winter tires for 2012 Prius v

In theory the 17" tires would fit but they would be dinky looking! They (24.7") are 1" shorter than your OE tires (25.7") so you will lose ground clearance and look silly.

TireRack.com has the X-Ice Xi3 for $390 using the $70 rebate. Costco should have a similar deal. IMO getting tires from the dealership is like wearing slutty clothing to the prom. You're just asking to get.....

 

I did a study and found that older Camry amd Mazda MPV or Milenia 15 inch rims cound be used with 215x65x15 tires and be only + 1.2% difference in the rolling circumference.

When using winter tires, I might be wrong but the greater flexibility of a higher sidewall means better contact with the road as well as better comfort.

The 17's might look more pleasing, but might not also perform as well.

 

A 205/65/15 would also work. Revs per mile is 817 vs. the OE size 810. The 215/65/15 would give you more ground clearance though. Good find!

 

I can recall that during the 1960's and '70's the craze was into beach buggies and off roading. It that era, the style trend was to put large donut tires on small wheels for better performance in sand.

The same paradigm holds true for tires for snow. So, the 15's would perform much better than the 17's and even 16's.

 

It works for fuel economy too. LOL

 

The current trend of larger wheel and smaller tires, I recall, came out of the East L.A. "lowrider" movement in the early 1980's and 1990's, that was adopted by the mainstream at the beginning of this Century.

Like the sexy woman wearing a pair of high heels, the large wheel low sidewall tire sacrifices comfort, ride and other important functional benefits for the sake of fashion and looks.

 

You forgot that handling is mucho enhanced.

I don't think the larger wheel look came from East LA. the smaller tire look very possibly did but most lowriders were known for small wheels with small sidewall tires. Most people could barely afford 15" Daytons let alone 17" Daytons! lol Back in 1990 I was moved to the larger wheel look because of the Sport Truck fad. I remember my first set of 17x11 wheels and 315 wide tires. People were in awe of such larger and wide wheels. lol

 

Clearly on dry smooth well paved smooth roads. However, not all roads are smooth and flat or always dry.

 

It applies in 90% of the regular road conditions. Now air pressure can change a lot of this. The problem with a 15" tire and tall sidewalls if how easy it is for the contact patch to lift or deform because of the excess sidewall flex. Having driven 15s and 17s on a GenII and GenIII for the last 7yrs there has not been a single instance where the 15s out-handled the 17s. Remember that even with 17s the width is still pretty small. We're not talking about 275/45/17 tires here. Simply adjust your tire pressure according to the surfaces you drive on. Lower pressure for rough roads and higher pressure for smooth roads and high speeds.

That being said, I still agree with your general premise. Use the 16s or 17s for summer and get a set of 15s for winter.

 

Firestone Winterforce on Sport rims from Tire Rack. Had the rims from a winter package I bought for my RAV4 a few years ago. Already went through its first storm of the seasonand performed well.