16s with winter tires on gt
- Thread starter Nodnerb
- Start date
Actually they look way smaller in the pic for some reason. The actually look nice and beefy in person. The actual overall diameter is almost identical to the stock 19's. My speedometer and nav speed are still in sync. For some reason clicking the attached pic looks better than the posted one, almost like it is stretched.
fredbuteau
Member
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- Mazda3 Sport GS 2010, Black Mica, Corksport SRI
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....
What size of tire did you use?
They are cooper discoverer M+S P235/70R16. It's the stock size of my old escape. The handling is surprisingly good considering the drastic change. The escape was mushy and rolled like crazy with them. Guess it was just the escape itself.
Not ideal in snow being slightly wider but they'll be a hell of a lot better than stock 19s on those nice rims I don't want to smuck against a curb.
I kind of like the beefy look of them for winter
Not ideal in snow being slightly wider but they'll be a hell of a lot better than stock 19s on those nice rims I don't want to smuck against a curb.
I kind of like the beefy look of them for winter
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Oh, I don't know. My 16" 70 series winters don't look that good, and they don't corner as well, and they are if not noisier at least do have a lower drone note on the highway. What they offer (aside from the better snow performance which the weather has not yet allowed me to confirm) is a notably more comfortable ride.
Brian
Wouldn't think so. Other than if you're going to slide into a curb I'd rather do it is steelies that I don't care about. If we're talking about 16" alloys though, there's very little clearance with the steel rims, and since alloys are much thicker material by nature you'd better make sure they will clear the calipers before buying.
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.
Nonetheless, I will speak with a sales rep there first to be sure before ordering.
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Not really, it's all a compromise depending upon your priorities.
It's always nice to stay with a similar diameter to the OEM offerings because this maintains the accuracy of the odometer, speedometer and will not reduce the performance of many functions that take speed or distance into account.
The manufacturer chooses wheel/tire sizes based upon a multitude of factors including public preferences, appearance, performance, MPG, ride quality, etc. When it comes to the two OEM sizes, personally, I prefer the 17's for their performance and economy advantages. Some are under the mistaken impression the 19" rims offer more performance but this is only true in terms of dry road cornering and braking. The 17's will have slightly better acceleration and better performance off-road, in snow and heavy rain as well as on rough or broken pavement. Also, better city mpg. Modern tires are so good that the functional differences will be relatively small and the biggest factor, by far, will be the specific model tire that is used (rather than the size). And that is another advantage of the 17's - there are many more tire options.
Unless you have specific and unusual requirements, OEM sizes are generally a good balance of all considerations. If anything, I think current fashion and public preference has caused Mazda to specify a tire on the wide side of what they would have specified had they not needed to take appearance and public perception into account.
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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.
