I purchased a used 2015 Honda Fit LX in April 2018 & only had my tires rotated once. Whoops!
Long story short, only my front tires are worn down pretty badly & will be replaced (hopefully tomorrow).

I don't have much knowledge in regards to cars, but I've been doing some online reading trying to sort this out on my own. Just hoping to get feedback from a human as well!

Rear tires are stock Firestone's 185 60/r15. I went to my local tire shop today thinking I would get two new Yokohama Ascend GT's, however the sales rep said those aren't made in 185 60/r15. The rep recommended that I get the GT's in 195 60/r15. He assured me that they wouldn't make a difference with turning, handling, etc.

I'm a bit concerned about the tires being wider tires, only because they aren't even the same brand as the rear tires.
I'm assuming they'll put the new tires on the rear, as this is what's generally recommended.

My concerns:
Will these change the feel or handling of the ride?
When I have my tires rotated, will they wear unevenly since they are different widths?
Should I just get the Avid Ascends in the stock size? (~same price; GT's are supposed to offer better traction & wear; Avid Ascends come with 85,000 mile warranty, GT's 65,000)
Will this effect speedometer, odometer or mpg?


Thanks!



Size difference

 

I would personally get the matching size or depending how close the rear are to going bad get all 4 new ones. In the shop once and done for 60+k miles.

The shop I worked at put new tires on the front since they steer the car.

 

I'd suggest getting 4 new tires. There are threads here about choices. Tire Rack was great for me.

 

I'd want four of the same tires just so they have the same amount of traction, same feel, same reaction to different temperatures, etc. That being said, if there was something inherently wrong with having different sized tires front and rear, there wouldn't be a bunch of sports cars that do exactly that. Of course, they're putting down a lot more power to the drive wheels, so they have a reason to run staggered wheel/tire sizes.

The biggest problem I can imagine is tripping the TPMS, since it extrapolates tire pressure by checking the wheel speed at each corner. A smaller rolling radius would look like an underinflated tire to the computer, not sure how much difference there needs to be to set the light off.

I've mixed brands twice before. Once with stickier tires on the back of an old BMW, and it reduced the tendency to oversteer (previous owner had made some questionable suspension mods). Once with an NSX, and the rear tires sucked. It was dangerous for the few days it took good tires to arrive, but I think it would have been even more dangerous if I had the same bad tires on both axles.