[GenCoupe88]

I just got my car this week and want to buy snow tires for it. Since the car comes with staggered tires, do I risk anything by going with a set of four same width tires? It would save me some cash that I really don't want to part with right now.

 

[Merkles]

get a good set of all seasons... problem solved

 

[krautastic]

Your tire heights need to be different for your traction control to work properly. I think you can run the same height tires front and rear, but over 60mph the traction control will trigger. Not sure of the stock heights at the moment, someone can chime in, but you'll want to get close to the stock heights front and rear for ease of driving. Your wheels can definitely be the same front and rear if you wanted to save money there.

 

[GenCoupe88]

Your tire heights need to be different for your traction control to work properly. I think you can run the same height tires front and rear, but over 60mph the traction control will trigger. Not sure of the stock heights at the moment, someone can chime in, but you'll want to get close to the stock heights front and rear for ease of driving. Your wheels can definitely be the same front and rear if you wanted to save money there.

I am getting 17's all around, but I was wondering about the tire width. Stock for the car is 225 up front and 245 in the rear. I would be getting 225 all around I believe.

 

[krautastic]

Right, the stock tires are 225/40 and 245/40, which means that their aspect ratios are the same, despite the fact they are two different widths, which also means their heights are different:

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/km Difference
225/40-19 90mm 331mm 663mm 2082mm 480 0.0%
225/45-19 101mm 343mm 685mm 2152mm 465 3.4%

By you saying that you're getting the same widths back and front, you would have to get a taller series tire for the rear (like a 40 series in front and a 45 series in rear, you'd need to figure out what size 17's get you back to the numbers above), or else the car would be pretty useless on the highway with traction control on. The car doesn't care if you have different widths, just different heights. It might be a bit more tail happy though with equal widths in the dry, since you're reducing the effective grip of the rear, but for snow, thinner tires are generally better so they can bite down through the layers.