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.
Tire size calculator Put in your current tire size and you can get a list of sizes with a different rim but similar overall diameter. If you keep that fairly close than your speedometer will be accurate enough without reprogramming.
I personally try to get a tire size slightly wider than stock (e.g. 195 instead of 185) but you’d probably have to do some digging to figure out if that’s a safe option without any rubbing on the suspension bits. It opens up more size options, potentially saving some money if a wider tire is more common or something.
Edit: if the 18s are OEM rims from the dealer and not some aftermarket deal, than just look up the stock 16 or 17 tire sizes. Manufacturers generally keep overall size the same between rim sizes to avoid any clearance issues.