Wheel/tyre choices for Yaris Cross Excel

[SinglePointSafety]

Hi everyone, I have a Yaris Cross Excel AWD on order (MY23) which my salesperson predicts will be at the dealership in December (yes, of course it will.....)

The car will come with 18-inch wheels 215/50 R18 tyres, which is a little too low-profile for me given the state of my local roads and the council's policy of never, ever repairing them. With my previous (Skoda) car I bought some 3rd-party smaller wheels and fitted 65-section high-profile all-season tyres, then when I sold the car, I sold the wheels/tyres and put the originals back on. This wheel/tyre combo improved the ride and reduced road noise, all good.

Would like to do the same for the YC. Obvious choice is 17-inch wheels with 215/55 R17 all-season tyres. Local tyre fitter will swap the TPMS valves over and install conventional valves in the original wheels/tyres, which I'll store. Haven't yet looked at the price of Toyota wheels but I'd anticipate that they are hugely expensive compared to 3rd-party.

Now.... the interesting bit. I'd actually be happier with 16-inch wheels and those on the Icon have 205/65 R16 95H tyres with (I think) 6.5J rims. But here's the problem: this is essentially a van tyre size and virtually all of the all-season tyre choices are indeed shown (eg on Blackcircles site) as van tyres with 'strange' specs. Consulting the various wheel/tyre size comparison websites, I see that I could fit 215/65 tyres and get my preferred choice of all-season tyres. Width of these 215/65 tyres incidentally exactly matches the 215/50R18, so no width problems, but diameter is 1.9% smaller and hence the speedo will under-read by this amount (but will still probably over-read anyway given that speedos are generally set up to over-read slightly). The alternative is 215/60 R16 with 1.3% larger diameter - again, lots of all-season tyre choices and the speedo will over-read even more, which is the preferred way, evidently.

So, please, any advice on wheel/tyre choices? I am assuming that the brake caliper size doesn't alter between the trim levels and the offset for all wheels is the same (ET45?). It also seems that Toyota UK won't engage with customers on tech stuff and just steer them to their dealers, where the level of expertise is likely to be sub-optimal and thus I'm likely to get better advice here.

Incidentally, my insurance company were totally content with me going to smaller wheels on my Skoda, it's the other way round they don't like.

[TonyHSD]

I looked at this matter too as Yaris cross potential car replacement in an emergency purchase. Frankly I have a set of wheels that match the 16” sizes of the cross, they are exact same spec as Auris 07-18. The thing is that Yaris cross does not really have very low profile tyres even on the 18” wheels and unless you are taking it off road you may just be fine with good all season tyres. The all season tyres also has slightly thicker side walls than typical summer tyres that your Yaris comes from factory. You can just buy tyres and save yourself more hassle. If you look for 16 or 17 wheels you can check eBay Toyota official store and buy wheels that fit aurises. , their soecs match yours. But you may think again about only tyre change. Bad low profile tyres are those with 45 or below. 👍, other than that if you go ahead and change the wheels the percentage difference it’s minimal and won’t affect your Speedo too much , plus the speedometers are not so accurate anyway, they always shows 5+ mph. 👍 Here are mine wheels that also fit yours, with new all seasons  fitted yesterday. 

[SinglePointSafety]

Thanks Tony, that's useful - didn't know that the Yaris Cross and Auris wheels have the same specification, that will help a lot. Agree that I could just change the tyres, but none of the local tyre fitters are interested in 'used' tyres, so I'd have to find someone non-local who is and they'll probably only offer a very low price for them. But it's definitely something I might consider. When I sold the wheels/tyres that I'd used on the Skoda, I got a really good price because the wheels were pretty much pristine and tyres had > 5 mm tread left, so happy to do that again and store the original wheels/tyres.

Incidentally, not all all-season tyres have the thicker sidewall (and thus rated XL) and if I can I'd like to avoid those because the stiffer sidewall can offset any increase in comfort by going to the higher profile.

[Mojo1010]

I would drive and see if you can cope of the profile which comes with the car. Yes it will be less comfortable than what you are used to at 65 profile. 

I have ordered a standard excel Yaris which comes with a worser profile for comfort 205/45/17, though I wanted the 205 profile for grip/handling/braking/accelerating compare to the 185/60/15 on my current Yaris. I will see what profile I can go to in order to increase comfort, not looking to change the wheels. 

[SinglePointSafety]

Thanks Mojo1010, as I've said, it's not comfort that's the issue, it's simply self-defence given the state of our roads. A colleague has shredded two 40-section tyres this year to date and written off one rim in the process: he's currently battling with the council's insurers to get compensation (good luck with that)

I'll get the added bonus of improved ride and reduced road noise, given my experience with my Skoda (went from 19-inch 50-section to 17-inch 65-section, and, oh yes, a very significant improvement)

[TonyHSD]

That’s true, roads are horrible and I also suffered bad experience two years ago but the highways has paid promptly. All all season tyres on standard load has thicker side walls than standard summer tyres, that was my point. I noticed that immediately yesterday after replacing summer tyres Goodyear efficient grip performance 2 with all season Goodyear vector 4 season gen3, the summer tyres had thinner side walls , both types tyres has softer walls but the all season ones is thicker for sure, the tread though on the all season is much softer., they are also quieter and more comfortable with very light steering feel, but handle as well as summer ones.  I will do a full comparison experience between both and winter tyres soon in Corolla forum.