18-19's?

[jonesltd]

My mate has just brought himself a brand new golf and wants to upgrade the wheels but doesnt know if 18s or 19s are best (i say 18s) but also he doesnt want to lower the car but wants the less gap between the wheel and the arse as possible he has the same as me GTD but 61 reg.

[Edi35]

Think this has been discussed on here before try the search.

Depends what you want out of you car. 19's look better and turn in and feel are improved but ride is slightly harder and you feel this over broken surfaces particularly. 18's are a good compromise over look, ride and cost. I am currently running 19's and think the benefits over 18's are worth it. But we are all different so if you mate wants 19's or 18's its his choice.

Keeping to OEM tyre sizes won't make the gap between wheel and arch smaller so will need to be lowered in this case. Putting larger tyres on will change the gearing and may affect the handling.

[Booth11]

Also have 19's on mine, having previously run 18's.   As previous post says, the ride is definitely firmer with more road feel but handling is good.  Agree that you really feel poor road surfaces, so need to consider this, if it bothers you. 

Car does look a little high if left standard and not lowered.  I haven't lowered mine but am ok with it and think that wheel arches are nicely filled.

[dubber36]

If he bought the car new, why didn't he spec it with a wheel upgrade? Surely that would have been cheaper than having to buy another set of wheels and tyres?

[jonesltd]

He didnt change the wheels as they were asking too much for them as they arent what VW sell - he wants 3SDM 0.05's

He is gonna go with 19s as he is used to a harsh ride lol (no comment) and will lower it eventually....next question is what coil overs. He had weitec coilovers about 200 from ebay and wondered if anything has improved since then (about 3 years ago had installed)

[Hurdy]

Going for a 19" alloy over an equivalent 18" alloy will in most cases make the handling worse and accelleration times and fuel consumption worse too. by going from my oem Talladegas to aftermarket lightweight alloys i removed 5kg a corner from the car and as that is off unsprung rotating mass the benefits on accelleration are four times the weight saving - equivalent of removing 80kg from the car!! I preserved the 235 section width of the tyre, so no loss in traction either.

My advice on coil overs would always be the same.......Bilsteins.

If you can afford them Bilstein B16 PSS10's are excellent. If not B14's offer the same drop, but not the damping adjustability.

As long as you don't go silly low the suspension is very OEM like at setting 1 but like a race car on setting 10.

Mine just after the drop. There is about another 3/4" (19mm) left to go down on the coil overs too!

[Ess_Three]

I suspect your advice will be lost...

Someone looking at 3SDM 0.05's (which will be stupidly wide...and no doubt wider at the rear too and sporting a handling killing low offset) and £200 coilovers = dumped in the weeds scene queen stylee...I doubt has much interest in handling.

[jonesltd]

LOL that just made me chuckle! LOL!