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Hi guys,

I have a 2004 Toyota Runx and am planning to get a new set of tyres for it soon (all 4).

Currently it's running on 175/70/R14

Which is one of of the 2 that is on the label by the door:
175/70/14
185/70/14

I asked around to some of the tyre centers (hyperdrive, Bridgestone etc.) and they said that the 175 is much less common than the 185 therefore it's more expensive (for a decent budget brand like supercat...unlike the rubbish chinese made ones I have now).
So I asked them what the next size is and they suggested 185/65/14 ...which would have a smaller diameter than the 175 and ..not what's stated on the label by the door.
I then pointed them to the 185/70/14...but they said that the size is way too tall for my car and the weight would be heavier etc.

My concern for the 185/65 ratio is that with a smaller diameter...the inaccuracy of the speedo will increase even more...as I understand that all cars have speedos that are reading faster than actual speed for safety measure ....the 185/65 will make that gap even larger , thus more rev per mile right ?

I'm confused here, should i follow the label by the door , or the tyre center's suggestion ?

The 175/70R14 tyre is common and you shouldn't have a problem sourcing them. Bridgestone do the Ecopia, Firestone TZ700 and GT Radial have the Champiro - all available in this size.

See the following websites: Firestone and Bridgestone,
Tyres4U

I see.
Guess they were just trying to get me to upsize since at the time they didn't have stock of those ones you listed.

I'll get the 175 if i can.
Would there be any benefit in upsizing to the 185's ?

Thanks for the help!

The 185 tyre will have a larger circumference and therefore your speedometer will under read slightly (maybe around 2km/h at 100km/h), so you will actually be going faster than the speedometer will be indicating. I doubt that you will notice any difference with the different tyre size - unless you were a race car driver.

Cool thanks for that!

Does the AA recommend a particular tyre center ? (ie. Beaurepairs, Bridgestone, HyperDrive , etc.)

No, but remember that you get what you pay for. For this tyre size and application I would recommend the Firestone TZ700.

Thanks.
Yes definitely.
As the reason i'm replacing all 4 tyres are not because they're worn. In fact , 2 of them are brand new...but they're of some random chinese brand that i've never heard before ( even worse than Neuton, which is still somewhat known.)

It's rough, you can feel every bumps on the parking lot, cornering is a pain too ....don't get me started on the noise!

Thanks again Donovan.