Fairly soon, I'm going to be getting new tires for my 1998 Saturn SW2 (the wagon version, for those who aren't familiar with the lettering system Saturn used to use). I have several questions that I would like to get answered here before I do that, though.
-- First, I wanted to ask about the (obviously non-OEM, cheap-o department store brand) tires currently on the vehicle. (I bought the car used a little less than a year ago, and these are what was on it at that point.) Does anybody know anything at all about the "Primera" or "Regul Select" brands of tires? I have Googled and Yahoo'ed in vain trying to find out about these. (It's got Primeras on the front and Reguls on the rear.)
-- Secondly, size does matter: at least the crap tires on there now are the OEM size, which is P185/65R15. I have done some playing around with tire calculators online, and it turns out that P215/50R16 is an almost exact match diameter-wise (it will keep the speedo, odometer, etc. within 0.04%, which is negligible). Aside from what I've already heard about wider, lower-series tires gripping better and giving a slightly rougher ride, and bearing in mind that I have had one P215/50R16 successfully fit-tested at a tire shop already, can anybody tell me what other pros and cons there are to P215/50R16 as opposed to P185/65R15?
-- Thirdly, does anybody have any particular recommendations in either size? It seems that P215/50R16 is an odd size and not too many tires are made in that size, but there are a few; I'm leaning toward the BFGoodrich Traction T/A with a V speed rating if I plus-size. If I stick to the OEM size, what brands/models would y'all recommend?
Thanks for the advice.