Civic VX wheels or aftermarket?

[travr6]

I see.

13" wheels and tires it is then.

[opelgt73]

Originally Posted by monroe74

f you want to save gas, making the wheel/tire assembly as light as possible is a really good idea. The people who designed the VX knew what they were doing. They sweated the details, and it's not an accident that it gets great mileage.

True they chose 13" for a reason. But every design decision is a compromise. IE a larger rim could have been used with a smaller sidewall tire but that adversely affects the ride quality. And they want to produce a car with a certian level of comfort.

I'm of the opinion that larger rims with smaller sidewalls are better for FE as there is much less sidewall flex which I would believe adversely affects your FE worse than the added weight of the larger rim.

I happen to have the 13" VX rims on my CRX HF but that is because they were the first available to me.

[monroe74]

"I'm of the opinion that larger rims with smaller sidewalls are better for FE as there is much less sidewall flex which I would believe adversely affects your FE worse than the added weight of the larger rim."

You're making several very good points. You're right, they may have been thinking about ride quality. They also may have been thinking about cost (I think low-profile tires tend to cost more).

There are some complicated trade-offs, and it's hard to know the best answer without doing a bunch of serious testing. But I'm generally inclined to put a lot of faith in the wisdom of the Honda engineers. They have a ton of knowledge and experience that I don't have.

By the way, one of the reasons to prefer a light tire/wheel combination is that this reduces unsprung weight, which means you have better traction (e.g., for braking and cornering), especially on a surface that's rough.