Hi there... I need new tires for my wife's Subaru. I have a hole in the right rear tire on the outer sidewall. It's plugged for now, but I guess I need 4 new tires soon. The tires on there now are 215/45z417. The sticker inside the door says these are the stock size tires, but I was hoping I could get away with a higher profile tire without causing problems with the vehicle. So, what do you think? Am I best staying with the stock size, or could I go higher without problems? -Neanderthal P.

A higher profile will affect the speedometer. It will read slow due to the increased circumference of the tire. Depending on the increase in size the difference could be 1-2mph or up to about 10 mph before you run into fitment issues.

 

Check out the Miata.net tire size calculator. You can put in your stock size and the size you want to install and see what difference it will make.