Why must OE's spec "oddball" tires?

Kenny_McCormic wrote: NASCAR seems to work alright with little 15" wheels, ditto for F1. The W126 Mercedes 560SEL came with 15s and nobody bitched about the brakes. Massive wheels and the ugly cars built around them is a fad, plain and simple, they ride like ass, break, and cost stupid money. Most cars dont need more brake than a 16" wheel supports, it was only a few years ago that supercars got wheels bigger than 18".

Really? You are HONESTLY trying to compare the Carbon/Carbon technology of F1 brakes to a road car?

I can see you don't wish to have a serious discussion.

Carry on.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Be glad you live here where you can put what the hell you like on, not like some countries where you have to run the OEM size.

lol wtf logic is behind that limitation.

Is it like that in your country?

kanaric wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Be glad you live here where you can put what the hell you like on, not like some countries where you have to run the OEM size.

lol wtf logic is behind that limitation. Is it like that in your country?

Nope, not the UK where you still have a lot of freedom with cars. Australia from what I understand. When I used to drop into the C30 forum (don't unless you want to loose 10 IQ points per second) People were discussing replacements for the odd sized 215/45 18's the car came with and a couple of Oz guys were complaining they weren't allowed to swap sizes.

Incidentaly the Volvo is the first car I've serioulsy considered swapping to a smaller tires. If I had a space $1,000 I'd buy some 17" wheels, I hate the low profile of the 18's from a ride perspective for a DD. I'd much rather gain some side wall and drop to 17's. The ride (for a DD) is much nicer in the winter with my 16" snow tires. At the least now I have the SAAB as a toy I will be dropping down to all seasons not super high performance summer tires next time.

z31maniac wrote:

Kenny_McCormic wrote: NASCAR seems to work alright with little 15" wheels, ditto for F1. The W126 Mercedes 560SEL came with 15s and nobody bitched about the brakes. Massive wheels and the ugly cars built around them is a fad, plain and simple, they ride like ass, break, and cost stupid money. Most cars dont need more brake than a 16" wheel supports, it was only a few years ago that supercars got wheels bigger than 18".

Really? You are HONESTLY trying to compare the Carbon/Carbon technology of F1 brakes to a road car? I can see you don't wish to have a serious discussion. Carry on.

maybe not.. but I remember the Vettes in the 80s stuffing 12 inch brake discs beneath their (now tiny) rims. I also do not see too many cars with 20s with brakes that completely fill that space. I bet the new Camaro can easily fit 18s over it's brakes

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Be glad you live here where you can put what the hell you like on, not like some countries where you have to run the OEM size.

What happens when the OEM tire size is no longer made? How many cars came with 13 inch tires back in the day?

mad_machine wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

Kenny_McCormic wrote: NASCAR seems to work alright with little 15" wheels, ditto for F1. The W126 Mercedes 560SEL came with 15s and nobody bitched about the brakes. Massive wheels and the ugly cars built around them is a fad, plain and simple, they ride like ass, break, and cost stupid money. Most cars dont need more brake than a 16" wheel supports, it was only a few years ago that supercars got wheels bigger than 18".

Really? You are HONESTLY trying to compare the Carbon/Carbon technology of F1 brakes to a road car? I can see you don't wish to have a serious discussion. Carry on.

maybe not.. but I remember the Vettes in the 80s stuffing 12 inch brake discs beneath their (now tiny) rims. I also do not see too many cars with 20s with brakes that completely fill that space. I bet the new Camaro can easily fit 18s over it's brakes

Yes, and I'm sure those brakes would meet modern standards.

I just find it amazing how many threads get filled "ZomG new cars are so big and stupid and I hate them and they are so heavy and whine whine whine" especially since a large majority of posters here have flatly stated even if the car companies made a new car they wanted, they would never buy it new.

mtn wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Be glad you live here where you can put what the hell you like on, not like some countries where you have to run the OEM size.

What happens when the OEM tire size is no longer made? How many cars came with 13 inch tires back in the day?

Dunno, ask a convict/

z31maniac wrote: especially since a large majority of posters here have flatly stated even if the car companies made a new car they wanted, they would never buy it new.

Mostly because the bean counters get out their adding machines and sticker that bastard up to unaffordable levels because it's "niche". Or you get dealers, that if given the option, will order nothing but automatics. Then when you come in for the manual, they hem and haw, question you about wanting one, etc... So they can sell you the automatic on the lot because they used up their ordering allotment stocking automatics.

The MR2 Turbo managed to do 60-0 in 106-107 feet 2 decades ago. On tires that didn't even approach the performance that we have today. On pads not near as good as available today.

Wearing 15" wheels.

That's still an excellent number today.

Ranger50 wrote:

z31maniac wrote: especially since a large majority of posters here have flatly stated even if the car companies made a new car they wanted, they would never buy it new.

Mostly because the bean counters get out their adding machines and sticker that bastard up to unaffordable levels because it's "niche". Or you get dealers, that if given the option, will order nothing but automatics. Then when you come in for the manual, they hem and haw, question you about wanting one, etc... So they can sell you the automatic on the lot because they used up their ordering allotment stocking automatics.

Yes, the last two new vehicles I've purchased, neither was on the lot.

The first dealer said, "OK, I found one Arizona. I'll have it here by the end of the week."

The second car, dealer said, "Give me a $1000 deposit, we will order it today and it will be here in 4-6 weeks." That was a custom ordered stripper Mustang GT. No extra options except the track pack, no nav, no leather, etc. Never once did they try to get me to buy what was on the lot or hassle me because I wanted to special order a vehicle.

Have you ever actually tried to order a new vehicle exactly as you want, or is this more conjecture?

I tried once on a Hyundai Genesis. I was flat out told that the dealer only gets what the distributer sends. And no, they were not willing to look for one that I wanted from a different dealer.

Sucks to be them, they didn't get my money

z31maniac wrote:

Ranger50 wrote:

z31maniac wrote: especially since a large majority of posters here have flatly stated even if the car companies made a new car they wanted, they would never buy it new.

Mostly because the bean counters get out their adding machines and sticker that bastard up to unaffordable levels because it's "niche". Or you get dealers, that if given the option, will order nothing but automatics. Then when you come in for the manual, they hem and haw, question you about wanting one, etc... So they can sell you the automatic on the lot because they used up their ordering allotment stocking automatics.

Yes, the last two new vehicles I've purchased, neither was on the lot. The first dealer said, "OK, I found one Arizona. I'll have it here by the end of the week." The second car, dealer said, "Give me a $1000 deposit, we will order it today and it will be here in 4-6 weeks." That was a custom ordered stripper Mustang GT. No extra options except the track pack, no nav, no leather, etc. Never once did they try to get me to buy what was on the lot or hassle me because I wanted to special order a vehicle. Have you ever actually tried to order a new vehicle exactly as you want, or is this more conjecture?

Yes, the only vehicle I bought new, my old 96 Ranger. I really wanted an XLT, but either I would have had to take delivery of the RCSB 4.0/5spd Splash suspension'd XLT on the lot or accept an XL model from another dealer. The XLT was out of my price range by about 5k. So, I took the XL. The dealer didn't have anymore allotment available.

In reply to Ranger50:

If a dealer doesn’t want to find what you want go elsewhere. With the Internet you can find anything anywhere in the country. You can even order a vehicle through a dealer out of state. Plane tickets, bus tickets etc are cheap compared to even the cheapest new car.

I’ve only ever bought one car off the lot, but that’s because by chance they had the exact car I wanted. I walked in planning on ordering, but they happened to have the exact car I wanted. We were both Amazed, me that they had one like I wanted and them because someone came in asking for a manual Focus.

Back to tires. I’d say the consumers are at least 50% to blame for larger and larger diameter wheels and low profile tires. Whenever larger wheels were offered, consumers always bought them, pushing the average offering size up and up.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Back in 1996????

Plus when I purchased the truck, mid to late summer, the plant was in "shutdown" for the next year's retooling, even though it was exactly the same truck.

Ack, this thread is coming alarmingly close to another bad thread we had that was driven by conspiracy theorists that i'd rather not rehash.

So how about those Primewells? As far as i've noticed im the only person to post an option that is both affordable and performance-oriented. But i guess if OP just agreed and bought some it would stifle any possible retreading of stupid topics from other threads.

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Back in 1996???? Plus when I purchased the truck, mid to late summer, the plant was in "shutdown" for the next year's retooling, even though it was exactly the same truck.

No, but you still could have checked other dealers, etc. Insert your excuse why you couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't have had to

My point was that you are taking ONE EXPERIENCE from almost 20 years ago and trying to make broad, sweeping generalizations about all car purchases.

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Back in 1996???? Plus when I purchased the truck, mid to late summer, the plant was in "shutdown" for the next year's retooling, even though it was exactly the same truck.

I hadz the intertez in 1996, but most dealers probably didn't. Still, phones were pretty comon by then I belive!

In reply to z31maniac:

I did. There were 6 other dealers. I checked with them all. Same song, same dance for 6 months.

Vigo: Primewells, no way. Bad experiences with them on other vehicles.

16's have to be the absolute worst for tire selection.

Like your one car buying experience 20 years ago? I havent used these primewells but the thread i found on lemons forums where a decent number of people tried them and liked them was a strong recommendation in my opinion. I'll definitely try them at some point. Ive never been impressed with the 'common' primewells i see coming out of discount tire on family cars, but it just so happens that EVERY tire company ive ever run tires from makes one or more things i think are bad anyway, so i dont consider that a valid reason to rule out this tire.

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to z31maniac: I did. There were 6 other dealers. I checked with them all. Same song, same dance for 6 months. Vigo: Primewells, no way. Bad experiences with them on other vehicles.

What models, sizes, and on what vehicles?

crankwalk wrote: Think that's bad? Try buying metric TWX tires. If you can find them, they are a bazillion dollars.

Do you mean TRX? If so, I think I know where there are some ...

Ranger50 wrote: Plus when I purchased the truck, mid to late summer, the plant was in "shutdown" for the next year's retooling, even though it was exactly the same truck.

Tooling wears out...