Has anyone on here any experience with 20" rims on an RS-V? What's the ride like? Are they worth the extra money you will spend on replacing the tyres?
20s probably do look better But almost certainly don't work better: - Loss of sidewall makes for a harsh ride - Heaps of magazine tyre tests have found that 18 inch wheels on medium/large cars offer best performance - Even V8 Supercars don't run 20's I've got an RSV with the stock 18s and it rides OK, but given relatively firm suspension I don't think it'd be much fun on 20s...
Thanks. That was kind of my thinking too. They're Calais V rims on a Black Edition RS-V. I'm not even sure I like the look of them, too much black.
I swapped out my Calais V 20 inch rims for 18 inch RSV ones for two reasons. Much better ride quality on 18's. 18 inch tyre replacement costs are almost half the price of 20's.
Did the dealer do this for you? Did you have to pay extra? I quite like the 18" Calais rims. Yep, I priced up the different tyre sizes, the 20's were significantly dearer. My reasons for wanting the 18's was ride quality, less chance of kerbing the rims, cost of new tyres and looks. The hole in the middle of the 20's looks out of proportion to me, though I guess it's what you get used to.
Agree 100%, my reasons the same. The dealer had an RSV in stock so I asked really nicely at the time of doing the deal if they would do me a favour with the switch and they did.
Each to their own, I don't have an opinion either way. - Not with the adaptive dampers. It even passes the wife test, she loves the ride. You honestly forget you are riding on 20s. - So they put 20's on for aesthetics alone, which is fine because the VXR is not a performance car. - Maybe they should, they might win more races... On that we both agree.
Adaptive dampers are getting better and better these days. I haven't driven a VXR so can't comment on that but the Kia Stinger I drove with adaptive dampers really impressed in terms of how cushy the ride was on the comfort setting. Quite a significant variation between the firmest setting and the most relaxed. Bilstein adaptive dampers on my former Chrysler SRT8 also had a huge variation between the settings.
Adaptive dampers sound like the go. Although hopefully don't need replacing too often, seems they could cost upward of $4k per wet... https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/what-is-magnetic-ride-control-111180/
Wonderful things they are, until they break, leak, or just wear out... Not much in the way of 'aftermarket' support at the moment, so you're forced to pay extortionate factory prices for replacements.
This cost issue bothers me too. Solution - why not just go hard all the time? Soft is no use at all for me.
For the replacement cost of factory MRC dampers, you should be able to buy decent quality, multi adjustable, re-buildable coil overs. I prefer a 'firmer' ride as well. I have Koni's in the Maloo set at max damping, on lower springs.
You only truly understand the term extortionate when you have owned a high end Euro car with air suspension that fails.
My thoughts exactly lmoengnr, it is unlikely there will be any meaningful number of aftermarket dampers due to the lack of market for parts for these cars. (not many on the road). Whilst I love the technology, most likely will have to select a ""bespoke" solution, say coilovers from a suspension specialist, to replace worn out and complex damping units.
I've driven 4 different cars 3 RS-Vs and a Calais. The Calais had 20" rims as did one of the RS-Vs. The other RS-Vs had the stock 18" rims. I didn't do massive distances in any of the cars probably 200 to 250 Km in total, around town and back country open road driving. I cant say I particularly liked the ride of the 20" rims in comparison to the 18" rim. It is hard to pin point the difference exactly but I much preferred to drive both cars with the 18" rims. I haven't driven the VXR with the adaptive suspension so cannot comment on how well the adaptive suspension works with the 20s. I would expect it is a good combination. I can't justify the extra cost of the VXR nor do I want a sunroof. Since the same car is being sold in the US as a Buick I'd say the after market supplies of the suspension replacements may be better there and when the time comes sourcing replacement parts from there might be an option.
Would be keen to do that sometime, will need to wait as I have yet to take possession, not sure exactly when that will be. I see you are in Hamilton which is where I am.
I ended up getting an RS-V with the standard rims. Very happy with it so far. My only real bitch is the extremely annoying auto shut off function for the engine. Is there anyway to permanently disable the engine auto shut off?
I know you already got one, but why did you want the 20" wheels in the first place? Looks? Or was there some other reason you though they were better (the thing you say in your first post about "worth" of tyres)?