Team Fiat - Tyre Upgrade Guide

Tyre upgrade is one of the most important items; normally people prefer to go first. This is the basic contact between car and road, and these tyres harness the engine's power, allow the brakes to do their job and determine how successfully a car will go around a corner.

Upgrading tyre, immediately after delivery of new car is highly recommended, to fetch maximum buyback on OEM tyres.

There are two ways to increase the size of the tyre's contact patch--make it longer or wider. A longer patch would require the tyre's overall diameter to increase.
But increase the diameter of the tyre on most passenger cars and you may have few problems (Source - http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/maintenance/4281033)
1. The tyre might hit fender etc.
2. And because the radius of the overall tyre is larger, the effective gearing gets taller, slowing down the engine at any given speed - and robbing your car of acceleration.
3. Because of increased angular momentum--weight concentrated near the rim--the ABS calibration goes wacky.

So normally we prefer to go wider. We mount up a tyre with a wider tread and a lower profile for better handling.

Please note that a change in overall diameter of tyre and wheel might cause a slight error in your speedometer and odometers readings.

Please keep in mind, too low a profile will give you a very hard ride. So, 195/60 R15 is more comfortable on Indian roads than 205/55 R15. It's simple. Whichever tyre size has a higher sidewall is better for comfort.

For tyre upgrade, use this calculator, anything under 4% is acceptable.
A useful thread on Punto/Linea specific discussion - Tyre Upgrade Size



Basic - Tyre Reading
195/55 R 16
195 = Tyre width in mm. This is the amount of rubber that is in contact with the ground when the car is stationary.
55 is the sidewall profile. It is a percentage of tyre width. In this case, the sidewall height is 55% of 195, which is 117mm.
R = Radial tyre. R is just a random alphabet used to indicate that this is a radial tyre. Crossply tyres generally have D.
16 = Diameter of wheel/tyre in inches.


Picture below showing it clearly -



Options for Punto and Linea

Punto
Basic models come with 165/80 R14 size tyres. Top end variant comes with 195/60 R15 or 195/55 R16 (EVO) size tyres.

Below are few options which should be considered for upgrades for 165/80 R14 size tyres. For top end model, 195/60 R15 or 195/55 R16, are already best sizes available in Indian market, no need for any size upgrade.

1. On 14" steel rim - Go for 185/70 size tyres. Highly recommended.
2. Buy OE 15" steel rim, and Go for 195/60 size tyres.
3. Upgrade to 15" Alloys (OE or any 98 PCD aftermarket alloy) - Go for 195/60 size tyres.
4. And after EVO launch, there is option to think of buying 16” wheel and use 195/55 size tyres.

Linea
Except Classic variant, all models comes with either 195/60 R15 or 205/55 R16 size tyres. These are good sized tyres and doesn’t require any size upgrade. Classic owners can use Punto's suggestion, above.
Punto and Linea have nicely designed alloys, and considering 98PCD alloys tough to get in market, these are good choice to have.
Now with Punto EVO and new Linea launch, lots of new options are available.


Choosing Tyres
If comfort is your priority, choose one from Michelin P3ST or Yokohama AVS DB series.
Other pretty good tyres are - Michelin XM2, Bridgestone MY02 or AR 20, Yokohama C Drive, Apollo Alnac 4G etc.
Low end tyres but good reviews - Apollo Accelere, Yokohama Earth1, Yokohama A Drive etc.

These are just few recommended tyres, there are other lots of popular tyres in market.

Good reading - Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 1 of 4

^^ I would go for Apollo Acelere.

Both Apollo Accelere and Yoko Earth 1, are comparable tyres, choose anyone.

BTW, I travelled to Bihar in C Drive, without any issue. And Bihar roads were in much better shape, than other places in between.

One Linea in thw friend's circle is running with this. He is all praises for this tyre and he has done close to 10k kms.

@nkrishnap The website doesn't show 195/60 R15 size, http://www.yokohama-india.com/earth-1.html. Are other sizes available?

Current sizes available are 185/65 R14; 195/65 R15 and 205/65 R15.

"More to come soon" hearing this for a while and only 195/65 R15 was introduced. The website isn't updated.

Surprised to know this as I have seen two cars one Linea and one fluidic verna which have done 10k and 18k odd respectively. Neither of them are bothered about bad roads, they simple zoom on even bad roads.

Did you claim warranty and what did the tyre manufacturer had to say on this?