Tires size possible deal breaker on 2023 Prius?

Good to know.

At least a year ago, I lurked on here a bit and also on the prius reddits and I saw a lot complaints about issues with the prius 19" wheels: tire damage, rim damage, and then the difficulty of finding spares. That, plus the quality (or lack thereof) of IL roads, has steered me to avoid them. But, if they work for others and they are ok with their ride and their pluses and minuses, then that is good to hear.

 

Have you driven a trim with 17 inch wheels? If so, is the difference great enough that you could tell which wheel a car has from the ride and sound?

I ask because it seems accepted that many Toyotas will have worse NVH than competitors, and more sidewall seems like an easy route to less NVH.

This also brings to mind the conversation about some versions of the 2 liter having balance shafts and others not. People complain a lot about intrusive engine noise especially when it is tied to the CVT. I wonder how much of that comes from people whose little Toyotas have an engine without balance shafts.

My 2021 Corolla engine sounded a bit rough toward redline (which I didn't mind a bit). Maybe that's because I was in the cheap end of the Toyota pool.

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that trims with 19” wheels have suspension that is tuned to be slightly softer to maintain approximately the same level of ride quality/cabin isolation compared to the 17” wheels. That being said, I don’t recall the source of this information (may have been somewhere here on PC), nor have I personally conducted a side-by-side comparison of ride quality…

 

You are slightly misremembering. It was discovered that there was one part of the suspension with a different part number between the 17" wheel and 19" wheel versions. But we don't know exactly what the difference is between the two parts. It could be related to ride quality, it could be related to the unsprung weight differences, or it could be because of something completely unrelated to the wheel size(something connected to some option on the upper trims that isn't on the SE/LE). We just don't know for certain and can only speculate/guess.