I have 15" rota slipstreams and 16" rota slipstreams and a 98 hatch. I hate the look of fat tires. I bought the 16's because I wanted the look of a thinner tire such as these:

But now I'm starting to feel like the 16's are a little too big of a rim and I just hit a curb and bent one...so my decision has now been pushed into necessity.

Is it okay to buy smaller tires than 195/55/15 or 205/50-15 for my 15's? My 16's have 205/45/16 tires. Can I get 205/45/15 or something like that?

edit: I just searched tire rack and apparently there aren't 205/45/15 size tires or even 195/45/15. Do I have any options to get the look I am going for? Or do I have to stick with 16's??

 

Not sue about EKs, but my friend with an EG hatch is running 195/50/15s on his 15 inch slips and they are fine. 16s look good BTW, just buy a new rim and watch out for the potholes.

 

stick with the correct size tire for the car. 15" should be 195/55 or 205/50.

 

you can use 195/50-16.

if you use too small of a sidewall you will need to lower your car more to compensate for using the WRONG sized tire.( you will have more fender well gap)

 

Yeah, eg's run smaller wheel/tire combos. Haha, thanks for the comment.

What are the repercussions? A speedo that is slightly off? anything else?

195/50-16 would be bigger than my current 205/45-16, right?

 

get some 195 45 15 my buddy bought some

 

That, and tire choices are better in the commonly used sizes, especially 205/50. There are quite a few great tires in that size, Kumho XS, Dunlop Star Spec, Yoko AD08, Bridgestone RE11, etc

 

There aren't any tires made in 205/45/15 or 195/45/15. I would stick with the sizes recommended for the vehicle. In your case, 205/45-16 is the best. It may not be aesthetically what you are looking for, but think about what's best for the car before you're make a decision based solely on looks.

 

I have always run 205/45-16 on my 16" wheels and never had a problem. They look great.

You CAN run 195/50-15 on your 15" wheels if you want to. It's not going to hurt anything and it's certainly not dangerous. You just need to be aware of the repercussions of doing so. The car body will sit a touch lower, but you'll also have a touch more fender gap. Your speedometer will be off a bit more, but will read higher than actual so no problems with speeding unknowingly. A benefit is that your effective final drive will be a bit higher, helping acceleration a bit, but then top speed will be a touch lower. But nobody should be going top speed off of a race track so that doesn't really matter.

Just educate yourself on the pros and cons of different tire sizes so you can make an informed decision.

That being said, 195/50-15 is definitely in order for the next set on my OEM GS-R wheels. I had that size before, then went up to 195/55-15 and I hate them. They look like butt and they rubbed like mad up uneven driveways before I hammered the frame rail seam out of the way.