First post here - hello!

[Duncs1961]

Hello, been a lurker for a couple of weeks and decided to join the foum today

Had this beauty for two weeks now. Absolutely love the car so far...apart from the ridiculous 19" wheels and 'rubber bands' otherwise known as tyres. I am rectifying that though as next week I will be fitting 17" alloy wheels shod with Michelin CrossClimate 2 tyres.

[mart4856]

Welcome, that is good looking car you have to there. As you say, the wheels are a complete joke, especially on our pothole riddled roads.

Which bright spark thought it would be a good idea to ruin the ride by sticking stupidly large wheels on. I don't like RR evokes but have seen a few with small wheels and very fat tyres which both look good and must be very comfortable. Anything less than a 50 profile sidewall on a normal car is daft.

[Duncs1961]

All season tyres fitted now. (and yes, the car is filthy - will be doing something abut that this weekend!)

[kodiaq]

Just out of interest. Which All seasons did you go for and cost?
Thanks.

[Duncs1961]

Michelin CrossClimate 2, 215/55/17 VR (94V) All Season

I bought a package deal from Wheelbase for £1,100. This included the four alloys, valves, tyres fitted and balanced, a pack of wheel bolts and delivery. Looking at the invoice, the tyres were £139 each. Once I received the wheel set, a small garage in a unit next to where I work fitted them for £25, including checking the torque of the wheel bolts the next day (as recommended by Wheelbase).

I am so pleased I made the decision to change my wheels and tyres. The comfort is so much better and tyre noise far less, and yet handling does not seem to have been affected at all (I don't drive like a lunatic but I don't drive sedately either!). I'm so impressed I doubt very much I will bother fit the 19" wheels on again until I sell the car.

[gclontour24]

This might seem a silly question but is it possible to fit higher aspect tyres to the 19" rims to avoid the expense of the new wheels?

[Routemaster1]

This might seem a silly question but is it possible to fit higher aspect tyres to the 19" rims to avoid the expense of the new wheels?

You need to be very careful if you want to do this. The standard 19" tyre is 225 wide with a 40% aspect ratio. It may well be possible to fit 235/40 tyre which will have a marginally higher profile. But if you try 45% or 50%, the tyre may give issues with the speedo under-reading, which is illegal. It is not recommended to change diameter by more than 2%. See this calculator.

http://c4owners.org/page.php?72