My 96 has the 15" honeycomb wheels, 60 profile tyres. Other models have the 16" wheels.
1. Does this mean that the tyre to body gap is even greater on my model than those people with 16's or did Nissan change the ride height on the models with 15" wheels?

2. Presumably the tyre's rolling radius is smaller with the 15" wheels. So did Nissan change the gearing on these models, and for that matter, the odometer? Presumably they must have or the 15" models would have different gear ratios and the odo would be inaccurate.
If you guys don't have the answers is there anywhere I can find this out?

 

Aspect ratio > *

95/6
All #'s are total dia.

SE = 215/60-15 = 639mm
GLE/GXE = 205/65-15= 647.5mm

97+
SE = 215/55-16 = 642.6mm

 

But my 96GLE doesn't match the above, it has 205/60 - 15, not 65 profiles, and I seriously doubt the previous owner(s) would have changed the profile. WTF?

 

Theres bound to de a difference between wheel/tire size combos. i think discounttireco has a nice tire calculator. I think yours was supposed to be 205 65 15. I seriously doubt nissan or any manufacturer would change gear ratios on different trims. This is not a perfect world, tire pressures would also change the diameter, you really can't account for all that.

 

The case of the serious doubters.

Don't be so sure.

When they(Nissan) went to the 3.7899, I beleive it was to accomodate the 225-50-17's... Same thing in the A34(6th gen) when they changed the F/D in the 6MT again to accomodate the 245-45's-18's.

Though not official from Nissan, they did it for something, and when the math is done correctly, the RPM/MPH is the same with the new ratios vs the old.

 

Here's a good tire calculator to calculate tire diameters and speedometer difference.