I've been tasked with finding good replacement tires for a family member's late-90s minivan. The tires it takes are P205/75R14. However, unfortunately it seems to be an uncommon tire size these days so there are only a few tires out there to choose from: on TireRack it's either the Hankook Optimo H724 or the Kumho Solus KR21's. Neither of them got very good reviews.
Walmart carries the Goodyear Viva 2 tires, and they're priced well and I feel more comfortable buying the Goodyear brand, but the reviews I'm seeing for them aren't very good either.
However, if I go up/down in the width and/or aspect ratio a bit, there are way better tires to choose from; for example by going down 5 in the aspect ratio from 205/75/14 to 205/70/14 I can get the relatively highly regarded Michelin Defender tires. And by going down both 10 in the width and 5 in the aspect ratio to 195/70R14, the General AltiMAX RT43 tires, also relatively highly regarded, become available as a choice.
So my question is, how safe is it to go with a slightly different width and/or aspect ratio and if it is safe, what would be the max I should deviate from the OEM tire size of 205/75/14? If it's not safe or recommended, can anyone recommend good tires for that OEM size?
Walmart carries the Goodyear Viva 2 tires, and they're priced well and I feel more comfortable buying the Goodyear brand, but the reviews I'm seeing for them aren't very good either.
However, if I go up/down in the width and/or aspect ratio a bit, there are way better tires to choose from; for example by going down 5 in the aspect ratio from 205/75/14 to 205/70/14 I can get the relatively highly regarded Michelin Defender tires. And by going down both 10 in the width and 5 in the aspect ratio to 195/70R14, the General AltiMAX RT43 tires, also relatively highly regarded, become available as a choice.
So my question is, how safe is it to go with a slightly different width and/or aspect ratio and if it is safe, what would be the max I should deviate from the OEM tire size of 205/75/14? If it's not safe or recommended, can anyone recommend good tires for that OEM size?