18s vs 19s vs 20s

[MayG]

I'll be getting my new sportage in a few days and first thing il do is change the stock mags and tires. my dilemma is not knowing which size to change it to. comfort is quite important to me but knowing that il be spending good money to get this upgrade, i might as well make this look good.

Choice 1 - Casa Recommends : 235 55 R18 - im sure this will give a comfortable ride, but im not just convinced that this is the way to go since kia will come out with the "sports" edition and such will have these tires so the mags that i will be getting might just look "generic". Vanity is my biggest evil here

Choice 2 - 235 50 R18 or 245 50 R18 - casa said this will not give a comfortable drive. i was just thinking car might look better with thinner tires

Choice 3 - 235 50 R19 or 245 50 R19 - again, my concern is the quality of the ride. and people tell me that its hard to find 19s tires and that its even more expensive than the 20s!!! what gives? true?

Choice 4 - 235 50 R20 or 235 45 R20 or 245 50 R20 or 245 45 R20 - might look really good, but knowing the road conditions here in manila, these might be the least practical of these 4 choices

Is there really a big difference between 50 and 55 in terms of driving comfort?

Is there a big difference between 235 and 245? what are the pros and cons?

Need your advice. Thanks

[niky]

50 and 55 are not sidewall heights. They're ratios.

The calculation is 235mm times 55% to get your sidewall height, which is 13mm or 5 inches.

Thus a 245/50 (4.8") tire has just 0.2" less sidewall height than a 235/50 (5.0") tire, where a 235/50 (4.6") tire has 0.4" less sidewall.

Generally, the bigger in diameter and the heavier you go, the worse the ride becomes. So if you go 245/50R20, to get the extra sidewall to match the sidewall on the smaller 18" wheels, your whole wheel/tire package will be nearly two inches taller and much heavier, which will make for much more discomfort when going down the road.

Counter-intuitively, the 235/50R18, out of all those choices, may give you the best ride, everything else (tire brand and model, rim brand and relative weight) being equal.

[Wh1stl3r]

True, tire sizes for 19s are harder to find than 18s or 20s. Prices go up steeply as you go bigger. IMO 18s look good on the Sportage already. Is yours the KDM with 18s? If you don't like the stock 18s you could have it repainted/powder coated or change it to different design 18" wheels.

[Starex_Gold]

Local din yung sa kanya, like ours.

235/50/R18 or 235/50/R18

[MayG]

thanks to everyone i guess its 235/50R18 for me now

[MayG]

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[SiRbossR]

I saw a Tucson sporting a 22"s. having 235/30 tires. damn it was just less than an inch thick.