Evening all - another Citigo owner-to-be.

Have wanted to downgrade for a while, certainly as I don't need the space of the Fabia, although more importantly am getting tired of the £60 fill-ups.

So I've now ordered an Elegance 75PS in Green with just a spare wheel and entertainment pack . No build week yet, but I was given a rough time scale of first half of September.

However, I was wondering if anyone knew of the benefits of a 14" alloy wheel over it's 15" bigger brother? Is an extra inch worth it or is it not all about size (ahem)? Is it too late to ask for the 15" factory fitted wheel or is there no gain (in terms of mpg) in doing so?

Thanks for any help.

Welcome to the forum.

If the wheel is bigger then the tyre wall will be smaller and the rolling circumference will be the same.

ie No difference in the outside size.

Bigger sidewall and you can touch park to the pavement using the taller tyre sidewall with less chance of touching the wheel.

You will gain no economy really as you will be no difference,

well nothing other than looks or that sporty handling of the Semi Low profile tyre.

george

Edited 18 July, 201213 yr by sk4gw

If you have a choice of two sizes, in this case 14 and 15 inch, the smaller will give you a more comfortable ride and the bigger will give better handling.

Both of these is (as said above) down to the tyres having a bigger sidewall to make up the difference in the wheel rim size.

Even on the 15 the sidewall is a reasonable size. The 15 is certainly not a so called "low profile" option like many more sporty cars get. Which means the difference will not be that great.

However, most people just upgrade for looks.

Bigger sidewall and you can touch park to the pavement using the taller tyre sidewall

george

Remembering that it won't do the tyre any good and your wheel won't last very long either.

Welcome to the forum,

Irony is for ever, not just for Christmas.

george

Do the tyres in 14" size cost more than the 15"

They did for my MX5, I got some 15" alloys for that.

That said if you're not going through tyres pretty rapidly it shouldn't be much of an expense.

Mick

If you want to put on a decent set of Winter or 'all season tyres' down the line instead of the Standard ECO tyres that the car comes with,

you will find a good choice of 14" ones at an ikle amount less £'s than the 15" ones, or not maybe.

Not that much worth bothering about really, swings and roundabouts.

george

Thanks for all the hints and suggestions lads.

Given my reason for coming down in size was saving a bit of money (no tax, lower servicing, insurance & petrol bill), I think I'll stick with the 14" for now. Of course, I may well lose the plot when finally get my hands on the wee nipper in September .... and upgrade anyway.

Mind you, given I'm on the Solutions package, I'm guessing I need to keep the car as stock as possible, just in case I hand her back in 3 years time for a new one. Mmmm, decisions, decisions ....

All bigger wheels do is ruin the ride. There's no reason to upgrade them, they look nice but that's about it. Unless the sidewall is quite tall to begin with, you're unlikely to notice any difference in the handling on the bigger rims, but you will notice the bigger, lower-profile tyre is more expensive! However, if the bigger wheel takes a wider tyre, that will make a difference to grip levels.

Edited 26 July, 201213 yr by ckyliu

'will' that be both a a positive and negative difference to grip levels in different situations?

'wider' tyre better in the dry

& possibly 'narrower' tyre better in the wet or cold.

Or possibly no noticeable difference when 'Green/ECO' tyres are fitted & when used at the UK national Speed limits of 60 & 70 mph.

george

All bigger wheels do is ruin the ride. There's no reason to upgrade them, they look nice but that's about it. Unless the sidewall is quite tall to begin with, you're unlikely to notice any difference in the handling on the bigger rims, but you will notice the bigger, lower-profile tyre is more expensive! However, if the bigger wheel takes a wider tyre, that will make a difference to grip levels.

On the citygo the "big wheels" are only 15", they still have a decent sized sidewall and so are not low profiles. They are higher profile than the stock Yeti rims.

So they don't ruin the ride. I've tried both and there is very little difference in the ride. It's mainly for looks.

It's nothing like the change you see putting 15" or 17" rims on a Fabia, the latter of which results in low profile tyres and a harder ride.

The elegance has tyres that are 175 wide, where the SE and S have 165 tyres. Even though they both run 14" rims. Just for info.

I've ordered an Elegance with stock 14" rims and the SE project car I've got has the optional 15" rims as they were already on the demo car.

You'd have to be very critical to see any difference between the two.

At least the smaller rims are standard and the larger an option on the Citigo; as alluded to by BossFox you can only get the larger 17" rims on the higher spec Yeti's in the UK.

Thankfully in my case the manufacturer overruled the importer and allowed my Yeti to be built to 'Czech spec' when it came to the rims and tyres, hence it's one of only a handful UK Elegances running on factory fitted 16" rims and 215/60 tyres, which makes for a smoother ride on potted and broken rural roads.

TP

bump for @brian62c

Edited 12 June, 20232 yr by toot