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

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I DM'd you about the things I was looking at, technically they're smaller than factory diameter but getting 17"s is like twice as expensive and the other trims can use 16s. Got a very noisy replacement tire on the old wheel for the interim, takes a lot of pressure off while I weigh options.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Ye I gotchu. And good call just running the old wheel with a shit tyre as a temporary measure to get you some breathing room so you don't have to rush any decisions.

I bought a car once that had absurd wheels (19s I think) that could only fit tyres made for fucking porsches so it was like $200+ per corner to replace them and being low profile on shitty roads meant I had several punctures that really stung financially.

this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025

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