cars

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Hexbear's premier community for the discussion of and questions about cars, motorcycles, and other low occupancy transit. Share your thoughts, discuss cars under communism, and ask questions about maintenance.

Anti-car posting is not permited. Train good car bad and all, but it's not what this comm is for.

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Anyone here know about replacing wheels? (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 months ago by Doubledee@hexbear.net to c/cars@hexbear.net

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So I bought a car from a relative because I could afford that, they bought a fancy boutique version of this car (Chevy Cruze) that has, by default, 18 inch rims. I live in a shitty midwestern USian city and of course this thing can't handle potholes and the tires leak if you look at them funny. I've been limping along as long as I can but a pothole destroyed another one and replacing these stupid 18 inch tires is expensive. I've had to replace them twice in the last year, it's absurd, and they're of course way more expensive than a normal person tire.

So I'm looking at replacing the entire wheel set so that I can get a 17 or 16 inch wheel with more reasonable and cheaper tires. Is there any reason to be afraid of a certain size or wary of downsizing at all? I go on some site like Tirerack and it looks like I can get a set for a few hundred. My mechanic said this isn't a problem, that the chassis is identical to the less boutique options, but I'm not a car person so I would love a second opinion on this before I spend a bunch of money again. Things to look out for, free wheels (lol), any helpful advice is appreciated.

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[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

yeah this is a good point. for a normal every day car you really do want to just try and replicate the same overall rolling diameter as close as possible so you don't have to worry too much about it.

I have found just using the speedo on a GPS to be more reliable and accurate than even all OEM / factory installed everything. Though, if you do a lot of dense city commuting this might not be practical.

Edit: also, maintaining that same overall tyre diameter by increasing the sidewall will generally lead to a more comfortable ride than 18s on low profile tyres. The trend towards big wheels with sporty looking tyres is a pretty crap design choice that puts aesthetics and fashion over practicality.

[–] Doubledee@hexbear.net 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I fucking hate that my relative did this. They didn't even need the supposed extra performance shit it was supposed to give them, they literally just splurged on a more expensive version of the car for no reason.

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I'm a car guy. I know, car bad etc. But I sorta "get it" or whatever.

But yeah I know. If you're not in it for the love of the game there is zero benefit to doing anything that isn't the most economical option. Except getting good tyres, those are really worth not cheaping out on from a safety perspective.

Edit: Don't become a car guy, yall. It's a dead end hobby and a money and time sink. If you're just curious or whatever, stop. Get a better hobby. This is biased advice and I know there will always be people like me who love working on the things and feel empowered swinging spanners and nerding out tweaking things. But yeah, keep em bone stock, get the economy shit, just use the tool for the job and enjoy the rest of your life not worrying about your precious planet destroying machine.