Tyre size choice

[Hamster#1]

My 1.25 Fiesta MK6 has 195/50R15 tyres and for me the ride is too harsh, especially over poor surfaces. Has anyone swapped to 175/65R14 wheels an tyres and if so did that improve ride quality to a noticeable degree?

[Luke4efc]

Sadly the Fiesta isn't designed so much for comfort. I can't stand doing long journeys in mine before the seats hurt my back or I start to feel every bump in the road. A nice comfortable BMW or Audi for me next I think!

I'd have said changing your springs for something softer would make more difference at this point. Plus 16" makes it look like you're running space savers. The tyres are so thin you'll fall into even the smallest pothole. It's like having ultra thin racing wheels/tyres on your bike lol

[TomsFocus]

11 hours ago, Luke4efc said:

Sadly the Fiesta isn't designed so much for comfort. I can't stand doing long journeys in mine before the seats hurt my back or I start to feel every bump in the road. A nice comfortable BMW or Audi for me next I think!

I'd have said changing your springs for something softer would make more difference at this point. Plus 16" makes it look like you're running space savers. The tyres are so thin you'll fall into even the smallest pothole. It's like having ultra thin racing wheels/tyres on your bike lol

Which BMW's and Audi's are comfortable?   They're designed for 100mph on a smooth Autobahn...shocking at low speed or on our rough UK roads, was so disappointed with the ride on the A3...BMW 3 series wasn't any better, even without runflats!  

12 hours ago, Hamster#1 said:

My 1.25 Fiesta MK6 has 195/50R15 tyres and for me the ride is too harsh, especially over poor surfaces. Has anyone swapped to 175/65R14 wheels an tyres and if so did that improve ride quality to a noticeable degree?

I think @isetta is running smaller steels on his Mk7 for a better ride so he may be able to help.  Bear in mind that dropping 20mm from each tyre is losing 80mm of contact patch across the car though.  That may reduce the grip noticeably particularly on damp roads, 185/55/14 might be a better compromise.

[Lenny]

29 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Which BMW's and Audi's are comfortable?   They're designed for 100mph on a smooth Autobahn...shocking at low speed or on our rough UK roads, was so disappointed with the ride on the A3...BMW 3 series wasn't any better, even without runflats!  

I think @isetta is running smaller steels on his Mk7 for a better ride so he may be able to help.  Bear in mind that dropping 20mm from each tyre is losing 80mm of contact patch across the car though.  That may reduce the grip noticeably particularly on damp roads, 185/55/14 might be a better compromise.

My workmate has a 2011 BMW M5 with the F10 V8 twin turbo engine 

#BreakingNecksDaily is an understatement, I got a lift home once 😅 raced a Kawasaki Ninja on the motorway was funny, 

Slowed down from 260kmh to let him catch up was 4 bus lengths behind hunkered down on the bike 😂

Give us thumbs up on way passed as we took the next exit. 

Nothing subtle about the V8 sound neither, 

Its red leather interior is quite comfortable with heated seats at the ride is static 

[isetta]

my mk7.5  is a diesel econetic which has 175/65/14 as standard.  

On my previous mk6.5  (2007) I changed from 195/50R15 to 175/65/14 . part of reason was damage to the alloys I had (from potholes etc), and I needed new tyres so I thought it was a good time to change. So I bought unused 2nd hand steel wheels on eBay, all of which had been unssed spares out of crashed cars etc. All had unused matching Bridgestone tyres on. And added some Tesco wheel trims (which were not that good but were cheap)

To be honest I never thought about if there was any change in comfort. In theory there should be but if at a noticeable level, I don't know. But it did help grip in snow as the narrower wheels tend to cut through the surface more rather than slithering about on the surface. 

[isetta]

prices on eBay vary a lot. I reckon I paid about £35-£40 each including postage

[David73]

On 12/1/2018 at 9:35 PM, Hamster#1 said:

My 1.25 Fiesta MK6 has 195/50R15 tyres and for me the ride is too harsh, especially over poor surfaces. Has anyone swapped to 175/65R14 wheels an tyres and if so did that improve ride quality to a noticeable degree?

Is your "harshness" to do with road noise (coarse road texture) or body movement (uneven surface)?

As tyres wear down they do get noisier because there is less rubber to soak up the noise. Buying new ones might help if they are below about 4mm . (Have you noticed how people always comment that their new Brand X tyres are better than their old Brand Y?)

As for body motion, I always considered my Fiesta was too floaty at the back and that the dampers needed more compression resistance - to better control the body after the trailing side of a bump.

Recently I put some TRW dampers on the rear with new Dunlop BlueResponse tyres (rear dampers are reasonable diy). Changing dampers is always a wing a prayer because there is no information about what one is buying but I find the effect I hoped for. There is less bounce coming off speed bumps and less motion induced by small defects such as gaps on concrete motorways and over broken tarmac. The new tyres have taken some of the edge off harsh surfaces. It hasn't turned the car into a limousine, obviously, but it does feel more settled. Would it be noticed in a blind test? I like to think it would.