Crazy? Thinking about a minus-1 wheel change on my Suzuki SX4

So I've got an Suzuki SX4 Sportback which came from the factory with somewhat heavy 17" wheels and 205-50-17 tires. This is not a track car, just a daily driver that sometimes goes on longer trips out of town. I always felt that the suspension felt busy with freeze joint impacts being felt pretty heavily through the car. At times the car will sometimes go into a weird back to front pitching motion if the roadway has much of a repeating osculation in its surface.

The suspension is stock save for rear shock swap to Koni STR.T's meant for a 2004-ish VW Golf. Not a direct bolt in but with fiddling a friend and I made this happen. I think it helped keep the car a little more settled but it wasn't much of an improvement to the above issues. They're also loud and squeak on compression so I may change those eventually. In any case, the car has some Goodride branded tires on it from the previous owner and they're going to need replacement in the next, say, six to nine months.

Do I replace with stock size and just try to find a tire that offers a better ride quality than the Goodride's that are on it now? Is it bonkers to think that the car should have come with, say, 205-55-16 tires for a gain of about six tenths of an inch of sidewall? Thankfully Toyota Camry wheels seem to be a direct interchange (my snow tires are mounted on steel wheels meant for a Camry & the measurements came out fine for that swap).

Thoughts from the hive? I'd probably look for Camry wheels from a junkyard to keep costs down or maybe go with some Rota Slipstreams or Grid's of some type if I did a wheel change.

FWIW, my Mazdaspeed Miata came from the factory with 17" wheels and I've been running 15" wheels for 5-6 years now, so I guess I am -2. The OEM tires were like rubber bands stretched on to the wheels - I like the car better with the 15" wheels and some sidewall on the tires. This is just a street car. If you can find some wheels and decent tires in the size you need, then I say go for it.

I went -1 on my ms3. It allowed me to go much wider on wheels and tires. I like it.

Is a 15" possible? That opened up options and drops the prices.

I would guess a 15" is possible.

GRM did a test years ago showing going above 15" wheels was counterproductive. I guess that may be changing because of the loss of narrower diameter rubber.

Whatever size you pick they need to be Braid or Sparco.

15" was the base size, a 195-65-15, but I would probably use a 205-65-15 if I went that route. 16's were also available running a 205-60-16. Looking at the pricing difference, it's $10 or so per tire, so I may stick with a 16". My thought is to try and go between too soft and too firm.

Sounds like this has some merit.

i really want to go -1 on my mazda5 with a set of oem z32 wheels. nissan hub bore is smaller than mazda's though

failboat wrote: i really want to go -1 on my mazda5 with a set of oem z32 wheels. nissan hub bore is smaller than mazda's though

What makes this even worse is most machine shops wont mill out a set of z32 wheels because the backing plates are so small. Might have investigated this a while ago.

I've tried to talk my wife into going -1 or -2 on her car. So far she has resisted my logic because she likes how they look, I hate how they ride.

I'll admit, I read the title and thought this was going to be about making an SX4 into a 3-wheeler.

I went -1 on my MINI because of the exact same harshness over freeze joints. It was significantly better and the tires are less expensive. The 16" rims were about 5lb lighter vs. the OEM 17". I bought sticky Bridgestone RE 760s so the cornering performance went up as well. It's all good.

Small light cars benefit from light wheels more than heavier cars. Try to buy lighter wheels while you are doing the change.

I went minus sizing on my MINI,too. Summer tires are on 16s now, and the winters are on 15s.What I spent on the new summer tires and wheels I've more than saved on renewing the fillings in my teeth.