Just purchased a Black Chevy HHR 2007. Very nice ride. I am in the process of purchasing winter tires to install on my spare 16" rims. Currently stock summer tires are 215/55r16. I dont have many options in this size so I wanted to know if its safe/ok to change up a little.

I did find a website that allows you to enter the tire size and tells you the difference between stock and the ones you select. It seems that the 195/60R16 dont have that big of a difference, followed by 225/55R16.

Any advice?

 

It really wont matter one way or another. Different sizes will throw your speedo off a bit if the overall diameter changes. I have ran 215/50r17, 225/55r16 and today went with 215/55r16. I wanted a taller narrower tire for fuel economy. But they were higher than a performance tire, so I just stayed with a performance one.
Good luck.

 

Why change your tire size? Firestone makes one of the best winter tires for the money on the market. The Winterforce.
I used this tire in stock size on all four corners on my 09 panel, and never had an issue of grip.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....wtpackage=true

 

you dont have problems as long as you dont go too wide, and if you go too narrow the ground clearance could be issue.
i just purchased 205/55/16s for winter

 

you've some good answers. narrower is considered better by most for winters. a 205/60-16 is really close in size. look at those too.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Im eyeballing the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 Studded 205/60R 16 to replace my current winter tires on rims, 225/55R 16. Im glad the size will fit.

 

hakkapeliitta 7s are really great tires, i just couldnt afford them, so I bought older hakkapeliittas from sale. I did not know that the spike tires are allowed in Canada?!

 

They are allowed in northern ontario from nov 1st to april 31st only.

 

if interested here is test results (made for TRUE winter driving; emphasis on snowy and icy road driving, not summerlike circuit record breaking like mid-european tire tests have):

Best of the best are these three which have been among top-3 on most tests:
Nokian hp7
Continental contilice,
goodyear u-g arctic

Here is link to plain results of two leading finnish tire test magazines;
http://www.rengasvertailu.fi/talvire...ngastesti-2013
http://www.rengasvertailu.fi/talvire...ngastesti-2012

test results are in finnish, but you can translate them at google

nowadays the differences on same market-area tires are really minimal. just make sure when you buy tires that they are R, S or T speed class, not too-high-fast made-like U or V-class rated is made for emphasis on free speed autobahn-motorways)