Preface: I'm a car idiot, really don't know the first thing about how cars, wheels, and tires really work. Please talk down to my level.

Recently I bought my wife a slightly used '02 Mazda Protege. The previous owner had tricked it out with a couple of nice sporty additions, one of them being some low-profile tires that lower the vehicle a bit. The factory tires (which I don't have) used to be 185/65R/14 85S, while the tires that are currently on the thing are 205/40 ZR 17 84W. They are Toyo Proxes FZ4's.

We're finding that, while it's a pleasure to drive with these very different-feeling tires (different compared to other similar cars we've had) these tires handle HORRIBLY in rain. And I mean horrible. In our area today we had a lot of rain, and I couldn't go any faster than about 40mph because the car was skidding everywhere and hydroplaning.

Since neither me or my wife are car aficionados, we wouldn't know the first thing about alternatives. All we really care about is safety, and value.
So the major questions are:

(1) Are these low-profile tires generally worse in water? I would have thought they'd be better, but that's just my instinct.
(2) Any inexpensive ideas for solving this problem? I can, of course, buy new tires. Taking a quick look at tirerack.com, I see some budget tires that aren't reviewed very favorably in the $50-$80 range, and plenty of high performance tires for big bucks...which I don't have.
(3) Worth looking at replacing the wheels and going back to a more traditional size where I know I can get good budget tires? (On my very similarly sized Honda Civic, I've bought these awesome Pirelli tires that last forever and control GREAT, and they're cheap -- about $45/tire. But these Pirellis don't come in the low-profile size.)

Any other thoughts...bring em on, I'm all ears. Just make it safe, and make it cheap. I wish I knew people who had a similar car who'd trade with me! (I'm in the Nashville area.) Even though I know these wheels and tires are worth significantly more than the factory tires, if someone was here and offered to swap em out, I wouldn't even ask for compensation! I'd just take the factory wheels!

 

OK, I've done some more research on this now (even though no one's responded yet). I'm probably going to get rid of my wheels. Will sell them outright or trade them for factory size wheels for this car (+payment).

The wheels are Motegi Racing MR7's, silver. The tires are Toyo Proxes FZ4's. I took some dig cam pics of them:
http://www.daviddas.com/motegiwheels

Anyone interested, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

 

where exactly do you live?????

i might want to trade for some factory rims with brand new tires tha thaven't been installed yet..

 

sorry i missed that part regarding you're from nashville...nevermind.

 

ive got a set of 13" steelies with brand new tires if your interested. im from north of Atlanta. pm me, or email me with details...

 

How much tread is left on them? They look pretty worn. Perhaps that's your problem.

You WILL generally sacrifice wet weather performance for increased dry weather performance.