i had 175 65 r15 when i got my fit..
shifted to 195 55 r15 @ 9000 miles.
grip is better and u can lower your car moar low with this tire if you wish to.
i did not feel any major kind of change in ride quality.

and moreover 195 55 are common tyres, so i think they should be pocket friendly.

 

FYI, 195/60-15 is the best replacement as it only raises the vehicle by .1" from stock and has a 1.1% difference at 60mph. (so you are about 60.5mph when the speedo says 60). Over Time, the tread will wear down by that much and more to the normal level.

Also Remember that if you replace your tires with something smaller, your odometer will run up faster (and in turn, your warranty will run out faster). If you replace your tires when the car has 0 miles on it with the 195/55, you will have actually only traveled 35,208 miles when your 36,000 mile warranty runs out.

~SB

 

Thanks for the great info guys

Im going to go with the Goodyear Eagle RS-A 195/60R15

Im going to get them from mrtire as they include everything in the price



$395.96 before state and federal taxes

Im hoping when they do the Alignment Check I wont need one

There is just sooo much info that I just want to finally get this done. I failed my inspection for 2 bad tires, so this is a must buy

Any opinion on my tire choice and size for my base 2009 fit?

There is warranty for this tire soooo I might switch to the

Yokohama - AVID Ascend which will actually be 375.96 total after I get the $60 visa prepaid rebate card mail in. The Yokohama - AVID Ascend has a 85k mile warranty

Should I get the Yokohama - AVID Ascend over the Goodyear?

Yokohama - AVID Ascend just sounds sexy

 

Yokohama - AVID ENVigor has about the same price with a lower 60k mile warranty

 

so getting 4 new tires I should always get an alignment to go along with it?

 

Doesn't hurt to have it checked, especially if it's free.

I don't check my alignment every time I get tires personally, but I am going to this upcoming tire change, third set of tires.

 

So total noob fit owner and not knowledgeable about cars:
So the manual says 175/65R15 tires on a 15 x 5.5J wheel

All you guys are putting different tires on and lots of people are going with 185/60/15 are you guys putting those on the OEM wheels with no fitting problem... These are just wider tires with a smaller sidewall right??

For Vermont dirt roads would you recommend the 195/60/15???

I just bought a used 09 fit and the tires need replacing... I just bought winter tires in the OEM size and wondering why the OEM size would be the best for winter...

 

These are all wider tires with a lower aspect ratio—that is, the ratio of the width to the sidewall height. The actual sidewall height, and hence diameter of the entire thing, is virtually the same except for the 195/55R15's. A 190/60R15 tire, if it existed, would be very nearly exactly the same diameter as the stock tire; 185 and 195 just split the tiny difference in opposite directions.

In my opinion (as a Vermont resident), for our dirt roads, the tire width isn't a huge concern. You're not generally limited by absolute tire grip or performance as much as by more mundane things like safe visibility and road surface roughness. Grip is as much a factor of the road surface integrity (loose gravel, washboarding, etc.) as tire size—though of course larger tires are still grippier on dirt roads, at least within reasonable limits.

For snow tires, narrower is generally better because it concentrates the weight of the car more, helping the tire to bite into the road underneath rather than float on top of the snow. A lightweight car with wide tires is not much fun in the snow. (Actually, in its way, it can be a lot of fun if you like driving excitement...perhaps I should say it isn't sure-footed.)

 

Thanks!
Totally agreed about our roads. Since I do need to get new tires once my winters come off I was looking into this. Glad I eased into the right decision about the winter tiers but they were more expensive than I thought they were going to be which seems mostly due to the rare size.

For my mud season and spring summer fall tires I was hoping to find something cheaper and if they perform mildly better that's great too.

Did you go with a different size... And just to be super clear you can use the normal stock wheels with all these different width tires?

 

195 is about the limit for the stock steel wheels. All of the sizes I posted would be fine for a GE on those wheels.

If you google "Miata.net tire calculator" there's a cool tool you can use that will show you a comparison between different tire sizes.

 

I am running on 185/60R15 tires (all seasons—I don't have winter tires, I live on comparatively major road that gets plowed pretty well). This was mainly at the suggestion of the tire store due to the comparatively limited selection in the stock size. I get a slight reduction in gas milage, probably slightly better handling overall, and a noticeably quieter ride. I also found the speedometer off by a little more than the calculators would suggest.

As Wanderer said, these tire sizes all work well on the stock wheels with the stock suspension setup.

 

As you increase tire size / weight / thread patch / rolling resistance, gas mileage suffers. I went from OEM (Sport) 185/55-16 to 205/50-16 and lost 2 MPG, on average. 100,000 miles / 32 MPG (now) = 3,125 gals versus 100,000 miles / 34 MPG (was) = 2,941 gals, so there is a 184 gal "penalty" for operating bigger tires over 100,000 miles. 184 gals x $3.50 / gal = $644 "penalty".


"BUT" the Continental DWS tires are better in hurricane driven rain, ice / snow (central Pennsylvania) than the Dunlop 7000 and have made the FIT more "sure footed" thus avoiding an accident costing $x000 in time and money. So, is it a worthwhile trade-off for the $644 in gas plus the tire cost differential? Only you can answer that.