I just bought my 2007 Prius last week and already feel the need to upgrade the tires and rims. The car is having trouble going over speed bumps where my Mom lives, when I have heavy passengers in my car. I'm thinking 17" rims and new tires would help? Should I buy at Costco or? Anyone else have this problem? Thank you, Sherril
<_< If you are dealing with a 'ground clearance' problem over the speed bumps, larger rims may not solve your problem since the usual procedure with larger rims is to put lower-profile tires on thus maintaining about the same outer diameter which would maintain the same ground clearance. Should you choose larger rims with regular-profile {taller sidewalls) tires, you would increase the outer diameter of the wheel-tire assembly which would increase ground clearance -BUT- cause your speedometer to be inaccurate as well as introduce inaccuracies in your NAVigation system if you have one. My 2¢, for what it's worth.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(blzlovr @ Mar 23 2007, 05:27 PM) [snapback]411151[/snapback]</div> I would not recommend 17" tires/wheels to solve this problem. This may be as simple as the speed bump just being excessively tall or the car just carrying to much weight. How many people were in the car at the time, how fast over the bumps, have your other passenger cars bottomed out, etc. Oh, should you still desire new rims, try tirerack.com and you can play with their wheel selector and see what they look like on the Prius. Good luck.
