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Different tire size on a car?

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Freejack2

Freejack2

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My wife drives a 2009 Honda Fit Sport which takes this oddball 185/55R16 tire size. One of the places I called up suggested putting 205/50R16 tires on.

It opens up a bunch of tires, and the guy assures me it's safe.
However is this guy telling the truth and what is the catch about doing this? Does it make the speedometer inaccurate?
 
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Base on that the two tires are virtually the same diameter so there's no issues with the speedo being incorrect. There are only a few things to think about. One issue to think about is wheel width. An increase of 20mm shouldn't matter at all but it doesn't hurt to check anyway. Also, there's clearance in the wheel well. I'm about 99.9% sure that neither of these "issues" are even worth worrying about...but its still useful for you to know that.

You could also browse some Fit forums to see what tires people are using as far as replacements.
 
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They are almost the same size, per nutbuckets link.

So yea it should be ok. I did the same thing with my CTS as the factory size cost more then another that was about the same size.

Thinner tires are usually good for gas milage but can sometimes give up handling and traction. I doubt the 205 vs a 185 would be that big a differance in gas milage. If you check it every fill up you may notice like 1/2mpg less or so if that.
 
That size difference is pretty minor. I run tires 30mm wider than stock and about a half inch larger diameter and haven't noticed any issues. When I ran a set that was 40mm wider and an inch and a half taller on the rears, I gave up too much final gear and had to down shift a lot more.
 
Thanks, that answers the question a bit. I'll pass the info onto my wife and see what she wants to do. I'll also browse some fit forums to see what they say too.
 
Good advice already here, from Nutbucket.

Back when I had my f-body Camaro, I replaced the stock Eagle GT's (215/65R15) with Dunlop GT Qualifiers (225/60R15), and actually gained performance. Wider tire corners better, plus the Dunlops were higher speed rated (never a bad thing, when driving a Camaro! 😉 ), and they were 1/2 the price of the Eagles. :thumbsup:
 
I have a Mazda5 comes with 205/50Z17 I run 215/50ZV17 the tires look like they fit now. if you wanted you could probably could do 195/55H16 if you do not want to have a 50 sidewall.
 
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