The Can O' Beans, aka 2007 Toyota Corolla LE, will be assuming commuter duties this Summer for son #1. The tires on it now are close to the wear bars, but nearly as important, the wheels are stock steelies, rusty, with factory plastic wheel covers. Not attractive. Stock tire size is 195/65R15.
Looking at tire and wheel packages from TireRack. Thinking a 1" increase in wheel diameter is reasonable/desirable. Leaning Enkei FD-05, maybe J10 silver/machined lip, either one in 16 x 7. Not a fan of black wheels.
Tires would be 205/55/R16. Leaning Continental. Is the ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus too much tire for this car? Looking for good wet and dry traction, safety, reasonable wear. I like the performance bump it has over the more mundane All Season touring tires, and the small price bump is no concern.
Thoughts?
That's the exact tire I was going to recommend we put a set of those on the '18 Mazda 3 toward the end of last year. Driven them dry, wet, snow...........great traction. Ride well, quiet. They should wear well, but we've only put about 1000 or miles on them since we bought them.
Unless one of starts working in an office again, even though the car is garage kept, I suspect they will either age out or we will eventually trade the car for something else.
Sonic
UberDork
4/24/24 12:46 p.m.
DWS 06 are excellent, have them on the Mercedes now.
For potential junkyard wheels, look at similar era Matrix, Celica, and Scion TC for 16" and 17" options that are probably cheap.
How long has son #1 had his drivers license? If it is very little you, might want to leave the steelies on there until son #1 stops hitting curbs.
My son and daughter have both hit curbs while they were rookies, and that is how I know. 
Agree, DWS 06 is my favorite all season tire
Noddaz said:
How long has son #1 had his drivers license? If it is very little you, might want to leave the steelies on there until son #1 stops hitting curbs.
My son and daughter have both hit curbs while they were rookies, and that is how I know.
Good thought, but he's had his license for what, nearly five years now. Started with the 530i, handed that down to his brother (who has kissed a curb) and chose a stick shift 4x4 Ram 1500 as his daily. So, if he's hitting curbs now, I probably don't know about it. :-) Tires looked good last time I checked (They're Continental TerrainContact A/T in 265/70R17)
Far as I know, he's a great driver. Corolla is a spare car that will easily get double the gas mileage of his truck, so it's a no-brainer that he should use it as his commuter during his Summer internship at a local engineering concern.
Anybody got an opinion on Enkei wheels? Anybody like the way the FD-05 looks on a frumpy sedan?
1988RedT2 said:
Anybody got an opinion on Enkei wheels? Anybody like the way the FD-05 looks on a frumpy sedan?
You asked, so here it goes, the FD05 are one of the ugliest wheels I have ever looked at from Enkei, lol.
Hard no from me.
I think the J10s in silver would look great. And if you feel like using some of the money you will save on gas, splurge and get the RPF01s.
For reference, I had to look them up. Here are the FD05. Please dont do this, they are heavier too.
Unless you're trying to discourage him from racing the car and/or wearing through tires too quickly, you should go for 17s rather than 16s for the vastly greater selection of tires in that diameter.
Edit: I like the design of the Enkei J10s and RPF1s. The RPF1s will give the illusion of the rim being smaller than it really is which could be a positive since 17s look enormous on that car. Another option would be to stick to 15s which also have a better selection, especially for performance tires, and get rims where the spokes go all the way to the outer lip to get the illusion of bigger wheels.
Scion tC wheels are attractive and 17"
Other than FB and CL look at www.car-parts.com for JY listings
In reply to Noddaz :
My daughter hit curbs and backed over garbage cans while she was a rookie, and that is how I know.
They make quality stuff.
I don't particularly care for that style of wheel, but it's not my car or my money.
I'm not good at finding stuff used and sourcing four decent used wheels sounds like more trouble than I'd pay for these. Plus the new tires will show up mounted and balanced. Bolt 'em up and go.
My son prefers the J10 also, so you need not be concerned about the ugly FD-05. 
My Corolla holds work car status for me. I drive it every day under any conditions. Grocery store. Road trips to out of state swap meets. Jury duty parked downtown in the big city. Whatever. So I didn't want to go overboard on my choice of rolling stock.
It had the stock steelies and hub caps so I just did the easy button move and got 15 inch Enkeis and Hankooks from Tire Rack. They arrived all mounted and balanced along with 16 lug nuts and I slapped them on. Works fine for me in all Texas weather. Inexpensive. Dressed up the car's appearance. Not a theft magnet.
In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :
Very nice. What year is that?
I got notice that tires/wheels have shipped!
