Winter Tire Question

[lawgman]

I just purchased and had installed at the dealer Pirelli WinterCarving tires and Mazda Steelies. The only unusual thing about the package was that the tires were 205/60/R16 and not 205/55/R16. Any advantage or disadvantes in terms of driving with the slightly larger tire? I intially figured they were using the 60s because they were cheaper than the 55s but a couple of different tire websites show them as the exact same price.

Any thoughts?

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by lawgman


I just purchased and had installed at the dealer Pirelli WinterCarving tires and Mazda Steelies. The only unusual thing about the package was that the tires were 205/60/R16 and not 205/55/R16. Any advantage or disadvantes in terms of driving with the slightly larger tire? I intially figured they were using the 60s because they were cheaper than the 55s but a couple of different tire websites show them as the exact same price.

Any thoughts?

going from 205/50/17 to 205/60/16 results in the following:

Speedometer reading with the non-stock tire is 2.4% too slow.
When your speedo reads 60mph (96km/h), you are actually travelling 61.5mph (98.4km/h).

source: www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

it\'s within the +/- 3% for tires. you now have taller overall gearing, so your odometer will be off greater than if you had a 205/55/16 tire (which is only a 0.8% difference).

[lawgman]

Originally posted by MajesticBlueN



going from 205/50/17 to 205/60/16 results in the following:

Speedometer reading with the non-stock tire is 2.4% too slow.
When your speedo reads 60mph (96km/h), you are actually travelling 61.5mph (98.4km/h).

source: www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

it\'s within the +/- 3% for tires. you now have taller overall gearing, so your odometer will be off greater than if you had a 205/55/16 tire (which is only a 0.8% difference).


Any thoughts on why my Mazda dealer would use these?

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by lawgman

Any thoughts on why my Mazda dealer would use these?

your guess is as good as mine.

maybe they had an abundance of them in stock and wanted to get rid of them. maybe they didn\'t have the 205/55/16 in stock and decided \"rather than order the proper size, let\'s put these ones on since they fit\"?!

which dealership was it?

[wongpres]

P205/60R16 is the OEM Mazda6 16-inch tire size. The delership probably just decided to use the same size for both Mazda3 and Mazda6. Like Magestic says, which dealer?

[lawgman]

Originally posted by MajesticBlueN



Originally posted by lawgman

Any thoughts on why my Mazda dealer would use these?

your guess is as good as mine.

maybe they had an abundance of them in stock and wanted to get rid of them. maybe they didn\'t have the 205/55/16 in stock and decided \"rather than order the proper size, let\'s put these ones on since they fit\"?!

which dealership was it?

They had 205/55/16s in stock. That is what I thought I was getting. In any event, I just spoke with the guy at the dealership who is in charge of the tires and he indicated that he will change them to the 55s if I want. He indicated that he tends to put the 55s on the sedan and the 60s on the hatchback. He claims that with the hatchback\'s longer wheelbase, he can put the slightly larger tire and he feels the car will get better perfromance in the winter. In his opinion, the impact on the speedometre and odometre will be negligable. Any opion on whether I should change to the 55s?

FYI, Gyro Mazda. I also got my Mazda 6 winter tires there last year without a problem.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by lawgman

They had 205/55/16s in stock. That is what I thought I was getting. In any event, I just spoke with the guy at the dealership who is in charge of the tires and he indicated that he will change them to the 55s if I want. He indicated that he tends to put the 55s on the sedan and the 60s on the hatchback. He claims that with the hatchback\'s longer wheelbase, he can put the slightly larger tire and he feels the car will get better perfromance in the winter. In his opinion, the impact on the speedometre and odometre will be negligable. Any opion on whether I should change to the 55s?

FYI, Gyro Mazda. I also got my Mazda 6 winter tires there last year without a problem.

straight from mazda.ca, the sedan and the sport have the same wheelbase.

it\'s negligible depending on how you look at it....if you drive 1000km over the winter with the 60s on, you\'ve actually driven 1024kms. if you drive 10,000km over the winter, you\'ve actually driven 10,240kms.

which works out for you, if you plan to sell it since, in this case, the odo will always show the lower value :)

[lawgman]

All this is weird because they have no shortage of well rpiced Pirelli tires. I may decide to talk to the service manager to find out what went wrong. In any event, Gyro (or its owner) is a pretty large distributor of Pirelli tires. So, you can get the WinterCarving (in the correct size if you ask :)) and mazda steelies for $720 plus tax installed. Last Year I purchased the Winter 210s + steelies for my Mazda 6 for $850 plus tax (+$50 for authentix mazda wheel covers).

[everfeb]

Originally posted by lawgman



Originally posted by MajesticBlueN



Originally posted by lawgman

Any thoughts on why my Mazda dealer would use these?

your guess is as good as mine.

maybe they had an abundance of them in stock and wanted to get rid of them. maybe they didn\'t have the 205/55/16 in stock and decided \"rather than order the proper size, let\'s put these ones on since they fit\"?!

which dealership was it?

They had 205/55/16s in stock. That is what I thought I was getting. In any event, I just spoke with the guy at the dealership who is in charge of the tires and he indicated that he will change them to the 55s if I want. He indicated that he tends to put the 55s on the sedan and the 60s on the hatchback. He claims that with the hatchback\'s longer wheelbase, he can put the slightly larger tire and he feels the car will get better perfromance in the winter. In his opinion, the impact on the speedometre and odometre will be negligable. Any opion on whether I should change to the 55s?

FYI, Gyro Mazda. I also got my Mazda 6 winter tires there last year without a problem.

lawgman...did you keep the 205/60/16 winter tires? If so how were they?

Or if anyone else has put this tire size on their 3, how are they. I\'m looking for a softer ride and am considering getting 16\" steelies and tires for the winter.
205/60/16 WILL FIT the OEM 16\" x 6.5\" alloys and steelies no problem...RIGHT????Thanks
everfeb
everfeb