/50 on the stock rims to get a little more rubber on the road. And I want a tire that is quiet, that handles better that the stock garbage and that has a tread wear rating of at least 300 ... Please share your thoughts and experience.... The more I've read the reviews on the Tire Rack web site the more confused I've become... LOL

I put a set of Mich Pilot Alpin winter tires on in December... best investment yet in the ES! Here in Pittsburgh we've been buried in snow all winter... amazing traction actually.. the only problem I've had is ice... the traction control on this car just sucks, retards the engine output to zero as your trying to go up a hill....Next big storm I'm using the brake pedal/ emerg brake pedal procedure to turn the darn TC off!.