GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey everybody! Thanks for taking a moment to read this and possibly help me out. I have a 2007 Pontiac Vibe Base. I wan't to get 17" or 18" glossy/wet black rims with new tires to go with them. Your car's contact with the road is important so I don't want to slack or be cheap in this area. I wan't my wheels to look good while maintaining their performance. I don't want beautiful wheels that slide all over the place and ride bumpy as fuq. As for my driving conditions I live in Florida and most the roads are flat and in good shape. I also visit east Tennessee quite often and its a mountain abundant area. I wan't tires that grip the road where I need it and I don't really have a preference for quiet touring tires or other tires in general as I have zero experience with tires. I won't be taking my vibe down overly bumpy and broken roads or dirt trails. Some of the questions I have pertain to suspension rather than wheels and tires but I'll ask them anyway. I would love input from you genvibers, thanks.

My current tire specs: P205/55R16 89S

Questions:

1) If I get 17" and/or 18" rims what tire size do you guys think would be optimal?

2) Do the tire size choices for the rim I want depend entirely on my preference? If so, what factors do I need to consider?

3) I am considering lowering/slamming my car. Do I need to put that into consideration when choosing my rims & tires?

4) If I decide to lower my car, will lowering it an inch or two affect the way my car rides significantly?

5) If I lower my car just an inch or two, would it be less stiff and bumpy than dropping it farther than 2 inches?

6) What would you guys estimate lowering a car to cost and do I need to buy parts for the process?

Here's the rim I've been eyeballing.

Here's what my car looks like.

Bubonic wrote: My current tire specs: P205/55R16 89S

Questions:

1) If I get 17" and/or 18" rims what tire size do you guys think would be optimal?

2) Do the tire size choices for the rim I want depend entirely on my preference? If so, what factors do I need to consider?

3) I am considering lowering/slamming my car. Do I need to put that into consideration when choosing my rims & tires?

4) If I decide to lower my car, will lowering it an inch or two affect the way my car rides significantly?

5) If I lower my car just an inch or two, would it be less stiff and bumpy than dropping it farther than 2 inches?

6) What would you guys estimate lowering a car to cost and do I need to buy parts for the process?

Here's the rim I've been eyeballing.

Lots of questions... and a whole bunch of options... Tires that fit a Vibe go through a pretty good range. I put 17s on my 08 Vibe, and went with a 225/50 tire. A 235/50 would probably also fit. You need to know what kind of driving you're gonna be doing... what kind of roads you drive on, the temperatures you will be driving in and all the rest.

I have a Summer tire and a Winter tire for my Vibe. Living in the hills of Maine, it's good insurance when the going gets snowy and slick to have a good set of Winter snow tires on the car. There are options galore when you are picking a snow.

My driving style is easy, so for Summer I went with a long lasting quiet tire. Really improved the ride and road noise characteristics compared to the original 205/55 16 RS-A tire that came with the car. I couldn't safely do a really low profile tire due to local poor road conditions. If you run a 225/40 18 on these roads, you're gonna bend wheel. Many have. That's an option I don't have.

If you lower your car, it will ride a bit harder/harsher than stock. If you slam your car, it will feel pretty jittery on anything other than new smooth pavement. Adjustable coil overs are an option... allowing height changes as road Surfaces allow or use demands. When lowering a car you have to consider tire clearance issues a little more. Wheel offsets, tire widths and diameters will have to be explored to keep from having contact and possible fender/tire damage issues. Again, your local road surface conditions will pretty much dictate what you can do, or how low you can actually go.

Lots of Genvibe members have successfully installed "Plus" sized wheels and tires. I didn't lower my car, so I can run a fairly wide Summer tire that is fairly flush to the outside wheel well edge, with a wheel offset of 38mm. The original Pontiac 16 inch steel and optional alloy wheel offset is 39mm and the 17 inch factory alloy is a 45mm offset. The larger the number, the farther inward that the wheel sits in the wheel well. If you are going to lower your Vibe, you'll probably want to find a wheel closer to a 42-45mm offset.

The Vibe wheel well is roomy. Someone a while back mounted a set of 225/60 16 snow tires on factory steel wheels to get some extra clearance under the car for use on rough Winter roads and had no problems with fender/tire contact. Check out what Genvibe members have installed. Mad Bill's Big Boots Vibe project a long time ago, got a 275/40 17 tire into 4 Vibe wheel wells. That was pushing the envelope quite a bit, but they fit, but you wouldn't be able to lower the car a millimeter. His Vibe looked great.

That's a nice Tenzo wheel in the picture. They seem to build a quality wheel and would look great on a Vibe.

Give us a little more info on what you intend to do with your Vibe (track it? autocross?) the road conditions you drive on, temperatures and stuff like that, and we'll be able to give you more suggestions! Pictures of your car are always good, too, since we are all Vibe fans.

Suspension modifications can start around $300-$400 hundred bucks for minimal lowering springs, and easily slip upward to over $2,000... it all depends what you want to do and what kind of aftermarket suspension bits you want to use.

vibolista wrote: Lots of questions... and a whole bunch of options... Tires that fit a Vibe go through a pretty good range. I put 17s on my 08 Vibe, and went with a 225/50 tire. A 235/50 would probably also fit. You need to know what kind of driving you're gonna be doing... what kind of roads you drive on, the temperatures you will be driving in and all the rest.

I have a Summer tire and a Winter tire for my Vibe. Living in the hills of Maine, it's good insurance when the going gets snowy and slick to have a good set of Winter snow tires on the car. There are options galore when you are picking a snow.

My driving style is easy, so for Summer I went with a long lasting quiet tire. Really improved the ride and road noise characteristics compared to the original 205/55 16 RS-A tire that came with the car. I couldn't safely do a really low profile tire due to local poor road conditions. If you run a 225/40 18 on these roads, you're gonna bend wheel. Many have. That's an option I don't have.

If you lower your car, it will ride a bit harder/harsher than stock. If you slam your car, it will feel pretty jittery on anything other than new smooth pavement. Adjustable coil overs are an option... allowing height changes as road Surfaces allow or use demands. When lowering a car you have to consider tire clearance issues a little more. Wheel offsets, tire widths and diameters will have to be explored to keep from having contact and possible fender/tire damage issues. Again, your local road surface conditions will pretty much dictate what you can do, or how low you can actually go.

Lots of Genvibe members have successfully installed "Plus" sized wheels and tires. I didn't lower my car, so I can run a fairly wide Summer tire that is fairly flush to the outside wheel well edge, with a wheel offset of 38mm. The original Pontiac 16 inch steel and optional alloy wheel offset is 39mm and the 17 inch factory alloy is a 45mm offset. The larger the number, the farther inward that the wheel sits in the wheel well. If you are going to lower your Vibe, you'll probably want to find a wheel closer to a 42-45mm offset.

The Vibe wheel well is roomy. Someone a while back mounted a set of 225/60 16 snow tires on factory steel wheels to get some extra clearance under the car for use on rough Winter roads and had no problems with fender/tire contact. Check out what Genvibe members have installed. Mad Bill's Big Boots Vibe project a long time ago, got a 275/40 17 tire into 4 Vibe wheel wells. That was pushing the envelope quite a bit, but they fit, but you wouldn't be able to lower the car a millimeter. His Vibe looked great.

That's a nice Tenzo wheel in the picture. They seem to build a quality wheel and would look great on a Vibe.

Give us a little more info on what you intend to do with your Vibe (track it? autocross?) the road conditions you drive on, temperatures and stuff like that, and we'll be able to give you more suggestions! Pictures of your car are always good, too, since we are all Vibe fans.

Suspension modifications can start around $300-$400 hundred bucks for minimal lowering springs, and easily slip upward to over $2,000... it all depends what you want to do and what kind of aftermarket suspension bits you want to use.

Thanks for your time and for reading! I edited my main post as per request with a picture of my car and more details. As for my driving conditions I live in Florida and most the roads are flat and in good shape. I also visit east Tennessee quite often and its a mountain abundant area. I wan't tires that grip the road where I need it and I don't really have a preference for quiet touring tires or other tires in general as I have zero experience with tires. I won't be taking my vibe down overly bumpy and broken roads or dirt trails. I'm thinking of lowering my car an inch, and I'm pretty much set on getting 17" rims. I'm going to research further for advice on the actual tire size that I'll be putting on the rims as well as lowering it.

Oh and.. I love those tenzo tires too, thanks!

A black Vibe... perfect for the black Tenzo wheels you have pictured.

I know Florida and those nice smooth roads! ... so you're pretty safe with a low profile tire down there. If I were to get another tire for my Vibe, I'd definitely stick with my a 225/50 or up it to a 235/45 17 inch tire. Learn the UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grading) number and letter codes. It's very easy, and once you do understand the number and letters, you can easily compare one tire to anther, and predict durability, traction and temperature ratings at a glance! Every tire sold in the USA has to have UTQG specs printed on the sidewall. Snow tires don't have it, but you won't be looking at those anyway.

Since you drive Florida roads, you've no doubt had more than one encounter with those pesky heavy rain showers that seem to come along every afternoon during the Summer. Those showers are one of the major causes of traffic accidents down there, so make sure you research a good wet or rain capable tire to keep you from hydroplaning. A wider tire is way more susceptible to hydroplaning than a narrower tire. Choosing the wrong tire can have bad consequences. There are quite a few excellent rain tires on TireRack.com... their site has great customer review feed back that you can easily access, along with a decent rating system. A lot of really good information, and I've definitely used them quite a bit.

Bringing down your ride height by around an inch on your Vibe should present little problem if you stay with the tire sizes mentioned above. Wheel offsets in the range from around 40mm to 45mm would work out with the drop you're planning. You can check with the help desk at TireRack... very helpful and they have a great deal of experience with fitments. They've been around for a long time.

No, I don't work for them, but do find the TireRack site useful and consider them one of the better on line tire outfits. Discounttiredirect.com is another great on line tire shop.

Want to see what you come up with.