Gimpdiggity

Hi everyone.

I've got a 2003 ES1 with the stock 14" steelies on it. I'm planning on upgrading the wheels/tires to something nicer when I do new struts/springs/sway bars/strut bars this spring and summer.

My question is pretty simple...where I live, the roads are terrible. Actually, terrible is a bit of an understatement. They're worse than terrible.

Does anyone have this generation of Civic running on 16s with roads that aren't every good? From what I'm looking at, I'll need to run some 205/55/16s to get close to the size of the stock 14/tire combo. I know this isn't exactly the lowest profile tire out there, but it's certainly less than the stock 185/70s that are on it now.

I also have a 2012 Civic EX-L and it has 205/55/16s on it stock. That car seems to handle the roads well, but I'm not sure if some of it is just the newer suspension components all around. I will say that I'm fairly good at missing the potholes, but when my wife drives the 2012 it's like she aims for them, and there are quite a few times where I cringe when she's driving as I think "There's no way this can be good for the wheels."

I'm not married to the idea of going with 16s if it's going to end up being a terrible idea given the road conditions. I will gladly go with 15s if they will be better all around...but I do like the look of the pictures I've seen with ES1s with 16s.

Just looking for some input and opinions.

Thanks everyone.
Jeff

toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

My state has the 3rd worst roads in the United States, and I ran 215/50/16's on my 7th gen for a couple years. As long as you get a decent tire, that size will be more than sufficient guarding the wheel from road damage and won't yield a horrible ride. For this specific chassis, you'd need to have a comparable 18"+ wheel/tire combination to really start having ill effects in harsh road conditions.