Tire question....

[muleskinner]

I'm on Tirerack.com and trying to find the stock size for the Festiva. I want a good brand, like Yokohama, but all that is coming up is a 145 R12 or a 165 R12. I would like to get the 155 R12, which are on the car now, but they don't carry that size unless I go with the Classic brand, which I never heard of.

Would the 145 or 165 make a difference in handling or ride??? Has anyone tried these sizes?

Thanks.

[TominMO]

I seriously doubt you could tell a difference in these sizes. I don't think there are any high-quality 12" tires available. If you step up to 13", you actually have options for good tires, like the Kumho Solus in 155/80x13. They work very well and last about five minutes less than forever.

You can even mix and match 12s and 13s. When I originally got my Festy, I put new 13s on front and still had the 12s on the rear. All of them were 155/80 tires, and I had no funny handling anomalies.

[htchbck]

If you can find a set of 13s off Geo Metro I'd go with those and Solus in 155/80R13. Thats what I have on Green Car and they are a great ride and last a long time. CHEAP too... $36/each plus install here. I install my own, but I doubt install would run ya much more than $15/each. So ~$200 for a set of 4 installed, thats probably less than you would bay for elcheapo 12s, and a much nicer tire to boot. As for 12s, I've run 145s, 155s, and 165s. As long as you have all four matching, or at least 2 and 2 (matching ones on each axle) you should be good to go.

[rmp2711]

I bought 145 R12 Yokohama Y372 from Tirerack.com back on 8/27/10. I had 155 R12 on the car before that,bought them locally.don't remember where. Had to special order them. They were either Korean or japan brand tires. I think they were kumo or something like that,but were not classic brand.I don't think there was much difference in handling. you can't go wrong with the Yokohama's. They are still on my car now and have good
tread left.

[Bert]

145s were OEM for ordinary Festys whereas 165s were unique to GL and LX versions that had 1/2 inch wider alloy wheels. 155s seem to be a compromise to appease to all the old Metro, Tercel, Festy etc drivers out there with 12 inch rims. 155/80s are a bit taller and wider than the originals but won't interfere with anything.

[MasterTec]

I got the 165 yokos on mine. They've been great tires so far but when they're worn out I'll be upgrading to 13" wheels...

[Team Lightning]

My Festiva new came with Yokohama 145-12.

[greenbullitt]

I have the kumho 12s on mine

[Chobobulous]

I have sears 12in presently. Rides like poop

[Bert]

I have sears 12in presently. Rides like poop

I have never ridden on any make or model of 12s that didn't roll/ride as you describe. Seems to me once premium tire makers abandon a specific rim size all you can get after that is 2nd and 3rd rate junk. Any day now 13s will fall entirely out of favour and that will be the end of decent rides on those too.
I have to admit to having become nervous as 12s were being phased out at most tire shops and that sure speeded up my efforts to do an Aspire swap. The fact that early Rio wheels are direct fit on Aspire components was an added bonus; now I'm riding on good grade 14s.

[muleskinner]

When I got my Festy it had 13" wheels on it. The wheels had spacers on them which I didn't like. Plus I wanted the 12" stock wheels on. I actually liked how the car drove with the 12" wheels compared to the 13".

What wheels do I have that needed the spacer on them???

Does the Geo Metro 13" wheels need spacers for the Festy???

[TorqueEffect]

No they don't need spacers at all.
The 13"s you had before were probably off some Honda.

I am running them right now. Going to buy a pair of Kuhmo Solus tires next payday for the two fronts. Uncut Rio struts screwed up the junkyard tires pretty bad. Backs are still the same as the day I got them from the yard, with a huge amount of tread still left.

Got the old struts back on until I can get the stock springs put on the Rio struts.