Rear wheel caliper spacing...
Front wheel spacing, best pic I could get with cell phone nearing dark....It's got about half an inch of room.
Dirty car....
My dealership highly suggested the 16 inch on the GT AWD for better traction. all i know is I can't wait until March 15th to get them off.
I am looking at winter wheel/tire options (@tirerack). Is there some reason to prefer steel wheels rather than alloy for winter other than price?
Good point. I went through tirerack's winter package pages with my 2014 CX-5 AWD specified so they should limit the options to alloy wheels with acceptable fitment. And for the 16" alloys I am looking at, they have a "View on Vehicle" which shows the CX-5 with them.since alloys are much thicker material by nature you'd better make sure they will clear the calipers before buying.
is there an ideal tire size/series for the cx5 ?
Well if you have the wheels already, you can just put one on and see for yourself. Tirerack suggests 16's for winter on the CX-5 but I will be calling them soon to verify.for everyone else's reference.
I was hoping to slap on my current winter rims/tires on the CX5 for winter (they're 205/60/16). but my dealer said those rims wont clear the rotors ?
They are recommending i get 225/65/17s. $1190 taxes in. Yikes !
Well if you have the wheels already, you can just put one on and see for yourself. Tirerack suggests 16's for winter on the CX-5 but I will be calling them soon to verify.
But those tires are WAY too small. They are 10% shorter than OEM's. Your speedometer would be off by a whopping ~10%. You need something like 225/70/16. Check out this size comparator. Put 225/65/17 on left for OEM and then other on right.