Anyone tried a profile up? Do they fit? 

Generally seems to be a much cheaper size - getting on for 40 quid a tyre cheaper with decent brands - and it's definitely a car that would benefit from a little more edge being taken off the ride! 

Put your tyre sizes in here and see what the difference is:

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

10 hours ago, Johnnybriefs said:

Anyone tried a profile up? Do they fit? 

Generally seems to be a much cheaper size - getting on for 40 quid a tyre cheaper with decent brands - and it's definitely a car that would benefit from a little more edge being taken off the ride! 

Interesting to see someone else complain about the ride on these.  I specifically chose the Active expecting a smooth ride with tall independent suspension and chunky tyres.  Can't understand how they still managed to make it ride so poorly!

These tyres already have a considerable sidewall, I don't think adding another few mm to it will improve the ride in this case.  Can't say I've seen anyone fit larger profile tyres to these so far though.  You might just have to try it and let us know the outcome.

14 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Interesting to see someone else complain about the ride on these.  I specifically chose the Active expecting a smooth ride with tall independent suspension and chunky tyres.  Can't understand how they still managed to make it ride so poorly!

These tyres already have a considerable sidewall, I don't think adding another few mm to it will improve the ride in this case.  Can't say I've seen anyone fit larger profile tyres to these so far though.  You might just have to try it and let us know the outcome.

An expensive gamble.. 

I actually think it rides worse than the st line focus I drove before buying it. All the reviews specifically praised the active for its ride, so I'm puzzled. It's fine, but quite agricultural. 

9 hours ago, Johnnybriefs said:

An expensive gamble.. 

I actually think it rides worse than the st line focus I drove before buying it. All the reviews specifically praised the active for its ride, so I'm puzzled. It's fine, but quite agricultural. 

True, but someone has to be first!

Mine was definitely worse than the Titanium X I had before.

If yours is just an X with a small engine then it might only have twist-beam rear suspension which should be even worse than mine (on paper at least).

If it's a Vignale, estate or 2.0 TDCI then it'll have independent rear suspension.  That is the type I suspect reviewers would have got.

With an incorrect tyre size the car no longer complies to the vehicle type approval. I do not know the UK legislation but in some countries this can be a big issue. Especially when you are held 100% liable in case of an accident and the insurance does not pay.

It just may not be worth the risk.


To compensate for the increased ride height and still make the car handle well Ford made the suspension of the Focus Active a bit stiffer. This is well noticeable (especially on bad roads). It is a known fact that the Active is actually stiffer than an equivalent normal Focus. It is just the way they are designed.

If you want to test whether higher profile tyres actually improve the ride quality I suggest to test drive an equivalent Focus Active which has the standard 17 Inch wheels (215-55-17 tyre size).

I didn't find the Active to handle well either.  Rolled around corners and pitched and dived with acceleration and braking.  I have literally nothing positive to say about the suspension on the supposed flagship Active X Vignale Edition that I had.  They should have fitted adaptive suspension as standard in my opinion.

I couldn't buy a Vignale hatch as they put ridiculous wheels on those - rubber band tyres are not suited for a luxury model!  Wished I'd bought another Titanium X instead.  As it happens, I ended up buying another Golf for the ride comfort.

5 hours ago, JW1982 said:

With an incorrect tyre size the car no longer complies to the vehicle type approval. I do not know the UK legislation but in some countries this can be a big issue.

That's a very good point.

Quite a few Fiesta owners (especially ST) have noted that 225/40x18 tyres are cheaper than the recommended 205/40x18. Some have reported that tyre fitters have refused to fit the non-recommended size, others seem to have had no problem. I've not yet seen mention.of anyone failing an MOT test in the UK for that reason, though non-UK posters have confirmed it's a big issue in their country, as Wilco says.

It's quite difficult to find a sensible summary of the UK law, this seems as good as any:

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/car-maintenance/what-makes-your-tyres-illegal-the-complete-guide-to-be-road-legal/

The extract relevant to this point reads:

"Tyres that do not meet the specifications recommended by the vehicle manufacturer, including incorrect type, size, or load and speed rating, can be considered illegal."

 

Fair points. It's an active x estate. I suppose being an estate it's more likely to have bigger rear springs too. Maybe I'll just chuck 100kgs in the boot...

I had a Mazda many moons ago which was meant to have 215 18" tyres, but not many companies made that size and the only options were a fortune, so everyone used 225s.. Never considered whether it would be an insurance issue though, probably would be considered a modification now I think about. 

I guess it depends on whether they'd ever notice if I did write it off! Or if I did declare it, and I get three years out of a set of tyres, would the 150 quid saved be offset by the insurance increase?! 

Kind of all becomes moot, unless that half inch of sidewall makes all the difference to the ride! 

8 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

That's a very good point.

Quite a few Fiesta owners (especially ST) have noted that 225/40x18 tyres are cheaper than the recommended 205/40x18. Some have reported that tyre fitters have refused to fit the non-recommended size, others seem to have had no problem. I've not yet seen mention.of anyone failing an MOT test in the UK for that reason, though non-UK posters have confirmed it's a big issue in their country, as Wilco says.

It's quite difficult to find a sensible summary of the UK law, this seems as good as any:

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/car-maintenance/what-makes-your-tyres-illegal-the-complete-guide-to-be-road-legal/

The extract relevant to this point reads:

"Tyres that do not meet the specifications recommended by the vehicle manufacturer, including incorrect type, size, or load and speed rating, can be considered illegal."

 

There's no way it's illegal. My Mazda never had an issue on wider tyres, and my old fiesta always went through MOTs on enormous 65 profile snow tyres on little steels, and nobody cared. 

I can see STs going from a 205 to 225 is physically a big jump though, and they might just not fancy the comeback if there's an issue. 

Passing MOT is different to being legal.

MOT is just a minimum standard of roadworthiness.  That won't help you with an insurance issue.

Realistically I don't expect any insurance issues like this in the UK though.

 

Estate should have IRS.  I'm not sure whether the IRS springs were different between hatch & estate on Active trims.  At the time I found it odd they made so many different suspension setups for the Mk4.  Would have thought it was cheaper for design & production just to put IRS on all of the Actives but obviously not.

4 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Passing MOT is different to being legal.

No, as I said I've not seen anyone report a test fail in the UK. Likewise insurance issues, though you'd need to be in a pretty serious accident before someone was looking for hairs to split to refuse a claim.

It seems that the "refusal to fit" issues have been with the bigger chains - Kwik Fit in particular - being unwilling to fit any size not on the pillar sticker. I can see why a big outfit would take that view, and an independent fitter or local garage might not. It would be Interesting to see what attitude an official Ford service point would take - probably the same as Kwik Fit.

I've had a trawl of the web several times since first reading of the issue, and have yet to find a definitive summary of the official position, one way or the other.

Hi all, 

Really interesting reading this; I have recently acquired a lovely 2019 Active X hatch with the 18" alloys; it handles fine but is quite 'crashy & bashy' over rough roads, quite jarring through the seat too; which ironically is exactly the reason I went for the active, to smooth out our rough local roads! 

Has anybody here actually switched from the Active X's 18" alloys to the standard Active 17" wheels? & if so has it made any positive difference at all?! ... Keeping all tyre sizes exactly standard OEM, so 215/50/18 Vs the taller 215/55/17. 

Or better still swapping to 215/60/16!!! If they'd even fit over the calipers etc? 

Thanks all! 👍

Edited December 29, 2025Dec 29 by Leonardo101