185 65 15 is not going to be an issue.

Not sure about the 14". I suspect it'll work though

 

Nope. I run 195/60x15 snows.
You would want to trial fit a 14" wheel.

 

Be careful of speedo issues when swapping sizes. Get too far off and you'll be getting tickets when you think you shouldn't be.

I stuck with the 15" size tires. Keep the OEM tires for non-Winter driving and get a good set of Goodyear all-weather radials for Winter. I haven't used snows on any FWD car I've had since 1987 and I'm in the same snow area you are. <points to upper right where my location is>.

I have 2 Fiesta SE sedans ... about mid-November or so, the factory alloy rims will be put on each of them and they both will be running Kelly Optima all-weathers from Goodyear.

 

I'm not too worried about speedo differences, I almost always look at my GPS for current speed. I swear by snow tires, I used to drive Syracuse-Watertown-Syracuse daily and with snows I could drive twice as fast with more control than all seasons. The only thing that slowed me down was visibility.

Thanks for the feedback about the 185/65-15s. Thats what I'll go for. I was wondering about 14s because I might be able to get some alloy wheels from an escort.

 

Brake clearance might be an issue with 14" wheels...

 

Late model Escort wheels won't fit.

Cobra, you missed the point that OEM tires are All Weather tires at least in the USA. So why buy another set of the same thing ?

 

Here's what I did - as noted I have Kelly tires on the factory alloys. I bought rims from TireRack (a sponsor here). Sport Tuning T5 for the '11 (Phantom) and T10 for the '12 (Cherri).

These rims have either the OEM Kumho 15" tires or a set of high-rating dry/wet tires. Currently this is what is mounted on each car. I'll swap to the other set in November (earlier if needed).

Making the run to Watertown and back, I would recommend true snow tires - I-81 has some nasty stretches that could tax the best snow/ice all-weather tire I think.