I'm thinking of getting a set of new rims (I just have the OEM 19" right now with 245/35 front and 265/35 rear). I'm debating on whether or not I should stay with the 19" and have a tire with a bit more sidewall since I live in CA or if I should go up to the 20" rims. Here is my decision criteria:

1) I want an aggressive rim with a nice 3" - 4" lip out back

2) I want whichever tire choice has the cheaper tires. I've been trying to research this on tirerack but it's a pain in the @$$. I just put PS2s on my rear tires and after only ~20K there's only 1/32" left. So basically I want to go with whichever has more tire choices and is cheaper in the long run.

Can everyone weigh in and give opinions on these two matters? More tire choices which are cheaper?

 

bump ^

Just curious if anyone has weighed on this decision before!! I'm not expecting exact pricing here, just a ballpark on overall cost of getting 19" rims vs 20" rims both of middle class caliber. Also want to know if that extra 0.5" of sidewall really makes that much of a difference. I live in CA and am on the freeways a lot.

Thanks guys

 

Your ps2's only lasted you 20k miles? Do you drive very agressively? Race? Lowered and no camber adjustment? Reason why is that I drive fairly aggresivley and I only went through about half of their life in about 15k miles. This makes them very worth it to be to buy them again compared to cheaper tires.

 

tires for the 20's would be cheaper...

 

NO! I don't drive very aggressively at all. That is why I was baffled. Car is on the stock OEM wheels at stock height. No lowering at all. The PS2s have a 220 treadwear which is pretty soft, so I just chalked it up to that. I do quite a bit of freeway driving while commuting so maybe all the stop and go traffic is what has made them not last very long! Sucks considering I paid so much for just the damn tires.

I'm looking at the Work Varianza T1Ss now.... but still can't decide between 19" or 20" wheels!

 

O5GRide,

Wow....you must be my twin that I don't know about b/c I went through the exact same thought process with the 19 vs 20's comparison. In fact, I ended up going with the 20" Varianza T1S's. I'll provide my logic for running 20's vs 19's; hopefully, it will help you with your decision.

Foremost, IMO the 20's look far better than 19's. Plus there is basically no price difference ($100-200) b/t the 19's and 20's for my T1S's; which in my opinion means they that is not a deciding factor. Tire profile was my next concern considering I live in houston and the roads blow! Basically, you will be running the same profile in the front and rear no matter if you run 19's or 20's (245/35/19 vs 245/35/20); you will however lose an half-inch of profile in the rear if you run the 20's b/c of the larger rim. I figured this was not as much of an issue as I thought originally and therefore decided running 20's was worth it from an aesthetic standpoint.

Lastly, I considered tire pricing. After spending countless hours on both tirerack and discount's website; I concluding to go with the yokohama drive S's which run 180/front and 220/rear which is very good pricing IMO and they are supposed to last ~25k miles. The 20" tires are very comparable to the 19" tires; there really isn't much difference. Plus, I believe there are actually more tire options with 20's.

Hope this helps! My T1S's are in transit to me and I'll post pics and comments as soon as I can.

Good Luck!