The thing with 16" wheels is that the available tire selection is kinda crappy and the prices are kinda high.
I went through something similar when trying to decide whether to run snows on my 16" factory wheels or get a set of 15" wheels and tires. Basically it all came down to tire replacement cost. When it was time to replace the first set of snows, the 15" package became cheaper overall (even after figuring in the cost of the wheels) so I went with a set of used 15" Konig wheels and some 15" tires.
I don't know what is available in 16" MS3 sizes or 17" MS3 sizes, so I can't say for sure. A little more sidewall is nice to help smooth out the bumps on snow packed roads, but not a deciding factor IMO.
And I've never not been able to drive when I wanted. Of course, I wasn't here for the big blizzards in 2006/2007. But this passed winter there wasn't any problems.[/b]
Hmmmm...interesting- I've just recently begun looking and the first post shows what I liked for the wheel and tire; although I'm sure there's many more options that I haven't seen yet. But as you say, I'm hoping their won't be many (if any) days that I physically won't be able to drive. Honestly, the AWD was nice...very nice, but it was never something that allowed me to get to work specifically-purely because of the AWD. It basically made me more confident and better able to manuever out of a potentially dangerous situations (aka get away from dumba-- Cali/Tex drivers [no offense])....also, I was able to go on back roads without worry when it was snow packed out. Other than that, the FWD should be fine .
....I'll continue my winter setup journey and be sure to post back up as I continue down my chosen path.
Suggestions still gladly accepted!