Wheel Sizes

[sproutdreamer]

Why on earth do Toyota not give any options on wheel sizes for the various trim level ie Event 16" steel, Businness edition 17" alloys and Excel 18" alloys.I asked Toyota about this and got a condescending unhelpful reply " Toyota (GB) PLC cannot make recommendations or provide technical assistance to modifications outside of the manufacturer’s specification. " Despite that these are all the same cars with mostly the same engine they will not confirm or deny that a different wheel size with the appropriate profile tyre is ok, despite the same car without the gadjets being ok?

This has been covered in other threads but I thought  should check it out myself and with the same frustrating outcome!

I will probably end up buying a Ford despite my liking for Toyotas

[FROSTYBALLS]

I would probably suggest that Toyota sell far fewer Avensis on the UK market than equivalent models from Ford, Vauxhall and VW. For example 5,344 Avensis' were sold in the UK in 2016, and sales for 2017 up to and including September were 3,099.

In 2016 Ford sold over 17,200 Mondeos, VW sold over 17,000 Passats, and Vauxhall over 23,000 Insignias.

With sales volumes less than 33% of Ford and VW equivalents, and less than 25% of the Vauxhall equivalent, from a viability and economic perspective, Toyota will struggle to offer a wide range of options, including a choice of wheels, for the Avensis.

 

[Heidfirst]

On 10/12/2017 at 8:41 PM, sproutdreamer said:

Why on earth do Toyota not give any options on wheel sizes for the various trim level ie Event 16" steel, Businness edition 17" alloys and Excel 18" alloys.I asked Toyota about this and got a condescending unhelpful reply " Toyota (GB) PLC cannot make recommendations or provide technical assistance to modifications outside of the manufacturer’s specification. " Despite that these are all the same cars with mostly the same engine they will not confirm or deny that a different wheel size with the appropriate profile tyre is ok, despite the same car without the gadjets being ok?

Actually Toyota GB do offer supported options - you can go up using the offered accessory option alloy wheels. What they don't offer on  a new Avensis in the UK is support for the option to fit smaller wheels than Type Approved.

By providing  the statement they did they are covering themselves in terms of liability & putting any liability on to you in the event that you decide to change & have an issue.

Your insurer may be quite happy though to cover the change - mine was.

[perdaniel]

On 12/10/2017 at 9:41 PM, sproutdreamer said:

Why on earth do Toyota not give any options on wheel sizes for the various trim level ie Event 16" steel, Businness edition 17" alloys and Excel 18" alloys.I asked Toyota about this and got a condescending unhelpful reply " Toyota (GB) PLC cannot make recommendations or provide technical assistance to modifications outside of the manufacturer’s specification. " Despite that these are all the same cars with mostly the same engine they will not confirm or deny that a different wheel size with the appropriate profile tyre is ok, despite the same car without the gadjets being ok?

This has been covered in other threads but I thought  should check it out myself and with the same frustrating outcome!

I will probably end up buying a Ford despite my liking for Toyotas

I understand that you have some sort of problem with the wheel sizes, but I don't understand what it is. Do you want a car with more equipment but smaller wheels or a car with less equipment but larger wheels? There might be some issues with smaller wheels and powerful/heavy engines as some of these cars use pretty large front disc brakes which might not fit under the smallest wheels.

[sproutdreamer]

On 16/10/2017 at 5:33 PM, perdaniel said:

I understand that you have some sort of problem with the wheel sizes, but I don't understand what it is. Do you want a car with more equipment but smaller wheels or a car with less equipment but larger wheels? There might be some issues with smaller wheels and powerful/heavy engines as some of these cars use pretty large front disc brakes which might not fit under the smallest wheels.

Thanks for replies. I just want maximum comfort/soft ride and from what everyone seems to say and my own observations in friends cars 16" alloys with the higher profile tyres wil be a softer more comfortable ride than 17" alloys with the lower profile tyre to maintain tyre circumfernece and a lot better than the 18" alloys. I accept small loss of extreme cornering capability and street cred but with an Avensis you will not be too bothered about that! Just want a 2.0 Excel auto which mostly come with 17 or 18" wheels, the  lower spec but same power Avensis can come with 16" wheels.

My insurers (LV) have just come back and said £25 extra for 16" wheels so that is ok.

Now what are my chances of finding someone with an Avensis who will be willing to swap 18" alloys & tyres for 16" alloys & tyres. I would have thought as 18" is generally considered morre desirable that should be easy-am I right in thinking this?

 

[perdaniel]

15 hours ago, sproutdreamer said:

Thanks for replies. I just want maximum comfort/soft ride and from what everyone seems to say and my own observations in friends cars 16" alloys with the higher profile tyres wil be a softer more comfortable ride than 17" alloys with the lower profile tyre to maintain tyre circumfernece and a lot better than the 18" alloys. I accept small loss of extreme cornering capability and street cred but with an Avensis you will not be too bothered about that! Just want a 2.0 Excel auto which mostly come with 17 or 18" wheels, the  lower spec but same power Avensis can come with 16" wheels.

My insurers (LV) have just come back and said £25 extra for 16" wheels so that is ok.

Now what are my chances of finding someone with an Avensis who will be willing to swap 18" alloys & tyres for 16" alloys & tyres. I would have thought as 18" is generally considered morre desirable that should be easy-am I right in thinking this?

 

Are the insurance company charging you £25 more (per year?) for running smaller rims? That's sounds insane.

As to getting 16" wheels, you could also buy a second hand set and then sell your 17" wheels. If you don't need original Toyota alloys there should be more wheels to chose from. As long as they are the correct BCD/PCD, the center hole isn't too small and the ET is close to the original you should be ok. It is recommended to use hub centric rings if the center hole of the rims are larger than required, but I drove for years lacking one of them on my previous car without noticing any difference. I should note that it was a Golf and that it had conical wheel bolts on the after market alloys. My Avensis has original alloys without conical wheel nuts, but they have the correct center hole. It might be a bad idea to have the wrong center hole, no hub centric ring and non-conical nuts/bolts.

Edit: 

I was able to go from 195/60-15 to 195/65-15, thereby getting comfier tyres, saving money and getting a more accurate speedometer. If your new car has 205/60-16 you might not be so lucky: It looks like 205/65-16 is mainly a van size (at least at my tyre shops website). The tyres were more expensive and many of them were 8 ply rating, so they are probably heavy as well.

 

[hondansxr]

i would exch my 16" alloys for your 18'S