Tires size possible deal breaker on 2023 Prius?

Yeah those 15" corolla rims are on our 2010 right now, and with the back calipers feels like about 1/2" clear, fronts less than a 1/4".

Maybe a Camry 16" steelie, who knows. That might be the go-to snow tire rim.

 

Does it have wheel studs or bolts, and will that need to be considered for replacement wheels?

 

Prior to converting to the Prius club, I owned a Lexus that came standard with 18inch rims/tires. Hitting a large pothole resulted in a slow bubble forming on the sidewall and sometimes a slight bend in the rim. After a few pothole incidents, I traded in the Lexus for a Prius with 15inch wheels and haven't had a pothole incident once.

19inch wheels on a Prius Prime seems like a slow money grab due to bent rims and sidewall bubbles.

 

That really isn't an issue of wheel size. It is one of the tire sidewall height.
Went from a Camry with 17in wheels to an Outback with 18in. The Outback's tire sidewalls are taller. The risk of sidewall damage and bent rims from a pot hole will be lower with it.

The 17in wheel and tire on the new Prius is almost the exact same overall diameter and sidewall height as that Camry's.
The sidewall height of the new 19in combo is the same as the sidewall of the gen4's 17in wheel option. What have owners' experience been with them?

 

You'll see massive trucks with 17" rims, and nice tall sidewall tires. Sensible. There was a truck parked up the block from us, with oversized rims and low profile tires, looked silly.

 

I see on the Tire Rack website that they are listing the 2023 Prius models and both sizes of tires but of course they don’t have any stock yet by any manufacturer. At least they are aware and I’m betting that they will be trying to source them.

 

An outsize number of 30K+/yr superusers drive Prii, so there's that.

 

Wheel-size.com finally updated for USDM spec. Have a look!

 

Well the Prius is not the only model to have tire availability issues. The Crown will use 225/45R21 for the Platinum trim and 225/55R19 for all other trims. These are non-existent on Tire Rack as well. At first glance they appear to be a common size, but they too are skinny tires for such a large car which have a relatively low sidewall height. Toyota's new design language must be a thing to have skinny tires with quite low sidewalls.

 

It's economics, not design. Low sidewalls & 19 inch wheels is a clever method to generate more revenue. The 15 inch wheels currently on the Prius are indestructible, inexpensive, and maintenance free.

 

And in the uk 15” £43 per tyre. 19” £125

 

Unknown PCD and center bore. Assuming they stick with 5x100 and 54.1, an allowed offset of 38 to 42 means you should be able to use wheels from:
'99-'07 Celica (ET39)
'13-'19 Corolla (ET39)
'19-> Corolla (ET40)
'09-> Urban Cruiser (ET39) ...not sure if you got this one in the US?

 

Wheels should fit, but the stock tires on those wheels have a circumference that is too small compared to the Prius tires (spedo reading and suspension tuning will be impacted). As long as you buy used with tire replacement costs in mind it could work, assuming the right size tires are available.

 

Just FYI, the New Prius wheels are 5x 114.3, I read on a Japanese Spec sheet.

 

The point is that you don't need to use the new unobtainable tire size. Just pick some tires which allow you to keep the same overall rolling radius. The are online tire calculators which help to figure out this radius

 

So my question going forward, since there's clearly "tire size issues" with 2023 Prius is - Will Toyota correct this wheel size problem in future models? As in 2024 models, 2025. model? Or do we just accept the crazy weird size hard rubber and live with it forever?

 

The car companies all do this when developing new models. Secrecy is paramount, and whoever's guiding the design process, they seem to have precious little awareness of practical needs and concerns of the motoring public.

 

Tire companies probably aren't making the tires in large numbers yet, as there's no demand.

I'm sure that as Toyota's production ramps up, tire production will too.

"If you build it, he will come"
- Field of Dreams (1989)

 

Here's a pretty good online calculator:

Tire Size Calculator

Example of outcome:



Question: if you're shopping alternate sizes, which of the two above OD's would you try to match? Perhaps an average of the two?

Another link of interest, all the 17" tire sizes currently available on TireRack:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/sizes/results.jsp?diameter=17

Would be nice if you could search TireRack for a specific OD.

215/55R15 has a theoretical OD of 26.3, and a number of tire choices. Not sure if it'd fit the 17" (5th gen Prius) rim:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?width=215%2F&ratio=55&diameter=17&startIndex=0&search=true&pagelen=20&pagenum=1&pagemark=1&RunFlat=All

 

The Crown also has large diameter tires that are narrow. Narrow has an efficiency advantage. So this likely the way Toyota, perhaps the industry, is going forward.