STOCK WHEELS

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March 03, 2016

Thinking of Upgrading Wheels?

Are you interested in buying a vehicle or did you just recently purchase a vehicle and were thinking about getting larger, more attractive wheels? While they may make your vehicle look much more attractive, you need to be aware about the downside to bigger wheels. Knowing all the facts will help you decide if new bigger wheels are the right choice for you.

Comfort

One major downside to bigger wheels is the comfort of your drive. While bigger wheels look much nicer on your vehicle, they usually negatively affect the ride quality since the sidewall tends to be much smaller on larger wheels than on smaller wheels. What this results in is less cushion to absorb all the bumps and now you feel them more often.

Moving up 1 inch will probably not affect the comfort level too much. Once you start thinking about 2-3 inches then that is when the comfort level is reduced greatly to where over time it can become uncomfortable.

Hidden Cost

The one thing most people do not think about when buying bigger wheels is that you will actually lose money. Bigger wheels require more force to turn them so your engine is now working harder. This will affect your fuel economy. Now while some people might disagree on how much fuel economy is affected, there is no argument that there is a negative correlation between wheel size and fuel economy.

If lower fuel economy wasn't bad enough, now you have to deal with the loss when you try to sell your vehicle. Dealers generally charge a nice premium for aftermarket or bigger factory wheels when purchasing their car. This can run anywhere from $1000 to well over $2000. Unfortunately, like other upgrade options or aftermarket modifications, it is really hard to get your initial investment back from the used car market. With that, be sure you are getting bigger wheels for your pleasure and look of the car, because most likely you will not be receiving your money back.

Larger wheels also have a financial impact when you are trying to replace your tires. Larger wheels generally require more expensive low profile tires in order to fit on your vehicle. This makes those required tire changes much more expensive than usual.

Our View

Our plan here is not to discourage you from wanting to buy bigger wheels for your vehicle. We are just advising of some potential drawbacks that may affect you negatively. StockWheels.com encourages everyone to give us a call about the best wheel option for their vehicle.