I am thinking about upgrading my wheels and tires on my prius v five model. I currently have the 17" stock wheels and I am debating on upgrading to 18" or 19" wheels. I really like the look of the 19" wheels. I have not seen many prius v with 19" wheels so I would like to know what you guys think.
Why? Oh yea, looks cool. If you don't care about gas mileage worsening then go for it. Heavier and probably taller come to mind first. You might find lighter rims than stock; a plus. You might get a low aspect ratio tire and actually lower the car; a good thing. How about a 235x35x19? Similar OD to stock.
If you want to do it, then do it. Like Scargod said, gas mileage will most likely worsen by a few MPGs, but you wouldn't know for sure until you do a before/after analysis. I would get the Prius Plus wheels, but they're not cheap.
Gas mileage would be my least of worries. I come from an Escalade that only got me 9.6 MPG and now with an average 40.5 MPG on my new prius v I think I can handle it. My main consern would be if by running lightweight 19" wheel will this affect my engine or transmission in the long run.
I was actually considering these 19" lightweight wheels by TRD made for the Scion tC which has the same 5 x 114.3 bolt pattern as the prius v.
I'm surprised at the location of the people doing (or thinking of doing) the wheel changes as those places aren't famous for the smoothest of roads. I suggest you visit a wheel repair shop and get prices before you do it. Might surprise you.
Go ahead and do it. This is an online forum and there's going to be opinions from different people. Listen to people's opinion who actually have done it. I've tried 16s, 17s, 18s, 19s and 20s on my V. I ended up with 18s. There are different looks and stance for different people. Some people would just throw some rims without researching, some spend a lot of time finding the correct width, offset and tire size. First, what stance and looks are you attracted to? VIP style, Stance/HellaFlush, Euro look and then go from there. You will lose MPG but not much depending on the wheel/tire size. I'm currently running 18x8 and 18x9. MPG loss is 4 MPG and that's including my roof top bike rack.
