95 Maxima GXE; 205/65R15 or 215/60R15 tires?

For the 205/65R15 tires, the sidewall is 133.25 mm tall, whereas the

215/60R15s, the sidewalls are 129 mm tall, so the 215s are 4 mm shorter . . .not much. The greatest differnce you'll feel with the 215 upgrade would be better cornering/handling/braking etc. The ride may become a weebit more harsh than you're used to, not much though. It would be a nice upgrade IMO.

CD

Disagree. I had 3 sets of 215's on my I30t until 95,000 miles (OEM Toyo, Bridgestone RE930's and RE950's). Then switched to 205's (Yoko dB S2's) and I have 15,000 miles experience on those. It significantly improved ride quality, with no particular sacrifice in handling, IMO. The tire choice itself will affect performance more than the nominally 10mm change in width.

If you read the original poster's question, he's pretty much doing the exact reverse of what you did.

CD

My '91 has the 205's standard, but I upgraded to 225/60R15's rather than the

215's. The diameter on the 225's was closer to the 205's than the 215's, so my speedo was not off at all. It should fit very nicely inside the wheel well.

One important factor in doing this is to know the width of your wheels. The '91 GXE had 6" wheels, but the SE (what I have) has 6.5" wheels. You can't put a 225 on a 6" wheel, but you can on a 6.5" or 7.0"

As a general rule, the less sidewall you have, the better the handling will be, and potentially the harsher the ride will be. In practice, both of these effects will be minimal when considering a 65 vs. a 60. It really won't matter until you get down to 50's and 45's. But, in this case, it is far more important which tires you choose rather than what size you choose. Good 205's will outperform cheap 215's or 225's.

Another thing to consider is upgrading to 16" wheels. They will probably outperform any 15" wheel you choose.

Bill G '91 SE Auto

225/60R15 BF Goodrich Traction A/T's