I've been looking at new tires and rims for my 03 Accord. I was dead set on buying 18's but the guy at my Honda dealership said that it would throw my speedometer off and rob me of power. So I figued I would stay with 16's and just find some rims to throw on.

Problem is every 16" rim I find looks like total ****. So I was just curious if bumping up to 17's would alter my performance and ride b/c I've had mixed opinions on the matter.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

If the wheels and tires are plus sized properly it won't noticeably affect the speedometer accuracy.

But he is correct about it robbing some power. Unless you go with an ultra lightweight wheel when you increase wheel diameter you are moving the heaviest part of the rim further out from the hub which increases the amount of force required to turn it.

In my friends Escalade the change from a 20" wheel to a 24" wheel made a VERY noticeable difference in low end acceleration.

The main point behind a larger wheel is the ability to run a larger caliper/rotor combination.

Secondary is it allows the use of a lower profile more performance oriented tire without sacrificing any ride height when properly plus sized.

Last is the ricer reason. Because on some cars it just plain looks cool.

 

So 17's shouldn't be too much of an issue, correct??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xV6xVTECx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So 17's shouldn't be too much of an issue, correct??</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really. As long as the overall tire diameter is the same you probably won't notice a different. Although a before and after MPG test could be interesting.