Living in Northern Ontario, I swear by winter tires.
Benefits include:
- mandatory insurance discounts of at least 5%
- Never worry about tire rotations, you do them every 6 months
- Minimal extra costs, if you expect to keep your car > 6 years, you just buy the 2nd set up front.
- Much better performance in the winter
I like new winter alloy rims, lighter then steel and they last. The heavy steel rims rust in the salt, and look awful after a few winters.
Last advice is to minus-size
https://info.kaltire.com/what-is-minus-sizing/
By minus sizing, you can get a narrower tire, that performs better, while saving you hundreds on the set as both the tire and rim are cheaper.
https://www.tirerack.com/snow/preferredpackages.jsp
205/65R15
And a winter tire like the Michelin X-Ice is low rolling resistance. As it's narrower, can get almost as good of mpg as my summer tires.
