thinking of buying tires. help?

Susann, It always helps us to give you a better answer if you give us the year make and model of your car. If it's front wheel driven or you plan on rotating your tires they all should be the same size tires. If you'd like to plus size your tires tirerack.com can tell you what larger sizes will fit without causing clearance problems. Tirerack.com has a toll free # @ 1-888-541-1777.

You really should not trust anyone including me to suggest putting any other size tires on your car than what it came with. Tirerack sells custom wheels and tires. They'll know exactly what and what does not fit.

You need to match the complete description, for example:

P215/60R17 95H

The "P" means the tire conforms to Passenger Metric load and inflation requirements. A tire that does not have the P at the front of the size is European Metric and may have different inflation requirements but is otherwise dimensionally identical.

The "215" is the section width of the tire or how wide it is at its widest point - which is NOT THE TREAD - in millimeters.

The "60" is the section height or the height of the tire measured from bead to the top of the tread as a percentage of the section width. Or in other words the sidewall height is 60% of 215mm. Tires with a different section height will have a different overall diameter which can effect gearing, speedometer and odometer accuracy so you want to use tires of the same profile as

"R" = radial construction

"17" is of course the rim diameter

"95" is the load index, this tells us how much weight (load) the tire can carry at specific inflation pressures.

"H" is the speed rating and in the example equates to 130mph under specified test conditions. Depending on the vehicle the speed rating may be lower (S or T) or higher (V, W, (Y) or Y) than the example. Tires with a higher speed rating tend to have different ride, handling and braking characteristics so it is not recommended to reduce the speed rating of your tires below what was originally installed on the vehicle.

There are literally hundreds of different 17" passenger and light truck tire sizes so it is important to get the details correct.

Yes, if your rims are 17" rims, you need to buy 17" tires. You don't need to necessarily match the original size of 215/60 - 17 though.

You can also go with 235/55-17, 255/50-17, both of which will increase your section width without increasing the diameter of the tire (which may throw off your speedometer). However, before changing the size be sure you have the clearance under the fender and by the suspension parts. The sizes above will make the tire "bulge" out from the rim a bit more than your current tire. That will slightly increase the contact patch (the amount of tire touching the ground) making for better traction, but it will also increase the rolling resistance (which might reduce your mpg).

I'd suggest looking at tires on http://www.tirerack.com/ or http://www.tires.com/ both allow you to punch in your current tire size and will offer alternative sizes and great prices.

First off you do have it right with the P215 being the tread width and the 60 being the profile. Plus one in the tire industry refers to increasing wheel diameter not tire size. I have to somewhat agree with Country Boy in not letting people make recommendations to you in what size tire to put on your vehicle. There are obviously some people on here that think they know what they are talking about and really don't. You can increase your tire size if you wish. Increasing tire width is usually not an issue as long as you stay with the same overall diameter. Today's vehicles use wheel speed sensors for the ABS and shift points for automatic transmissions. Changing overall tire diameter can negatively affect these items. Your best bet is to find a reputable and knowledgeable tire dealer in your area and discuss your options with them. I am going to give you the specs for your tire size so that you have them and can compare those to any recommendations that your dealer may give you. Your tire has an overall diameter of approximnately 27.1 inches and a section width of approx. 8.5 inches. You will want to stay pretty close to that overall diameter but you can increase that section width as long as there are not any clearance issues on with your vehicle. A P235/55R/17 would be an acceptable replacement with an overall diameter of 27.0 inches and a section width of 9.6 inches. Increasing tire width can be beneficial in the fact that it does give you a larger contact patch (the amount of tire in contact with the ground also called a footprint) which in turn can result result in better braking and handling. You will most likely find that the P215/60R/17 is less expensive than increasing size as to do so properly would put you into the performance tire category which typically results in higher prices. Hope this helps.

As long as it fits your rims, the answer is yes. You have it reversed though, treadwidth is 60R profile is P215

It's generally accepted that you either put the same size tire on, or go what's called +1. It's the next wider version. I would get original size. They always try and upsell you tires. Like Zeke at the tire shop knows more than the car and tire engineers who put the car together. Yeah right.

Everybody knows not to mix cross ply and radial!

If you can take off the worst 2 tyres and put the 2 new on the back! because thats where you need the most grip