Lifetime of car wheel rims during a Munich winter

Hi all,

I would like to ask of your experiences with steel vs. light metal (aluminium) rims. Especially when used in winter. Main drawback is that with salt and the snow chains the alu rims are not good. But do you have some other pointers?

Also, what is the life time of aluminium rims? Can one still use 10 year old rims with new tyres? Of course the rims are without any scratches and damage.

My opinion is that as you are driving in conditions where you have an increased chance of sliding into kerbs, go for steel rims. They will bend rather than break and you can get home rather than having to fit the spare.

No idea if thats the reason for people using steels for the winter wheels. Maybe its just cos they are cheap.

I just ordered winter tyres on steel rims.

I run a company car in Germany and the German site manager would only use steel for the reasons given previously.

Good point. I didn't know that the alu's break instead of bending like the steel ones.

Quick info: anyone checked for the DOT on the new bought tyres? Whether it will be current week/year, or anyweek/curr. yr or anyweek/past yrs?

Quick input will be very valuable. I am wondering if they hand me out the last years tyres stored in their rooms.

I must say I did not know about the DOT thing on the tyres... quite the shocker. Anyway, I will be checking all mine a bit later today.

just check that it is four numbers, something like 3306 33rd week 06 - 2006. If it was a 3 number then it is no longer to be used.