Before I pore through all the threads, is there any summary, or consensus, on using smaller wheels on a Gen 5. I'm thinking in terms of economy, weight, snow, ride, looks, handling (not expecting an improvement), go-in-sno, caliper clearance, availability of wheels/tires, etc, etc. How about 15" wheels? Calipers looks small enough for clearance purposes. A 205/70R15 would be +.4%.
Going through the threads...looks like 15" wouldn't fit over the calipers. So, I guess it would be a 16" wheel and a tire that's actually purchase-able, lol.
Even 16” rims are iffy. Someone here went with 16” rims for snow tires, found the hidden weights (wafer weights with adhesive, applied to inside diameter of rim) were brushing the caliper, had to be shifted slightly. It is a little puzzling, the wheel sizes Toyota opted for, considering the car’s weight, class.
3rd and 4th gen stock tire was 195/65R15. But yeah in 15” that was a very common size, sensible aspect ratio.
Narrower means pushing less air out of the way. The i3 uses 175. I think to increase contact patch area, narrower tire means bigger wheel.
I know that tire width makes a difference; experimental high mileage vehicles have narrow wheels. But the difference is so small that it pales compared to ride comfort.
That's a reasonable explanation. My inner cynic wonders whether the driving reason for the 19 inch wheel is that it looks more like an artist's rendering.
I believe that iffy experience would have been on an AWD or PHEV car, which have bigger front brakes. 16" on an FWD HEV is probably okay.
