anyone know where i can find a pic of the car with 16" wheels fitted so i can see what it looks like ?

also a pic with the 17" trifid wheels on woudl be handy

i am down grading the silly 18" wheels for 17" wheels when my car arrives but might be brave and go for 16" . would be handy yo see them as all the pics tend to be the 18" thermistor wheels. i have pics of the wheels thenselves but would like to see them on the car.

thanks

I suppose there may have been some on Flickr, but I am sure they would have had them removed on the grounds of indecency....

:rolleyes:

what difference does it make ?

the gap above the tyre to the wheel arch will be the same no matter what size wheels it has on as the overall rolling radius needs to be the same (do the maths and you will find there is a 5% variation from the 16" to the 18" which will be un-noticable).

plus when the car is moving no-one will tell what wheels it has on and no-one will care (except for me , the driver with a smug look on my face as i enjoy the much nicer ride !!)

you know that thing about people who put fashion over function and by a BMW and those who are smart buy a skoda....the same applies to wheels i think !!

(by the way i know you are just winding me up but thought i would bite anyway as not got much else to do !!)

I suppose there may have been some on Flickr, but I am sure they would have had them removed on the grounds of indecency....

:rolleyes:

but there are lot of pics on Flickr with the wood trim:nono::Yikes:

You are right to a good degree. I personally admit that I think the larger rims look MUCH much nicer than the smaller ones, even though overall size is not much different, and I do accept that ride quality suffers.

That's why I'd always go for a compromise - in this case the 17's on the SE I'm getting. Wouldn't go for 18's because of noise and ride quality, wouldn't go for 16's because I (personally) think they look a bit naff.

Don't totally accept the comment about not mattering when you are driving - there are many many people out there who like a nice smart looking car (me included) whether in it, or having it sat on the drive. If no-one cared about such things, cars would all still look like Austin Allegro's (or Fiat Multiplas)

hate to tell you mate but people will know what size your wheels are when you go past, its soo noticable that the 16's are way too small looking, and will have much larger sidewalls, look at the old superb as an example, my dads comfort with the 16's on looked underwheeled so the newer model which i think youll agree looks much bigger will look even more underwheeled, id do the compromise and go for 17's. my dads has 17's and they look acceptable and the ride is very comfortable with the 225/45 tyres which will be the size you will use too.

hate to tell you mate but people will know what size your wheels are when you go past, its soo noticable that the 16's are way too small looking, and will have much larger sidewalls, look at the old superb as an example, my dads comfort with the 16's on looked underwheeled so the newer model which i think youll agree looks much bigger will look even more underwheeled, id do the compromise and go for 17's. my dads has 17's and they look acceptable and the ride is very comfortable with the 225/45 tyres which will be the size you will use too.

thing is though, i am not shallow enough to give a flying f*ck what some bloke i have never met thinks of my wheels as he drives past me!!!

lets face it if i wanted the cutitng edge of automotive design then i wouldnt buy a superb would I

(plus the 205/55/16 tyres are a lot cheaper to replace !!)

hang on - theres a car driving past now...its a mondeo and it looks awful on those 15" rims. poor sod couldnt afford to got for the 16" upgrades. what a tos*er. he must be an inferior being and stupid too !!!:rofl:

if thats your attitude then why come on and ask for pics? just do it and to hell with what we all think!! waste of a thread really !

:huep:

if thats your attitude then why come on and ask for pics? just do it and to hell with what we all think!! waste of a thread really !

i didnt ask for what people thought - i just wanted to see them !!!

the only reservation i have is that they might look the same as the wheels on my outgoing A6 and wanted to see what they look like. If i dont like them then i may got for after market wheels.

I suspect i will end up with 17" wheels anyway due to the difficulties of getting the 16" wheels from the dealer. My deal is based on ordering the car with 18" wheels then the dealer doing a swap with an Se that he will have on site. The chance of him having an S model are pretty slim i think.

Seriously though, I know what your getting at JC - 16" wheels offer far more superior ride comfort & noise levels, if you do sh!t loads of m'way miles its well worth considering, I found this out when I exchanged a Passat SE to a Passat Sport (OK the Sport was a little lower & stiffer) but the difference was huge, the trouble is you'll always look at it when it's parked outside & wished you'd settled for the larger of the two....

17's will be fine though! it's a big, quiet comfy car!

you didn't have 16's on your a6 did you?

Seriously though, I know what your getting at JC - 16" wheels offer far more superior ride comfort & noise levels, if you do sh!t loads of m'way miles its well worth considering...

Motorway miles? Surely this would work in the opposite way... i.e. if anything there's even less reason to use larger profile tyres on a motorway due to the fact they're in inherantly better condition than country/town roads.

Deleted because I somehow managed to post twice.

Edited 20 October, 200817 yr by Bluefox
General stupidity

which one ?

the 02 plate we still have does have 215/55/16

the 04 plate we just sold had 225/50/17. the suspension was that hard that it was hard to work out what contribution the wheels / tyres made to the poor ride. i did put the 16" wheels on it from the older car as an experiement and it didnt really suit the car with its sport suspension. You may be correct and i may find the 17" wheels ok. i will try it and then when it comes to the first change of tyres i will consider changing to wheels as well as should get a decent set of aftermarket wheels for about £350.

its not so much the size but the sidewall. a 225/45 has a 102mm sidewall and a 205/55 has 112mm sidewall. that extra 10mm might make the difference when going over potholes etc. a more sensible solution would have been 225/55/17 tyres giving the best of both worlds.

Pretty sure my old superb had 16 inch wheels and it didn't look under wheeled. Is there much difference in the rolling circumference to the new ones?

More rubber surely = Very comfy ride.

Motorway miles? Surely this would work in the opposite way... i.e. if anything there's even less reason to use larger profile tyres on a motorway due to the fact they're in inherantly better condition than country/town roads.

yep i agree. if you drive lots of motorway miles then stick with 17 or 18. if you do a mixture then the taller sidewall offered by tyres on the 16" wheels will improve the town ride considerably. basic physics - more rubber and air gives more "suspension" . suppose i coudl just drop the PSI by a couple ...bugg*r that would set the tyre pressure monitors off !

Pretty sure my old superb had 16 inch wheels and it didn't look under wheeled. Is there much difference in the rolling circumference to the new ones?

More rubber surely = Very comfy ride.

i reckon they are the same. presume your old superb is the same as my passat - 205/55/16. overall circum of rubber +alloy is almos the same on the 16", 17" 18". heres the numbers (taken from Tyre Calculator - Alloy Wheels - Specialist supplier of alloy wheels and tyres packages, 0% Finance and Fast Delivery, Buy Online)

205/55/16.

total diameter = 631.9mm

225/45/17

total diameter= 634.3mm

225/40/18

total diameter = 632.7mm

this gives a 0.84% difference in diameter from the 16" to the 18" which will give a variation on the speedo of 0.6mph

conti premium contact 2 prices =

205/55/16 = £75

225/45/17 = £100

225/45/18 = £125

so on one set of tyres you pay £200 more for a set of 18" tyres !!

could even go to 215/55/16 to get even higher sidewall and still only 1% variation in speedo. although tyre price jumps massively from the 205's.

anyway...boing..time for bed said zebedee !!!