Mixing 215s and 205s front and rear

[Elparkerio]

Hi - need to sort 2 new tyres on the front of my 2016 Shuttle and am looking at Cross Climates, BUT the rears are fine so don't need doing, and there's quite a price difference between the 215/65/16 and the 205/65/16 versions. My rears are 205, and what I'm trying to find out is - Is it safe/acceptable to have 215s on the front and 205s on the rear?
Cheers!

 

[Kind of Blue]

I would never have different tyre sizes on a 4 wheel vehicle and certainly not different types with different characteristics either. Change all 4 at the same time.

 

[John A]

There are plenty of vehicles with wider tyres on the rear than the front. Mostly powerful RWD cars - so Merc, BMW, Porsche, American muscle will do it.
There are also lots of people that run staggered wheels that are also wider at the back, who will run (say) a 245 up front and a 275 at the back.
Unless you're drag racing a FWD van I wouldn't personally run a wider tyre at the front and I definitely wouldn't run a mixture of summer and winter/all season tyres on two axles.

Wonder why VW specced them with either 205 or 215 tyres

 

[Bav]

Presuming front and back wheels are the same width and the curent rear tyres are also Cross Climates/all season, I'd consider swapping the rears to the front and fitting the 215s on the rear.

 

[cgtmiles]

If it’s a 4motion then it’s important that all tyres are the same circumference I believe. If not then then it’s less critical

 

[doncarlyon]

Put the current rear wheels on the front, then the new 215 tyres on the rear of the van. It's 10mm difference which will make almost no difference. Plus, new tyres should be on the rear anyway (on a FWD).