If you already have 205's in front, just use 245's in the rear. 225/245 is okay, but not ideal. If your front 205's are pretty much gone, then I guess yah, 245's in the rear and move the 225's to the front would be cheaper. You don't want to find out about oversteer on the road

 

The thing is I just bought a 225 tire, if I could move it up front and buy another 225 and two 245's, I would rather do that then have to buy four new tires... which at the moment I just can't afford.

 

It depends on how you drive. You've already said you don't take it to the track. So if you don't take every corner like you want to see how fast you can do it without losing the rear end, then the 225s should be fine.

I just replaced the original rear tires on my MY02 with 225/50 Bridgestone RE750s. I was a little worried because of all the oversteer warnings I'd seen here. But that was about a month ago, and I haven't had any problems yet. But then, the fastest I take a 90 degree corner is about 30 mph. That's not exactly auto-x, but it's enough to get the passenger's attention (:-).

I suppose 245's would be even better, and would certainly look more like the OEM tires. But you're not going to slide around every corner with a high quality 225 width tire unless you're trying to.

[edited 10/01 to change understeer to oversteer]

 

if you're not driving hard, don't worry about it too much, I was just pointing it out so you knew about it. 225/245 should be run with a stiffer front bar, but you don't have to.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I think in the meantime I'm going to buy another 225 tire and replace the rear left tire... in a few weeks I'll buy the 245's and put the 225's up front. I was driving with a non-oem 205/225 setup for over a year now without any problems, so I don't think a 225/245 setup will be worse.

 

You may already know this, but the front and rear rims are different too, it's not just the tires. If you follow your plan you will need to dismount the 225s from the rear rims and mount them on the front rims and then put the new 245s on the rear rims. Just another step and cost to figure into your plan.

If I was in your situation, I'd get the correct sized aftermarket tires, 205/55/16 front and 245/45/16 rear and be done with it. Then, sell the slightly used 225 on this board or through eBay and recoup some of your expenses. Also realize that the 225 tires cost more than the 205 tires, so it really won't be as much of a difference as you think.

 

You should replace tires in pairs, front or back, and you won't have to worry about tire discrepancies. You should also do an alignment whenever you change tires. At least check the alignment on the machine, you may not have to make an adjustment, but only the alignment machine and a different driver can determine what the car is doing. We get so use to our own car, that some handling traits we may not recognize so easily.