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17s or 18s talk to me?
- Thread starter R53Winny
- Start date
No doubt there will be a fair few people that disagree, but I changed from 17s to 18s and honestly I can’t tell the difference in ride comfort. Just make sure to wrap them in good rubber, I went ps4 (I would highly recommend) from conti contact sports (bloody awful). Go for it mate, 18s look so much better on a Leon 
My last FR came with 18" performance alloys with Bridgestone tyres. I though the ride was quite harsh on our crap roads, the MK 4 with 17" Michelin is better...but the roads are still sh*t. Agree it did look good.
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Agree - tyre choice will be a significant factor when considering ride quality - IMHO as much if not more so than the effect of increasing wheel size from 17” to 18”. You could have a car on 17s with tyres manufactured from a very hard rubber compound / very stiff sidewalls that doesn’t ride as well as another car on 18s and tyres made from a softer, more compliant and grippier rubber. Ride quality / comfort will always be subjective though, and what one person considers to be good, another may find too firm.No doubt there will be a fair few people that disagree, but I changed from 17s to 18s and honestly I can’t tell the difference in ride comfort. Just make sure to wrap them in good rubber, I went ps4 (I would highly recommend) from conti contact sports (bloody awful). Go for it mate, 18s look so much better on a Leon
Since the early 1980’s most of the cars I’ve owned have been warm / hot hatches with firm-ish suspension set-ups so I’m well used to firmer riding cars. Back in 2011 I changed from a mk5 Golf GT on 17” wheels and Bridgestone tyres to a mk6 Golf GTD on 18” wheels and (also) Bridgestone tyres. The mk5 and mk6 Golfs were very similar cars under the skin, so wheel size would’ve been the main potential factor that could’ve affected ride quality, and to me, upsizing from 17” to 18” wheels (same brand of tyres) didn’t seem to make any difference to ride comfort / quality.
My current car (a 2020 VW Polo GTI+) has 18” wheels that were fitted with Bridgestone tyres from the factory. A few months after getting the car I changed the wheels (still 18s though) and took the opportunity of swapping the tyres to a set of Michelin PS4, and I’d say the ride quality improved.
So, in my experience;
- changing from 17’s to 18’s with some brand of tyres; no difference in ride quality.
- changing tyre brands on 18 wheels; improvement in ride quality.
However, as said earlier, ride comfort is quite a subjective issue and what’s OK for one person may not be for another.
This is exactly what I was about to say.
In my opinion, tyre choice becomes more critical with bigger wheels. You need good rubber. If you want to do the boy racer thing of buying huge wheels then fitting the cheapest tyres you can find don't expect much.
We have two FRs, both on 18s which both came with the Bridgestones. One now has the PS4s and the other Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5. Both of these tyres are better than the Bridgestones but they are quite different. The PS4 is an out and out sports tyre with superb levels of grip and sharp handling while not being crazy hard. These are on my wife's car and she likes them. If you do a lot of urban driving on bad roads you will not enjoy them though as they do inform you about every crevice and hole they discover. But if you want a sporty drive, you can't beat them.
I think the F1s on my car give a better balance. Not quite as informative but still very high grip, very predictable and confidence inspiring. On the Bridgestones the car always felt a bit jittery and twitchy on fast, twisty roads. I initially thought it was just the suspension set up on the car but it's not, it's the tyres. It's a much more enjoyable car to drive quickly on better rubber.
So for absolute performance at the expense of comfort, the SP4. Very good performance with a slightly more forgiving ride, the F1. Both suit the car well, unlike the stock Brisgestones which...don't work but any of these tyres on 18s are still not joyous on terrible city roads. There is only so much is possible with just a few MM of rubber. They're not going to be super comfortable and will be highly susceptible to wheel and tyre damage. I've dented a 16'' wheel on a bad pothole. What do you think that would have done to an 18?? I've seen a very low profile wheel with a hole punched right through it from driving over a bit of type1.
If you want a better balance between handling and comfort you really need to drop to 17s. And still fit good tyres.
I prefered my 2018 FR on its winter Nodian 225/45-17s. On the original summer 225/40-18s the ride was noticably worse. Had to really push it to notice any difference in road holding & handling - not how I normally drive.
Needed new tyres so have compromised with 225/40-18 Michelin Crossclimate 2s & selling the 17" wheels.
Needed new tyres so have compromised with 225/40-18 Michelin Crossclimate 2s & selling the 17" wheels.
Running winter tyres all year round? Not something I would do. Don't get me wrong, it's actually a better idea than using summer tyres all year round, which is what most people do, but winter tyres are quite soft so they won't last long.
No, I didn't run the Nokians all year round. Approx late October/early November until late Feburary/early March. Being using Nokians during the winter from 2013 until 2020. First on a 2012 Octavia vRS & then on the 2018 Leon FR.
Michelin CrossClimate2s are designed to be used all year round as they are a compromise between winter & summer tyres. Fitted them in late October as Michelin were refunding ÂŁ50 on a set of 18" tyres (similar offer now on until end of May) and my local tyre fitters also gave me a good deal.
My correction to Nokian was because I typed Nodian the first time!
Michelin CrossClimate2s are designed to be used all year round as they are a compromise between winter & summer tyres. Fitted them in late October as Michelin were refunding ÂŁ50 on a set of 18" tyres (similar offer now on until end of May) and my local tyre fitters also gave me a good deal.
My correction to Nokian was because I typed Nodian the first time!
Thanks for all the replies... Very interesting. For the record I have owned the car for 3 weeks and it came with 17s Dynamic alloys with a full set of Dunlop sport maxx tyres with circa 5mm.
PS are these tyres a recommended brand / model?
PS are these tyres a recommended brand / model?
Dunlop is a decent brand and I doubt they'll be rubbish. Drive them and see what you think? I've taken tyres off a car because I hated them but I'd expect those to be at least ok.
I find them very good, no complaints. Wish I could just get 17" Performance alloys and just put my Dunlops on....
Any 17s similar to Seat Performance alloy wheels?
You'll be able to pick up a used set. I've bought spare alloys for all our cars. I had two full sets for the Mazda 6 I had, in fact I had ten wheels for that car! I got a badly scratched wheel for my wife's car and refurbed it myself. Wasn't expensive.
Oh, you want 17s that look the same as the 18s? Certainly don't think Seat make anything like that. For some reason their 18'' wheels all tend t look of and their 17'' ones all look crap! Except the older propeller style ones which I quite liked.
Michelin CrossClimate2's OK. Quieter than either of my previous summer & winter tyres. Mean I don't need to change tyres/wheels from summer to winter. Road holding/handling fine in weather since last late October. We didn't have any snow but performed well on cold wet roads. Highest temperature so far has been 17C & performed fine. My car is a 1.4TSi (150) so I don't drive it as a performance car.
The way our winters have been going I think these types of tyres are reasonable compromise. I use full winters but he had hardly any show this year or last. Yay global warming! ;0)
I often suggest to people that they should buy the best tyres they can afford but the most common response is 'I don't drive fast'. Of course good tyres will be better if you drive hard but that's not the point. The difference between a really good tyre and a poor one will typically manifest itself when extreme braking or direction changes are required and that can happen to anyone in any car. When a kid runs out in front of you and you need to slam on the brakes. You need to swerve or suddenly lane change on the motorway. You get caught out by the tight bend on a country road. There are so many possible situations where extreme levels of grip might be required and if you're driving for years you're almost guarantied to encounter some of them. I know I have.
Good tyres can turn a crash into a near miss which totally justifies their fitment to my car.
Agree. On damp roads on more than one occasion I experienced wheel spin and wheel hop from rest with the factory Bridgestones that came on my car. And it wasn’t because I was trying to induce wheel spin / wheel hop by pulling away enthusiastically because I wasn’t; I’m too old to play those games. No wheel spin or wheel hop with the Michelin PS4 I have now.
There’s a forum member over on golfgtiforum.co.uk who’s just gone from 18” alloys with Bridgestones to 19” alloys with Goodyear Eagle Asymmetric F5’s on their mk7.5 Golf GTI. They said the ride is no less comfortable on 19’s with Goodyears than the factory 18’s with Bridgesrones. It’s much quieter and the handling with the Goodyears is in another league compared to the Bridgestones.
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