When I bought our "new" 1991 Civic the only thing
wrong with the car was the prior owner had bought
Low Profile/WIDE (Rice Boy) tires for her. It rained the
afternoon I picked her up and she handled like I
was on ice with a thin water layer. Very bad.
I called around and found a conversion shop willing to
trade me stock tires a $200 boot for the fancy tires/rims.
I could have got more with a little more effort, but it was
a good deal. We had an ice storm here in central
Kentucky last week and the Civic, after I got the doors
unstuck, gave no problem and drove like the road was dry
and not covered in ice.

Unless you really know that wider tires will help handling,
I would be real carefull. Car makers tend to know what
they are doing when they put a certain size tire on a given car.

Having said that, I was given a new set of 4 tires for my 1985
Celica that were 185 instead of the 175 that was stock.
The original buyer said they where too noisey, I must be deaf
because they sounded fine to me. They did not effect the
handling of the Celica at all. No increased Hydroplaning, and
she still could get stuck on a frost covered road.
I have been offered a set of 4 nearly new 165X for my Civic
which has, I think 155. Or 175 if my stock tires are 165.
I know they are +10. I suspect that +10 won't make any real
difference. IT is supposed to help with highspeed, interstate,
driving. I know it had no effect on the Celica. I loved the way
the Celica would handle curved roads. It was a fun car to drive.
As long as the snow stayed away!

I love our Civic, but it is not meant to handle like the Celica.
And with twice the MPG, the Civic is a lot less expensive
to drive.
Terry.