Vx wheels on 98 Lx, have questions. Please help
 

I apologize first and foremost if this have been discussed before and I couldn't find the correct answer.

My car is a 98 civic Lx auto sedan with 165k.
Current tires : 185/65r14 OEM

Just picked up 4 good condition 13" vx wheels for $100.. Caps included..
I am now in search of proper tires size for it. 165 is no longer available.
175 and 185 are available.. More choice with 175.

My concern is when using tire size calculator, if I'm running 175/70 it will put my speed at lower then current. Ex: 65mph now will read 62..mph with 175/70.
But if 185/70 is use, it will put the speed closer at 64 ..mph @ 65mph now..

So, what would be my best move to have these wheels fitted on my 98 lx sedan?
Will the different in size hurt my mpg between the two size?
Will it hurt compare to my current OE tires (185/65-r14)?

Also, my speedo is read 3mph faster then actual speed of car moving. I used my scanguage and cell phone GPS app to compare. Cell phone and scangauge is dead on while speedo read higher still. I don't know if this info would help or not.

Any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated..

Being auto I know I will not get major mpg increase, but everything little bit help, right?

TIA

185/70R13 is as close as you're going to get, and they're not a particularly common size. The 175/70s are. And were an option for that year. 185/60R14 were as well, apparently.
https://www.wheel-size.com/size/honda/civic/1998/
There's not guarantee your speedo is perfectly accurate right now anyhow. You might throw it more out of whack changing size, or you might very well make it more accurate.
I'd probably go for the more common tire size, unless I could find LRR in a better size.

Speedometers are designed to slightly overstate the speed.
Over here the indicated speed is legal if it is no more than 10% over the real speed - and no less than 0% under.

That's right - a speedo that indicates 0.00001% less than the actual speed would be both insanely accurate and illegal.
So, generally speedos are about 3% optimistic - or slightly more, as it helps sales if the car appears silent, comfortable and powerful at the indicated speed, while it is in fact going slower than what you'd expect.

Odometers OTOH need to be correct; both overindicating and underinicating are unwanted, as the first would throw the car out of warranty quicker and the latter would assume less than actual wear on the car if you sell it.
So the car will show distance quite correctly on OEM tires.

If you get taller tires than OEM you probably get a small economy boost, but it won't show as the bigger tires mean you see less miles on the odo for the same distance.
Likewise, undersize tires will make your economy by the meter look good - but your real mileage would be lower than indicated.

Oversized tires on 13" rims would need to have giant sidewalls. They would be hard to get. Better settle for top tier tires in a more common size.
IMHO top quality tires live longer, make less noise and have more grip than the cheap or odd ones.

Thank you both for your input.
That seem to clear up a bit.

I think 175/70r13 it is. As, like you mentioned, its more common. I do like that I can get Michelin Defender in that size. I've been searching and it gets the best reviews with longest lasting tires. Besides that, I really don't know of any other brand that people are recommending.

https://www.tires-easy.com/165-70-13...65701379-HV000

https://www.tires-easy.com/165-80-13...ecode/24165010

I've seen those but doesn't seem to have much reviews.

I learned about UTQG from those links :)
Wikipedia: Uniform Tire Quality Grading

I do have some bad experiences with cheap Chinese tires, mainly lack of traction. But that was more than 10 years ago.

I was searching and the General Altimx Rt43 have a 600AB UTQG. Which is much better then 420-440.. Price is also good. Was looking into the Michelin defender (820AB UTQG) but then there are some unfavour reviews everywhere. So, the search continue.

Tires
 

I personally like the Continental TrueContacts but I don't know if they make them in the size you are looking for

I've tried that but none in my size..