Just as some people wouldn't notice that the 225's are twitchy, those same people probably wouldn't notice if their tire pressure was at 25 psi vs. 32 psi.

With all this ranting, I don't see why you would go with a narrower tire? Do you know something the engineers at Honda don't?

 

I will add my .2 cent sworth. The problem is in both the front and rear tires in the S02 and S03. The S03 front tire is wider than the S02 by 1/2" and the rear 245/45R16 is wider than the stock S02 by 1/3". If you go with the 225/50R16 in the rear with the S03 205/55R16 front you have reduced the amount of stagger Honda put into the car stock by 3/4".
It is not that the S03 does not work in the 225/50R16. I would just say it does not handle as well.

 

Basically, you are saying that for most tires, a 205/55/16 front tire will be wider than the stock S02... so in order to maintain the proper stagger, one needs to go with a wider rear tire to compensate... ie, going to 245/45/16.... however, if there were tires that had the same front/rear proportion as the 205/225 on the S02's, then it would not be necessary to go with 205/245.

For example if the 205/55 S03 was the equivalent tread width of the 205/55 S02, then it would be perfectly fine to use 225/50 in the rear... but since the front tire is actually wider than stock, that is the reason to go wider in the rear to maintain proper stagger differential.

This makes sense and would be a correct identification as to the reason why going with non OEM tires warrants an inspection of the front and rear widths to determine the correct sizes to get.... the above explanation is far more accurate than just making an incorrect blanket statement that 245 is the same as a 225 S02, which is obviously not the case.

The key phrase here seems to be "maintaining stock stagger".

Thanks for clearing this up Jim.