Got the winter (all weather) wheels and tires installed today. The swap was free at the shop I bought the wheels online from them. Went down to 17" and you can see how little brake clearance there is.
I chose the all-weather Michelin CrossClimate+ tires because it does not often snow more than 5-8cm in the Rhein/Main valley. However tires with the 'snowflake in mountain' are mandatory in Germany during "winterly conditions" so don't want to risk the loss of insurance coverage and fine if somethings on a wintry day.
The hilarious thing is the Type-Approval papers that came with it. Because this is Germany, there must be paperwork proving that the modification of wheel and tire size does not impact the roadworthiness of the vehicle ! Because with out it, if you do the roadworthiness test (
Hauptuntersuchung or contrôle technique ) with them installed, your vehicle could fail ! It is 15 pages long, stamped (ja remember how I've said nothing is valable without a stamp ?), with many signatures, data, footnotes, and words like
Genehmigungsunterlagen (approval documents) and Radhausausschnittkanten (wheelwell clearance)
Ze Germans, what a strange society sometimes. It's just a wheel change.......
. Now just one more stack into the stack of véhicule papers......