Quote:
Originally Posted by Selden
So, what tire size (other than stock) seems optimal for the 16" alloy wheels that come on the 2009 Fit Sport? Is a 195/55 (assuming there is such a size) going to be lighter than a 205/50?
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I can't speak for weight, but I just traded in the stock Dunlops on my 09 Sport with less than 200 miles on them for 205/55/16 Assurance TripleTred (all-season), and so far, so good, size-wise.
It looked close in front, but as soon as I picked the car up, I jostled the car around a parking lot, braking and accelerating with the wheels turned fully in either direction, trying to get it to rub--didn't happen. Excellent...
Then I took it to my favorite radar-operated "Speed Limit XX, Your Speed YY" sign to test out the speedometer. With stock tires, the radar sign read 1-2 MPH low with 50 MPH indicated on the speedometer. With the 205/55, on both passes at 50 MPH, the speedometer and radar sign both matched. In my experience, Honda speedometers tend to read a little higher than your actual speed, and the Fit seems to follow in that tradition. With the larger tires, that seems to have been alleviated. Great!
Next: The road trip. I just got home from driving 360 miles round trip, mostly interstate, on which I not once, but twice took the opportunity to check the odometer accuracy over 100 miles using the mileposts (once on the way up north, once coming back south). As expected, the odometer read a little low. It dropped just about 2.9 miles for every 100 miles of roadway. I guess I can live with that. These tires increase the effective gearing by about 3% over stock, so actual performance is slightly less (but still fine for me), but actual MPG is increased by the lower engine revs while cruising.
I took one nice section of winding road (MN-210 through Jay Cooke State Park), and whilst enjoying the Fit's nimble handling and the new tires' confident wet/dry grip, I was confronted with a deer standing in the middle of the road around a sharp left-hander. Before I knew it, I was already giving the ABS its first workout on the slightly damp road. The Fit with the Assurance TTs stopped with all the "assurance" I've come to expect from these tires (which I have 40,000 miles previous experience with on my 99 Accord). Even during this emergency stop on a corner, there was no rubbing from the 205/55s. Awesome.
Finally, the mileage check: I was hoping that the difference in tire size would help "calibrate" the notoriously optimistic average MPG computer, and while results are preliminary, I'm not disappointed. I drove an indicated 362.5 miles, which results in a corrected actual distance of 373 miles (362.5 mi X 2.9% = 373.01...). The trip computer calculated 39.8 MPG. Upon my return, I put 9.321 gallons in the tank, using the same exact gas pump I topped off with before I left. Actual gas mileage calculates to 40.0 MPG. Not bad. (Still have to average it over a few more fill-ups to be sure, but so far, the computer seems a lot closer to actual.)
So for me, with the stock 2009 US Honda Fit Sport rims, 205/55/16 seems optimal and then some.