Cadiz vs Santiago vs Pretoria Weight in kg?

[mariamartinez]

I can see the logic and you might be correct, but you can buy a decent set of say Cadiz with tyres for under £700 and either sell your stock set or keep them as spare or keep them for them you finally sell.....so it could cost you almost nothing and you could gain 4x 2kg...which isnt much admittedly but because its off the wheels it has a bigger than expected effect on mpg.

[fredgroves]

You'd probably be better off strictly controlling extra junk that you carry in the car. Remove everything from the boot,  the glove box and maybe replace the spare with an inflation kit.

[Daz Auto]

I'm not sure I really understand why you would want to do this, other than for cosmetic reasons. Replacing alloys is a waste of money unless you really don't like your current alloys.

Which Golf is it you drive?

To a purist like me, if you have Cadiz alloys on anything other than a Golf R, it will look wrong. My wife noticed me frowning at a car at the weekend and asked me what was wrong. I replied - that car is not an R. As we got closer I realised it was an R LINE In our local seaside town at the weekend, I often find myself playing a game of 'what Golf is it really?' It amazes me the length some people will go to to make their cars look like a performance Golf.

If fuel economy is you main concern then driving mode and driving style will have a much bigger impact. Though if you have a GTI or Golf R then you really bought the wrong car. Thought for the performance they offer the fuel economy is reasonable. Even the GTD can be uneconomical in certain conditions - short journeys, sport mode, heavy right foot.

[LRWmotorsport]

Weight difference of the wheels will equate to no notable difference in performance in a heavy road car.
Go for the wheels that you think make it look the best.

[Daz Auto]

I want something that looks good but doesn't sacrifice economy

... ahhhh... suddenly it becomes clear...

... alloys will have a negligible effect on economy.

[Guzzle]

We may be able to provide better advice if you could let us know which variant of the Golf it is that you have, and which wheels are currently on it.

As Daz says, if you put wheels on that don't really suit the car this could defeat the purpose of swapping. It may not cost too much now, but have you thought about how easy it will be to sell on? Your taste may not be the same as the majority, and in my experience most people generally prefer to buy cars that haven't been tinkered with or that have non standard parts on. If it's fuel economy and saving money you're most concerned about it may be best to stick with what you have and do the basic things right such as regularly check tyre pressures, driving conservatively etc.

[SRGTD]

I can see the logic and you might be correct, but you can buy a decent set of say Cadiz with tyres for under £700 and either sell your stock set or keep them as spare or keep them for them you finally sell.....so it could cost you almost nothing and you could gain 4x 2kg...which isnt much admittedly but because its off the wheels it has a bigger than expected effect on mpg.

Also bear in mind that you need to declare to your insurer that you've changed your wheels, as this is a modification. They may charge you an additional premium for the modification; if they do, this would offset (at least in part) any negligible economy savings you might gain.

[mariamartinez]

hi thanks. I was thinking of with the "additional" effects of rotational mass and unsprung mass The following site claims weight savings are multiplied by 5 times (when saved in wheels) https://magnesiumwheels.com/roi.html. However I agree effects are likely to be very small, I could only find one real world study of heavy vs light wheels on fuel economy and the effect was 0.5mpg. https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=108

[fredgroves]

Yes, I believe 0.5mpg is about right...

As I said, just putting your car on a diet and chucking out the junk we all carry probably adds to the same amount. Dumping the spare wheel probably alone is the same amount of weight!

I used to be into sports bikes as a younger man and people I know used to spend loads of money on weight reduction parts - titanium/carbon fibre this that and the other... I suggested instead removing keys, wallets etc from your pockets and a little diet would save more weight and cost less

[Daz Auto]

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