I have Arctic Alpins on my BMW and on the Protege. They do well in dry conditions, are not much noisier than my Summer tires.

 

Everybody is talking about 15" but what about 14's. I was told the best tires would be 175/75/14 and they are cheaper

 

I have 13 inch Winter tires for my Protege and 15 inch for my BMW. This is 1 inch less than my standard summer tire in both cases. I would use 14s if I had 15's as the Summer tire.
You need to check on brake caliper clearance for smallest tire size. For example, 15 inch tires cannot go on the BMW 330i or the Boxster due to brake clearance. I don't know whether a Protege 5 can take 14's.

 

Yeah you got to be careful about clearing the brake caliper and I know the 15" steel rims do that so I am not worried. However I would think the 14" would be pushing it but you can try. Just make sure you get the right bolt circle radius for the lug nuts.

 

Talked to a couple local mazda dealer and they told me that 14" would be no problem except for the ABS kicking in more that with 15"

 

Is there really a massive cost saving going with 14" opposed to 15"?

I wouldn't take the word of ANYONE on fit, I'd do a test fit before you purchase anything.

Curious, why would ABS kick in more with a 14"?

Jay

 

No, there isn't. But there is a massive cost saving in going from a
16 to a 15. With wheels, the difference is about 50%.

 

I'm aware of this. Hence the reason I have 15" Steel wheels on my car in the winter.

Jay

 

Yeah, I'm curious too as to why the ABS would be affected by the size of the tire. I thought the ABS was a function of tire slip on the road so the ABS system should not even be aware of what size your rims are

 

Just a thought...

Maybe because the 14" rims would weigh substantially less, they'd be more prone to locking up than a 15 or 16" rim that would want to stay spinning. That whole object in motion bit, Centrifugal Force and all that...

Or maybe i'm just sniffing too much glue out in the parking lot..

 

The size of the tires won't change the ABS ! it works off tire slip not size, I don't think that a 14" would even fit but I could be wrong. The other problem would be the size of the side wall, going from a 16->14" your changing the size 2" in height, even if the 14" rims do fit I think they would look like **** on a P5

Just a thought


Jim