What should I choose? The 15 inch wheels are lighter, but they have plastic covers The 17 inch *should* look better, but they are havier
It's just stupid to use lower-profile tires. Faster wear, more expensive, more prone to sidewall damage, harsher ride, little to no handling improvement. Just for appearance?
Since you inadvertantly posted in PIP forum, that model has a sweet 15" rim. I've got the 17" OEM, and acquired a set of the 15" PIP rims, will likely end up using them on snow tires. Anyway, playing around in Photoshop: Stock 17" rims: PIP 15" rims: And close up of the actual PIP rims I've acquired, complete with Shiba: My take, they make the car look a little more "businesslike", work pretty good.
You do see the "plug in hybrid" inscription on the car, right? And the blue color that is (I think) unique to the plug in (pip). The 17 inch should provide better stability though That is if you drive the car close to the limits, which is unusual for a prius driver
Oh sorry, gotcha. There's one corner we take, year 'round. In winter it's with 195/65R15 Michelin X-Ice on steel Corolla rims (our snow tires), and in summer it's with Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 215/45R17 on OEM third gen 17" rims (as you've pictured above). It's a fairly tight curve and I take it around 40 kmh with both setups, and really can't tell any difference.
It's not apparent in your picture. You can see it if you zoom in all the way, and know what to look for. So, the European PiP didn't get the cool looking wheels? That's a shame. Mine are like the ones @Mendel Leisk bought. I would not want the 17" wheels because I can't see spending extra money on wheels just so I can spend extra money on gas.
In Europe the only wheels for the PIP were the black 15" alloys with hubcaps like the OP's picture. I took off the hubcaps and got some OEM centre caps (think they're for a Yaris or something, but they fit) - I think the black wheels go well with my white (pearlescent) car, not sure how well it would work with the blue.
They should have put those (US) PIP rims on all 3rd gen Prius with 15" rims. And in 2012 they changed the rim under the god awful plastic wheel cover, from semi-nice silver to black. So here we are.
Why stop at 17", why not 18" or 19" with spinners, and get some struts that drop the car, be sure to toe the tires out as you drop the car. Or, get the best possible mileage per gallon with the 15" wheels. Fish or cut bait!
haha, nice one Lufcifer! The thing is, the "old" (although same year) Prius XW30 that the blue Prius XW35 is replacing came with the 17" wheels (with winter tires ?!?!), I purchased summer tires (+other 15" wheels+winter tires). So now I have both 15 and 17 wheels, so cost is not important, as I won't replace tires for either of them The only factors are: looks, feel and confort I would have decided for the 15" if they were normal silver wheels, instead of black ?!?! with plastic ?!?! covers The good thing is you can't really tell they have plastic covers, as you usually can with steel rims that are visible under their covers
The 17" wheels should improve handling slightly, but won't help you in terms of ride quality or efficiency.
Just curious, that's Panorama City, a district in Los Angeles, in the United States? You could probably do 17" on a c, if you keep the Outside Diameter about the same. Look on TireRack: if you enter your vehicle they'll show compatible tires/wheels, in stock or other sizes.
I had 15" wheels on my Prius and when to 17" wheels, 195/65/15 vs 215/45/17 they are very close to the same size other than the width and the sidewall. I believe the ride quality is vastly improved, cornering is much better and I hardly notice any loose of efficiency. I avg 60 mpg plus on each fill up.
You can always decide to switch to 17's whenever you feel like it. I'm running my PIP on 17 inch Lexus CT200h rims. 20190218_164957 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM
I read this thread and decided to go with DR-33 17" with Bridgestone Ecopia Plus 215/65/17, MPG took a 2-7 hit but I still am happy with my purchase
Wanting to swap my Stock gen1 Plug in to Bridgestone Eco Forme wheels. i think it looks slightly better than OEM 15" although no aero hub caps(dont know how effective they were) Hope i didn't make the wrong choice for better comfort, mpg and looks Photo
Any pic of the wheel? I was thinking of pip OEM 15 inch alloy for my PRIME, but it has slightly bigger offset 6Jx15 ET45 and they are quite expensive even used.
BRIDGESTONE (ブリヂストン) ECO FORME (エコフォルム) SE-10 14×4.5J(+46)PCD100-4H シルバー BRIDGESTONE (ブリヂストン) BLIZZAK (ブリザック) VRX 165/70R14 中古 スタッドレス タイヤホイール 4本 [14taw104] If this doesn't work, google Bridgestone Eco Forme Se-10