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.
The mechanic is the person who suggested I downsize in the first place, I trust him (to the extent you trust any business owner in a capitalist economy obvs.) because he could sell me stock parts but the 18 inch wheels are apparently also far more expensive to replace.
I’m not sure I can use craigslist/marketplace, unless I can go back a generation on this car because I kinda have to get this fixed within a week. I’m driving on the spare which I really don’t want to do longer than necessary, and I can find wheels for sale within a few states of my location, but I can’t swing a roadtrip for wheels because of me and my partner’s alternating schedules. Is it a terrible idea to buy ‘new wheels’ in general?
I’ll try to find a chevrolet cruze enthusiast I guess. They apparently exist on a cursory search.
That’s such a complex question. If you mean like, in your case, finding a brand new thing to put on the car to replace what you’ve got, you could look at plain jane steel wheels- over here we call them “steelies” and they are quite affordable. They will probably be heavier than what you have on there now, so that’s going to effect fuel economy a little bit and make the car work a little bit harder, but since you’ve got the performance pack and presumably an engine tuned to be abused a bit, it will handle it.
A nice benefit of steel wheels (I’m just assuming you have alloy wheels) is if you hit a pothole your wheel will bend, not break, and the wheel can be repaired rather than replaced in future. And another nice benefit is they are generally very cheap compared to aftermarket alloy wheels. There are usually local manufacturers making them still, I believe. If you can find a place that sells them and it’s within budget and looks reasonable compared to whatever you see on the second hand market (ie cheaper) then that business will be able to sell you wheels that will fit your car, matching the base model specs etc.
I’m a bit worried that there’s a chance because you got a sportier package that it might have bigger brakes than the cheaper versions. You’d have to research to be sure, but this can be a clearance issue. Still your mechanic suggested the swap so I assume he can see that the brake discs and calipers are not HUEG beasts of things intended for track days and stuff. It’s something you could consider asking the mechanic about.
We often like steelies for beater cars even on the track since they’re cheap, you can fuck them up and then just roll the dents out and keep going with minimal hassle. It’s not pretty but it does the job even if it’s not the optimal choice in a performance sense. It’s the fancy wheels that are often the most vulnerable to failing in a way that can’t be repaired.
Yeah he specifically mentioned that the brakes are the same as on the base versions of the car, apparently for the cruze they just made a bigger wheeled version without really changing anything else that you theoretically could to get extra braking power etc. from the space. So I think a smaller rim will work, I’ll see what kind of cheap steel options I can get sent to me quickly.
Yeah that site you linked in the DM are a known quantity in the scene for getting budget stuff shipped to your house. I can at least vouch for that much.
I sort of figured the big wheel package was probably a purely aesthetic option, but it pays to be safe so that’s good you’ve got the info from the mechanic regarding brake size. You are probably good to go. Again tho see my reply to your DM for covering my butt in case I’m steering you towards more frustration by mistake.
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.
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.
Haha yeah there’s a type of sicko for almost everything on the road.
Also yeah get off that spare ASAP if it’s a space saver wheel (aka a pizza cutter) those things are for getting you home and to a workshop, not for daily use.