Forged aluminum or Magnesium wheels?

I have not changed out my wheels yet (pulling the horrible press-fit rims off made them look acceptably better), but I'd suggest as light a wheel as possible. Be sure the backspace matches that of the stock wheel or you may have rubbing issues. Otherwise, you should be pretty safe.

~ dan ~

 

I went with Motegi Traklite forged aluminum wheels (10 lbs/wheel) and Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S tires. The combination weighs in at 32 lbs per corner. The stock Prius wheel & tire combination weighs in at 32 lbs. as well. The Touring edition's wheel & tire combination weighs in at 35 lbs. per corner. Since I started with a Touring edition, I lost weight and gained more rubber (205mm for the Michelins) and better adhesion. My net mileage-wise was to improve mpgs by ~1 mpg. My objective in switching to the Michelins & Motegis was to get better handling and braking without losing mpgs. I met my objective.

 

The Volk Racing wheels posted in another thread are a very good buy, tempting even for me (I'm cheap)! They were very light, lighter than stock. Even the 16" was lighter than the stock 15".

DO NOT buy cheap wheels. They will give you nothing but trouble.

The Volks were discussed here: http://priuschat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38512

 

Don't know where you live, but $4/gallon over the lifetime of the car is rather conservative. In the S.F. Bay Area, gas will be at $4/gallon by this Memorial Day. You might want to re-run your calculation with a more realistic gas price. Also, what about the value of improved handling and braking? What is the value of avoiding an accident (hitting someone in front of you)? If you don't have commute traffic to deal with, probably low. Conversely, if your traffic experience frequently goes to a standstill from 70 mph, then you might want to put in a value for accident avoidance.

Also, $1,500 for rims is a bit steep. The Motegi Traklites are priced at $225 on tirerack.com

 

That was $1500 for four, including air shipping from Japan. That's pretty cheap for 10 lb wheels of Volk Racing quality! You drop 40% of each wheel weight. The wheels are made for the Prius, not "adapted" from a chart.

How about pricing wheels for say, the RX-8. They (Mazda) sell really nice magnesium wheels for about $1500 EACH!! These babies drop the wheel weight by 20%. Now THAT'S expensive! BTW, shipping is not included.

 

How long do you plan on keeping your current Prius? If you are going to keep it to 100,000+, then you still have 60,000 or so miles that you could be enjoying the benefits of lighter & wider wheels with better tires.