I've been watching FB market place for a set of tires and wheels for my son's SX4.
I haven't found any stellar deals, but today I came across a set of BBS RX 244 for what seems to be a great price. It was only after messaging the seller to find out the offset that I noticed they were 15" with a +38 offset. The factory wheels are 16x6.5 with +45mm offset.
I think we'd need to use a 205/65 r15 to get close to the same diameter as the 205/60r16 that are the stock size
I've had my 15" Steelies from my Elantra on the Suzuki without any issues, and tire rack show 15" options when shopping by vehicle.
Any thoughts on going to a 15" wheel?
I'm thinking more sidewall might be good for a new driver and Massachusetts potholes
Pic for attention:
As long as they'll fit over the brakes. Good reasoning otherwise.
The extra 1/2" of sidewall helps with potholes too.
I use this site to determine tire size when I upsize or downsize wheels. https://tiresize.com/height-chart/
15" tires are also way easier to get.
Are they Toyota? The hub diameter on Toyotas is pretty small so make sure it'll fit.
Thanks everyone for the feedback and info.
It looks like the hub diameter should be fine, they were on a 2001 Camry (60.1mm bore which is the same as the Suzuki).
So the only thing I'll need to confirm is that they clear the brakes (low risk, but worth checking)
I'll see about checking them out this week, and as long as there's no surprises buy them to set aside for next spring.
The car came with 16" snows (unmounted), so I'll have him see if he can mount and balance the snows on the factory wheels during a shop week at school (he's in auto tech), and set these aside for warm weather.
That way I can watch for clearance deals on 15" tires and he can decide if he wants to stay with the polished look, or plastidip them another color.
Factory wheels:
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:
15" tires are also way easier to get.
Way easier than 16's? I know 14's are pretty much much gone (for performance tires at least). Last time I looked, the 15" selection was not that great either.
The reason I ask is I have 14's on my car and at some point may need to move up. I would much rather go to 15, than 16. I think thin tires look silly on older cars. The ride thing is a concern also.
In reply to aircooled :
Last time I looked 15" tire selection was better than 16" category, though neither holds a candle to 17+ these days. My personal take is while they seemed like a nice compromise in the 90's, the 16" size sort of ended up being a bastard one-off as far as common applications. My unproven theory is that the autocross community has kept the 15" sizes economically semi-feasible for manufacturers.
If you're looking at availability, you need to be concentrating on the tire diameter and not the hole in the middle.
