Wheel sizes getting silly?

[iphonedyou]

Fox- said:

19 inch wheels were never offered as an option on your pre LCI 335d E91?

I don't think we can assume he limited his search exclusively to pre LCI 335d E91s without aftermarket wheels

[niva441]

Options on wheel size was one of the reasons I was choosing between a Merc and a Volvo. I took the Volvo option and selected the 16" option, rather than the standard 17". The dealer was a bit confused, finding my selection difficult to compute.

But then 55 profile isn't exactly tall.

[Vladimir]

Fox- said:

19 inch wheels were never offered as an option on your pre LCI 335d E91?

They were offered from the start of 335d production. I didn't want them and never will.

Perfectly happy with my light, nice riding, strong wheels on decent rubber - Go 19" and the choice of tyres is tiny too. Stay 17" and you can have what you want.

19s (especially M Sports) have had massive issues with cracking yet people still insist on them because they want to be in with the kids. If you want your nippy BM to go as well as it can, stick 17s with non RFTs on it.

Audi are probably worse - I see countless 2.0TDIs sporting a road ripping 140bhp on spindly 19s with 911 turbo style tyres- no no and no.

I had a 318d M Sport loaner once - 18" with 255/35 profile rears on a 145bhp car - I felt an absolute tool driving it and hid behind a hat and sunglasses.

Just amazed and slightly disappointed at even "purist" marques jumping on the bandwagon too.

If the trend is from BTCC - look at a BTCC race track - many potholes on them? Many speed bumps? No.

Edited by Vladimir on Tuesday 26th April 19:58

[Vladimir]

Oops!

[thinfourth2]

Mt biggest issue with HUGE wheels is when folk try and justify them on anything other then purely atheistic reasons

But i can't say anything i have a german 4x4 that has 20" rims and its great offroad

Edited by thinfourth2 on Tuesday 26th April 20:29

[Vladimir]

Big wheel fans will try and claim "better turn in" and some other waffle.

[tonys]

Yes, it's getting silly. I made a conscious decision not to have really low profiles again, as I am fed up with the pot-holed state of our roads, and low profiles hardly help. Also, runflats are another no-no for me, why BMW insist on them for the UK market when they don't elswhere is beyond me. You see plenty of BMWs with standard steel wheels and tyres on the continent, so it must just be a merketing thing.

[v8will]

Vladimir said:

Big wheel fans will try and claim "better turn in" and some other waffle.

I'll call BS on that one, in 99% of cases it's purely vanity and the owner won't give a stuff what the car drives like.

[Fox-]

Vladimir said:

They were offered from the start of 335d production.

Only on the Coupe and Cabrio. The maximum wheel size offered from the factory on your car was the 18 inch wheel

[Blakewater]

You don't get less than 18s on the Sport model or less than 17s on the SE on the 325 and above. Car manufacturers are led by the aftermarket tuning scene. They send people to the shows and look at what's fashionable and go by that. I like the look of a nice set of alloys and I do think the bigger ones look better, at least on some cars, even if they do spoil the ride.

[0-100-0]

I have thought for some time that Councils should not pay out for damage to wheels larger than 18" (although that might be better expressed as a tyre profile as no doubt someone will come up with something that would be unduly ruled against).

[Biscuit Bus]

swerni said:

The Camaro has 20" wheels and they look small on it.

The mini has 17" with run flats and I'm going to change them to 16" with normal tyres as ride is shocking.

Unless you already have a spare set of 16" rims, try just swapping to non-runflats. Mine came without runflats and has an acceptable ride.

[Vladimir]

Blakewater said:

You don't get less than 18s on the Sport model or less than 17s on the SE on the 325 and above. Car manufacturers are led by the aftermarket tuning scene. They send people to the shows and look at what's fashionable and go by that. I like the look of a nice set of alloys and I do think the bigger ones look better, at least on some cars, even if they do spoil the ride.

You can get M Sports on 17s - many have them - but you might be right about 18s or bigger being standard on six pot E9*s.

[MC Bodge]

Ford have been at it for years

[KB_S1]

Flip side of this is that I am finding it tricky to get a good set of tyres for the Impreza.

205/50/16 seems to be considered the realm of very slow and boring cars now.

[billzeebub]

looking at a 993 Turbo..they had 18"alloys and the wheels look enormous. Designers now make cars increasingly larger with each model released-that 18"rims barely fill the arches!..such 'styling' errors combined with such joys as runflat tyres are fodder for the dreadful potholed UK roads, leading to a terrible ride and buckled wheels..my E36 Beemer rides on 16s and my Corrado on 15s..the ride and usability are superb..with all but the worst potholes being absorbed with ease..

[1878]

Maserati QP on 22" wheels? As if Maserati running costs aren't enough as it is, goodness knows what those tyres will cost to replace.
http://pistonheads.com/sales/2748542.htm

[iMac Hunt]

vit4 said:

Also, the cost is a huge factor, I recently paid £40odd a branded tyre for mine - my Dad on his which is only 15/16 was £90 a corner so dread to think how much some of the stupid-big ones are.

I replaced the standard size tyres on my m3 (e46) last week. They are quite modest sizes by today's standards: 225/40/19 F and 255/35/19 Rear - So that was another £870 down the pan.
The rears need replacing every ~10,000 miles or so too. It gets a bit annoying after a while, and I only do about 15k miles/year. I dread to think how much some folks are paying for tyres per year.

[poo at Paul's]

A negative spin off of all these larger wheels and wider lower profile tyres is road noise. Roads are significantly noiser to locals not just because of increased traffic levels, but also the move in the last 10 years to silly tyre sizes.

BTW I say silly as they are just not necessary on most cars. One of the best handling and grippiest hatches of "modern times" was the first gen Focus in 1998 running 185/55/15 IIRC.

Edited by poo at Paul's on Wednesday 27th April 02:58

[VPower]

15" and a legend.



But then some 40 years later. 18 front and 19 rear I believe.