18" GT Wheels Look Great, But....

[gjswaff]

The 18" alloys on my '09vGT look great, corner even better, but man they ride rough! I can feel a piece of gravel when I run over it. Every little bump in the road. Even more, as some of the responses to my other thread, it is contributing to some of the steering pull. These are the first set of low profile tires I have ever driven on, I'm used to trucks and their big balloon tires, but hate the MPG. I was considering next time I need tires to change the wheels, too. Downsizing to a 17" or even a 16" wheel and getting a taller tire to help smooth out the ride. I know I'll give up some cornering and looks, but I drive like a grandpa anyway, and would much rather have the smoother ride and less steering pull. Has anybody out there done this? Is there room for the brake caliper and rotor if I go with a 16" wheel? What about bolt pattern? What would be a Toyota or Pontiac equivalent? I would still like to keep alloy wheels and not hub caps.

[KITT222]

16s will fit the Vibe just fine. Other iterations came with 16s as standard. The GT has a 5x114.3 bolt pattern, shared with the Camry. Carrie (vibenvy) puts 16" rims on her Vibe for the winter time, and they came off a Camry. You can check out the "All you need to Know" thread in my sig for more details, and pictures of other factory rims.

[vibenvy]

Just as KITT said, we do indeed put 16" steel wheels on both our 2009 Vibe GTs for the winter months, as do many other 2009-2010 Vibe GT owners here. A 16" wheel is the absolute smallest that will fit over the brakes on the 2009-2010 Vibe GT. It's a pretty tight fit, but they do fit without hitting the calipers. I can feel a slight difference in the ride with the 16" steel wheels and 205/55/16 tires, but honestly I don't think it's enough to warrant spending the money on another set of wheels and tires, unless they're to save the 18s from being damaged by salt, sand, etc. during the winter months. Just my $0.02 though.

When looking for wheels, here is the main info you will need:
2009-2010 Vibe GT bolt pattern is 5x114.3
Offset for all 2009-2010 factory wheels is +39mm
Factory tire size for 16" wheels is 205/55/16 / Factory tire size for 17" wheels is 215/45/17

Check out our Garage threads (listed in my signature) to see pictures of how the 16" wheels look on our 2009 Vibe GTs.

[lowincash]

Are you on stock tires? Changing tires help quite a bit in ride comfort. I changed to yokohama ykXXX and the ride was smoother and a lot quieter compared to the stock tires. This car does ride pretty stiff but changing tires helped some.

[JerBear]

I had the same situation with the stock tires and changed to Continentals DWS tires when the old (stock) tires wore out. Much better, not Buick plush but manageable now. The Goodyears wear great but have no give.

[mrbravo2000]

interesting, i come from the same background but I had 275/55/20 on my truck and I felt some but definitely not like my Vibe. However, I do drive like my grandpa on the highway but I drive like I'm late to everything in the city and I cannot like I like it. I do notice the pull on the steer which took some getting used to.

it's definitely a change. my employees drive a variety of f150s regualr cabs that ride high and have standard wheels / tires and I can tell the difference from my truck. On a car, not so sure. Our Cadillac has some nice bridgestone tires that my chick paid way too much for but we lost some of the pep that the previous tires had.