Hi guys!

 

I recently bought my Fabia Combi Comfort '03, which I really like. Thing is, I bought it from an area in my country where winter's are really mild, so all that came with it was 14" M+S tires without studs, so called all-round tires. These will not fly great where I'm from, so I need to step up my game before winter is coming. Now, I've thought about stepping into 15" alloys, but the local market for rims with 5x100 bolt circle where I'm situated is very dry.

 

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I find a guy that had an ad out for some 6x15" steel alloys with 195/50 stud tires and about 6 mm left. They had been sitting on a Golf vR6 up until now. Today, I couldn't wait anymore, so I called and asked if he still had them, and yeah he did, and we set up a meeting.

 

Now, when I came home and went to look closer to the wheels, I made an ugly discovery. Three out of the four tires were indeed some retreaded 195/50 tires. Anyways, the forth wheel seemed a little bit off. I then noticed that it was in fact another brand. It was a Michelin X-Ice 2 wheel, and more important, it's dimensions was 195/55. This tire had ~1 cm larger rolling diameters than the others. Wow. This was not good.

 

I called the guy that I had bought the tires from. He said he was surprised himself, since he was actually selling the tires for the behalf of another guy. He had to look into it, and he'd call me back up. He did, and he said that there had been some problem with the forth wheel so that the guy had been to the local tire store where they had told him that they could not hook him up with his rare dimensions (195/50) and that 195/55 would do just fine. Hence the difference, and it was nothing, really.

 

Hey, I'm no expert, but it feels unlikely that any serious tire store would pop a 195/55 tire when the other three are 195/50, or am I all out in the blue here? Also, I've clearly been at least ½ way skeemed here. It got obvious. Guy said that we could brake the deal, but then when I got to meet him in the pretty known problem-area of the city where our meeting went down, there was no answer on his phone. Called dozzens of times, no answer.

 

Anyways, this is really irrelevant. This is my very first private wheel deal, and I've learned my lesson. Now, I just need some advice here. I have ordered 2 pieces of 195/50 tires (Sunny SN3860, with studs) and I got them pretty cheap of the Internet. I'm thinking about changing one of the axles. I will either put the brand new Sunny tires on the front or rear, since opinions differ here I think I'll flip a coin or such, hrhr.

 

Well, to my real question. Will 195/50 on 15" be to profile-thin for a comfortable ride during the winter? Anyone here with actual experience? Also. The steel alloys that I got is original Volkswagen, with "ET38" stamped. I've read that Fabia original is ET35. Will these 3 milimeters cause me to need spacers, or would it be okey to go without spacers?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

TLDR:

 

1. Will 195/50 on 15" be _really_ uncomfy on the winter, or plausable endurable?
2. Will steel alloys with an 38 mm ET/offset work on Fabia (35 mm) without spacers?

 

Cheers!

1. No.

2. Yes.

3. Ok?