Tire Concerns: Mazda CX7..... Hard to find tire

by Vincent Linarello
(Suffolk, NY)

I have a Mazda CX7 with 215/70R/17 tires. They are Bridgestone duelers which I never liked. I felt they wore out too soon. With 25000 miles on them, they have very little tread left. My question is since this tire size is a odd size and it seems bridgestone is the only tire that will fit,,,,,,can I use a 215/65R/70. There seems to be more options with this size.

Editorial Comment:

To be certain, I believe you meant to write 215/65/R17 for the alternate size because there is no existing tire that I am aware of which has the size you have written.

If 215/65/R17 is what you intended, I suggest that there are other size options that represent a better choice if you are wanting to stay as close as possible to the original performance of your car as possible. That is, sizes which do not deviate more than 2% from the original size.

Try our Tire Size Calculator and see what alternatives there are for your tire and you can see that you may get a fairly close match by going to a wider tire of 225/65 or a 225/70 and still remain within the 2% size range.

The size you have suggested is nearly 3% different and while that isn't a great difference (as far as numbers go) when you start to get into practice it sometimes is pushing things a bit further than many people feel comfortable with.

TG