Ride on 195 15;s vs 205 55's

Just wondering how much smoother the 195;s might be? I moved from a Passat to the wagon yesterday, and wish I still had that extra bit of softness given the roads we see in Canada;s east coast

Sidewall will always be your friend on less than perfect pavement.

I had no issues running 195-70-15 winters on the Jetta noticed a bit of improvement on bumps but less "feel" on corners not sure how much of that was sidewall or studded snows.

I ran 205-60-16 in summer, but ran them at 40-44PSI so that extra sidewall was kind of negated.

Smaller tires alre always cheaper so consider it a win win, many would be riding '15s except its not cool looking.

Test drive a TSI GSW S with the 15"s.

One consideration for 15" vs. 16": Aftermarket wheel and tire choice is significantly smaller for 15".

They'll ride softer but the difference won't be huge. I considered asking my dealer to swap wheels on my '15 with a TSI that had 15" wheels, but decided against it in part because I think the MKVII 15s are ugly. The MKVII definitely rides firmer than my MKIV cars with 15" wheels, but I think a lot of that is suspension tuning.

I'd give the suspension some time to break in. You might find it fine after a few months. And if you're going to get snows buy those on 15s to protect the wheels from winter potholes.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

I considered asking my dealer to swap wheels on my '15 with a TSI that had 15" wheels, but decided against it in part because I think the MKVII 15s are ugly.

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I went through the same decision process, hence my earlier comment about the limited choice of aftermarket wheels. Better choices are some of the 15" OEM B5.5 wheels with 45mm ET.

Chris Bell said:

I went through the same decision process, hence my earlier comment about the limited choice of aftermarket wheels. Better choices are some of the 15" OEM B5.5 wheels with 45mm ET.

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Which should work fine. I ran B5.5 Wellingtons on my MKVI Golf. The offset looked nice, moved the wheels out a bit.

More sidewall with less pressure will give you a smoother ride. Wheel width won't really make an impact. I run 215/55R17s and the ride is quite a bit smoother than the 225/45R17s that came from the factory, especially if I keep the tires
around 25-30 psi.

15" wheels will give you maximum sidewall. But, again, the best modification is the most expensive: aftermarket shocks and struts. I ran 195/65R15s in the snow at 25 psi and it was pretty good (on an A6 with OEM suspension).