Sumitomo HTR Z III from tirerack for $669 delivered.

235/50/18 F
255/45/18 R

They got great reviews and seem like a nice alternative to the more expensive options out there.

FWIW, I'm at 36k miles on the stock tires with about 20k highway use. Not too bad. Back tires are past the markers, fronts aren't at the markers in the middle, but are on the sides.

Update. PICS

1st pic is a "before" shot with stock tires. The next three are the new tires.

 

36k on 140 Treadwear Potenzas might be a record
I' ve got 21k on mine at 4/32nds tread left, might make it to 24k but I think I'll be getting some next month.
You'll probably get 60k on those new treads

 

Probably not (on the 60k thing). The 20k in highway miles wasn't me driving. It was the guy who I bought the car from. He put 25k on the car in 9 months. He had a 2 hour commute to work.

 

arent the factory tire sizes

Front: 225/50 R18
Rear: 245/45 R18

on the sport model?

 

Yes, he went up a size in front and back. Works great

 

i thought about doing it with mine. it will probably help mileage as the rpms will be a smidge lower at a given mph and it'll help fill the well on an unlowered car, not too mention add a smidge of ground clearance doing so.

 

I don't think it'll impact mileage. The difference is only like 2%. The added weight of wider tires will probably negate this gearing benefit.

What's funny is that it'll probably fix my speedo. Currently, my speedo reads faster than I'm actually going.

 

Yes.

And that only gives you two options on tires to buy. All season goodyears or the stock tires that come with the car.

 

your probably right.

 

wouldn't 235/45/18 and 255/40/18 be more ideal in keeping factory rolling diameters?

 

Here's the best tire calualtor I've found:

I've crunched all the tire numbers and IMO the best way to go is 245/45/18s all around, thios gives you dozens of tire choices and you can sometimes get further discounts if you get a set of four of the same size, the width isn't really significant and it keeps the diameters in range.

Here's the range of tire sizes listed plus a 20" tire for those wanting to go large
Stock:
Front: 225/50/18~681.99 mm
Rear 245/45/18~677.67 mm

235/45R18~668.52 mm
255/40R18~661.16 mm
235/50R18~692.15 mm

And for the big-dub 20s
245/35R20~679.45 mm

 

For those living in America:

stock bridgestones:
225/50/18: 27"
245/45/18: 26.7"

Sumitomos:
235/50/18: 27.3"
255/45/18: 27"


Sizes you asked about. These are too small IMO. The lower profile will ride worse and make the gap look too big (unless you lower the car).
235/45/18: 26.4"
255/40/18: 26.1"

IMO, going up by .3" is better than going down by .6". It's only a 1.1% difference in height and will thus make the speedo off by 1mph at 100mph. Perfectly acceptable IMO.

 

I thought about that. But, with the stock tires, the front already bulge more on the wheel than the rears. Going up two sizes will only make the difference more obvious.

 

I like your tire size combo, only problem, the tires I now have decided upon (Falken Ziex912s) aren't available at Discount tire in the 255s, but they do make the 235/50 fronts and 245/45 Rears, I think that will be better and still take advantage of the staggered wheels. Think that should be decent?

 

No, here's a good calculator:

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.dos