Why switch to 18s?

REnthusiast · Jan 20, 2019

I'm just curious. Why are so many people changing over to the 18" wheels? Is it purely for weight savings/lowering applications? Tire cost savings? Track attack purposes? I absolutely love the OEM wheels. Surely to have 20" factory wheels on a Civic, the engineers have their reasons. Genuinely curious.

KeepItLow · Jan 21, 2019

I'm with you, I love the factory 20' wheels and happily running them on the street while my 18' with RE71R is for track use only..

Reason most change to 18' is due to lighter weight, more tyre choices at cheaper price and ride comfort. Although I find the factory 20' wheels has better steering response than my 18' track wheels, but acceleration wise the 18' feels a lot faster due to being 4-5kg less each corner

02SilverSiHB · Jan 22, 2019

I bought 18s to use for winter

Noize · Jan 22, 2019

Tire choice, wheel choice, cost, more sidewall, weight, availability.

I think the 20s look like goofy wagon wheels.

I think 19s look pretty nice too.

youCTR · Jan 23, 2019

How many times does a dead horse have to be beat?

FifStreet · Feb 1, 2019

youCTR said:
How many times does a dead horse have to be beat?

If we don't come back and beat it every now and then, how do we know its still dead? lol.

But seriously, I find this topic fascinating. I spent many hours deciding what to do when it came to the wheels and tires for this car.

apexit53 · Feb 1, 2019

The OEM wheels are nice, tire size and cost is a little high and tire wear is also quite high. People go to 18s for looks, cost, tire cost, better "stance", widths available. i mean there are a lot of reasons and its to each their own.

I have 18" for my snow wheels and tires for expense. It was the same cost to get a wheel and tire package as it was to get a set of 20" snows.

for autocross ill go with a set of 19" wheels because of rules and more tire options.

idragmazda · Feb 1, 2019

This is a can of worms type of discussion lol.

If you search on here, you'll read lots of benefits of the 18s. There are also drawbacks from changing from the 20s as well.

Regarding your statement "Surely to have 20" factory wheels on a Civic, the engineers have their reasons" - it is unlikely it was an engineering decision. It was likely a marketing decision. I would think an 18" wheel with a thicker tire / sidewall would perform better in most conditions (assuming you kept the offset and overall diameter similar), and you'd have access to a larger pool of tire options. Not to mention weight savings of 18 vs. 20. Again, likely for marketing purposes.

apexit53 · Feb 1, 2019

idragmazda said:
This is a can of worms type of discussion lol.

If you search on here, you'll read lots of benefits of the 18s. There are also drawbacks from changing from the 20s as well.

Regarding your statement "Surely to have 20" factory wheels on a Civic, the engineers have their reasons" - it is unlikely it was an engineering decision. It was likely a marketing decision. I would think an 18" wheel with a thicker tire / sidewall would perform better in most conditions (assuming you kept the offset and overall diameter similar), and you'd have access to a larger pool of tire options. Not to mention weight savings of 18 vs. 20. Again, likely for marketing purposes.

i know when talking to a few GM engineers with the camaro they fought the design department on wheel size! They wanted 19" wheels but the designers wanted 20s

FifStreet · Feb 1, 2019

I think the "its because of marketing" reason for why this car has the wheel/tire combo it does is interesting.

everything is about compromises... Did they make this decision because it looks the best, or to break lap time records for a FF car? Was the breaking of records a marketing thing too? Surely engineers could have built a wheel/tire combo that could still break records and have the benefits of a smaller wheel (described above). Do the folks in marketing really think (maybe it true) that buyers are really that hung up on "yeah, but does it have 20s?"? hmmm....

The car is notably missing (I'm not complaining) some other things that I'm sure the marketing department would have wanted. heated/cooled seats, honda sensing, optional AWD, loud exhaust, dual clutch auto, etc.

Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for these discussions.

lawl · Feb 1, 2019

FifStreet said:
I think the "its because of marketing" reason for why this car has the wheel/tire combo it does is interesting.

everything is about compromises... Did they make this decision because it looks the best, or to break lap time records for a FF car? Was the breaking of records a marketing thing too? Surely engineers could have built a wheel/tire combo that could still break records and have the benefits of a smaller wheel (described above). Do the folks in marketing really think (maybe it true) that buyers are really that hung up on "yeah, but does it have 20s?"? hmmm....

The car is notably missing (I'm not complaining) some other things that I'm sure the marketing department would have wanted. heated/cooled seats, honda sensing, optional AWD, loud exhaust, dual clutch auto, etc.

Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for these discussions.

You'd have to be a fly that understood japanese.

a smaller sidewall can also affect turn-in and some of that stuff. I assume if they did the ring run on the 20s there had to have been some benefit. unless that benefit is that they can run lightweight 18s for the next model and get a better time and brag about that.

jasonjm · Feb 2, 2019

lawl said:
You'd have to be a fly that understood japanese.

a smaller sidewall can also affect turn-in and some of that stuff. I assume if they did the ring run on the 20s there had to have been some benefit. unless that benefit is that they can run lightweight 18s for the next model and get a better time and brag about that.

After the ring run, they probably had to throw out the wheels cause they’d have been bent up by the time they crossed the gantry.

rydereclipse · Feb 2, 2019

I switched to 18’s for most of the above reasons....cost to replace tires, availability, choice, etc....

Additionally, I wanted to keep the stock rims in as good as shape as possible..for whatever reason...

I drive my car...a lot...and tires wear out fast...the cost alone in tires was a primary concern for me.

dunphyjp · Feb 5, 2019

02SilverSiHB said:
I bought 18s to use for winter

Same here, 18s were easier to get quickly and have a lot more tire choices and cheaper tire choices for winter tires.

Also most 20in tires have a lower tread life so if you drive harder you’ll be replacing those more often and obviously 20s are expensive. Having that little bit more side wall helps a lot with tire forgivability over bad roads (which pa has a lot of).

Andjoo · Feb 5, 2019

I went with 18's for a winter setup as well.

As much as I do like the 20's, I'm really digging the look of my car with my 18's. Especially since I haven't seen anyone else with the same setup (further unlikely to given I painted them).

Why switch to 18s?

REnthusiast

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