Ok. Some clarification.
My 95 Accord is labeled on the door frame for 185/70R14.
The wheels I have are 5Jx14 ET50 with a bolt pattern of 4x114.3 and a Center Bore of 64.1.
There are other sizes of wheels that will fit, with the corresponding tires, but these are what I have to work with.
If I want to keep these wheels and tires I have to go with a 1989 - 1997 Accord.
So, if I'm starting to grasp the situation - I could get a 96 - 97 as recommended and it might have 195/60R15's on it. The wheels would be 5.5Jx15 ET50 with the same bolt pattern and Center Bore as the 14 inchers and if I wanted to I could replace those wheels with the 14's that I already have two sets of.
If my understanding is correct I could get any 96 - 97 except the V-6. It comes with 205/60R15's and switching to 195/60R15's or 185/70R14's would throw off the speedometer.
Does this match what you folks have seen?
I would appreciate some real world experience here - I'm going to be dreaming about tires bouncing down a hill at my head!
Thanks!
Dan

 

I used to have a 1998 4-cyl Accord EX, and while it did have a bolt pattern of 4 x 114.3, the front brake calipers were quite close to the inside of the 15" wheels. I bet you can't fit 14" wheels on there.

The Civics of that era had a different bolt-circle diameter (4 x 100mm).

Generally, you can look at TireRack.com and go through the motions of shopping for wheels (say pick a 1998 Accord LX 4-cyl or something like that). That will give you a wide choice of wheels, and you can see that they will have different offsets. Look for the max & min in the list. If you try to get 14" wheels, you will find out if it allows you to do that or not.

 

I'm not sure what the offset is, but my 97 Accord had 185-65-15's when I got it (they were worn out). My 99 came with 195-65-15's as does my wife's 2000 Accord. I ended putting the 19-65-15's on the 97, but also had to use the 99's hub caps, as the rim offsets are different. But if you run the numbers thru a site that converts the tires sizes, you'll find them pretty close to 1 another (within 5mph, or a couple of tenths/mile). My wife's car is off 2mph according to those speed trap things Indiana and Illinois use for construction zones. I've been thru several of them with her car (we take it on road trips), and they're all reading the same. And that's using a tire in the size spec'd for it.
Right now I'm running 205-55-15's on my 99 Accord, but then I've also got a set of aftermarket rims on it too (7 spoke Königs), but they were more for looks than anything. They're also 3 season tires or summer tires. They're 4mph off thru 1 of those trap things, but then they're slightly smaller than what's supposed to be on it.

But, if you're looking at a V6 car, keep in mind that the V6 cars came with 5 lug rims. And Jim is correct, Civic's use a 4-100 bolt pattern like some Toyotas, Saturns, and other makes use.