The Bizarre Reason Volkswagen Used 195/65R15 Tires on a Ton of Its Cars

For decades, the Volkswagen Group fit 195/65R15 tires on many of its cars. Almost all of them, until 15-inch wheels went out of fashion, even in lower-spec cars. As with many quirky engineering traits of the VW Group, you can thank Ferdinand Piech for this one.

This fun video from B Sport, a YouTuber with an F1 aero and passenger-car development background, explains why the 195/65R15 found favor at VW. Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Beetle designer Ferdinand Porsche, ran engineering at Audi in the Seventies and Eighties and led development on the innovative third-generation Audi 100, which was sold as the 5000 in the U.S. The 100 used 195/70R15 tires on higher-spec models. It was a tire size favored by Mercedes for offering a good compromise between drag and performance, with good load-carrying capacity.