I have a Silver '05 Honda accord sedan DX, I am interested in putting some 17 inch rims(replacing the 15 in. hub-caps) and thus having to get new tires as well. I'm new to all of these brands and types of wheels and tires. I'm not looking to spend that much money, I'm willing to fork out about 800 bucks. What brands are mid-priced but still good preformance? rims as well as tires..

I got a quote at TiresPlus for a set of sx5's(no tires) installation included at 820.29.
Thats the only base i have to work off right now..and I heard montigi's are expensie so i'm curious to see what brands are similar yet less expensive.

Thanks

Daniel

 

Your car came from the factory with 195/65-15 tires, so the best 17" tire size is 205/50-17, which fits nicely on a 17x6.5 or 17x7 wheel. I assume from your location that you never drive in snow or frigid cold, so you can benefit from the higher performance of summer tires. I recommend either the Avon Tech M500 ($94/tire in 205/50-17 at the Tire Rack) or the Kumho Ecsta SPT ($96/tire). Both offer very good dry traction, excellent traction in rain, reasonably long treadlife, and relatively low price.

 

When you say "195/65-15" What do the first two numbers stand for? I get that 15 stands for the D. of the wheel but what are the other two?

Thanks for the reply

 

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The tread width is 195 millimeters. They call 65 the "aspect ratio"; it means that the height of the sidewall is .65 * 195 mm = 126.75 mm. The outer diameter of the tire can then be calculated as the wheel diameter plus two times the sidewall height.

The reason 205/50-17 works well is that the outer diameter is almost exactly the same as the stock size. The outer diameter of 195/65-15 is 24.98 inches; the outer diameter of 205/50-17 is 25.07 inches. With the same outer diameter on a wheel that's two inches larger in diameter, each sidewall is about one inch smaller in height.