Bizarre tyre size

[Toyota Integrale]

Due to take delivery in a couple of weeks and noticed when I saw the car in the flesh it is on Falkens; IMHO mid-market and cheap.

Tyres are however 175/60/18's and the choice is either Falken or Michelin only and latter are as rare as hens teeth and best part of £150 each.

Anyone got any idea why such an odd tyre size is chosen and then why use a cheap brand: makes absolutely no sense........so straight out of car-dealer and straight into tyre shop for a swap.

Any one thought of other size options?

[APS]

I can only assume it is because it's a funny combination of small city car and cross-over style. Hence, narrow tyres to save weight and reduce rolling resistance, large diameter because it's cross-over and what people like. Falken is certainly a well known brand, not the cheapest. Not on par with Michelin though. 

I'd stick with the original sizes. You could fit smaller wheels, which would give you more choice of tyres. However, that would then be classed as a modification and your insurance provider may not like it. Plus, your speedo and odo would not read correct.

Go wider, and you'd have the same insurance issue, while it may also cause rubbing.

[flash22]

Falkens are well rated tires, don't knock them as cheap there are far worse tires out there

Falken SN110 A rated for economy, B for wet grip and A 66db for sound

 

the 17" tires are more common

 

[Toyota Integrale]

I've had Falkens as a "trial" in the past, and had two separate tyre failures with them. Hence my need to change: just odd almost no-one else manufactures this size.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Falken tyres are owned by Sumitomo - the 5th largest tyre manufacturer globally. They also own the Dunlop brand in some parts of the world and have supplied Toyota with both Falken tyres (Aygo, Corolla, etc)and Dunlop tyres (Verso S, Rav4, etc).

The tyres are probably a bespoke tyre size for Toyota, as has happened with previous models and other car/tyre manufacturers.

[haelewyn]

I have checked on a website and the 18 inch ones I will be having are only made for aygo x.

If anybody can check for the 17 inch wheels ?

https://www.wheel-size.com/tire/iso-metric-175-60-R-18/

Changing the wheel size would cost a lot of extra money for wheels, would change driving hight and characteristics..   and you could ask yourself if it's worth it.

Insurance company would not mind here but the technical inspection could. Only pre - allowed sizes can be on the car while presenting it to tech inspection. They don't always check that. Not putting too obvious sizes on the car helps..

I found the tyres here (Michelin) for around 150 euro which is not cheap but neither the most expensive.

Falken and Michelin both have winter and summer tyres here. I also found semperit but only in winter tyres.

[Cyker]

Just be glad it's not an i3 - Only one manufacturer (AFAIK) for those tyres and they're different front and back!! They don't even last very long because they're so skinny...

I was also surprised Toyota went with such a hard to find size - They're normally better about that sort of thing.

You could do what I did and get different rims; Going from 17's to 15's was the best thing I did for my Mk4. It made the car better in every way that matters! Insurance didn't care as they were smaller (And steel), and the tyres were sized correctly for the smaller rim, so didn't affect the speedo despite being the rim being 2 inches smaller.

I worked out it'd take like 2-3 tyre changes for it to pay for itself vs the eye-wateringly expensive tyres for the 17s.

I guess they're really going hard on U-turning the Aygo from being a cheap affordable low-running cost car and going hard to making it a premium city car! Which is ironic since they won't put in a more powerful engine because they don't want it to compete with the Yaris and want to keep it affordable  

Ahh Toyota, your logic continues to elude me...

(But since they're making a hoonable car that can return 80+mpg, who cares!  )

[152bobby]

All the more reason to get a proper space saver wheel fitted. If these are indeed difficult to get, I assume if you have a blowout, it may not just be a case of being towed to the usual tyre places, but to a Toyota Dealer, who I hope have stock on the premises at all times, if this is all true.

And if you get a blowout when everything is closed, you are in even more deep **it.

I just did a quick search on Quick Fit , F1 Autocenters and ATS using my car registration and both Quick Fit and ATS brought up Michelin alternatives, F1 didn't show a choice. So it does look like there are options 

I'm so glad I have the space saver tyre fitted to my Aygo X Cross.😂👍

[haelewyn]

It was also my thought in the past. If I get a blown tyre, I am in trouble to get a new one.

Did you order the space saver from Toyota ?

A solution would be to have winter wheels and tyres at home waiting to use as a spare but that is a very expensive solution imho ...  I never bought winter tyres before myself. Just had them on a company car and I must say it drove a lot better in snow with those.

One could also buy two spare tyres. If you never need them, like me last years, at least you have two tyres to put on one axle once the front ones are worn out.

Then you need to consider it's not good to hold on to them for too many years.

I wonder what tyres and wheels would be allowed here..

Some companies also see 16 inch as a possibility (with 195/65/16) and that would make things (only a bit) cheaper. Does anybody know the allowed wheel and tyre sizes for Aygo X ?

 

[haelewyn]

I also wonder if this low tyre will be too easy to blast if you run into a pothole.  That would make the matter more important to take precautions on.

[152bobby]

1 hour ago, haelewyn said:

It was also my thought in the past. If I get a blown tyre, I am in trouble to get a new one.

Did you order the space saver from Toyota ?

A solution would be to have winter wheels and tyres at home waiting to use as a spare but that is a very expensive solution imho ...  I never bought winter tyres before myself. Just had them on a company car and I must say it drove a lot better in snow with those.

One could also buy two spare tyres. If you never need them, like me last years, at least you have two tyres to put on one axle once the front ones are worn out.

Then you need to consider it's not good to hold on to them for too many years.

I wonder what tyres and wheels would be allowed here..

Some companies also see 16 inch as a possibility (with 195/65/16) and that would make things (only a bit) cheaper. Does anybody know the allowed wheel and tyre sizes for Aygo X ?

 

Yes I did order it from Toyota.  Search for my thread "Toyota Aygo X Cross Space Saver Kit"  

[Donrald]

Not quite on the the subject but when I went 5o ad£ two new tyres to our old 13 year old Aygo before it was sold the dealer advised a cheaper tyre telling me they find with small cars like the Aygo customers generally get more wear from the cheaper ones.

[152bobby]

Interesting, but "safety" comes before "wear" when it comes to my family 👍.  I'm not saying that the cheaper tyres are rubbish, I just do my research on performance in wet and dry conditions and braking distance and read people's reviews.

[Mojo1010]

I'm someone who is quite conscious of tyre sizes due to driving medium distances quite often as well some long distances. My requirement has always been tyres with a good width, wet grip, comfort & low tyre noise. It needs to grip and handle well for the rural/country roads. I understand it's the car's chassis/suspension set up also. 

The profile of the Aygo x tyres are indeed bizarre and quite poor in my opinion. As mentioned toyota kept the width narrow for fuel economy and big 18" for trend. It result in expensive tyres, it may not corner well enough even for a small car. As well it may wear out quicker due to the narrow width.

I got a new yaris MK4 excel on order, I even do not like the low profile on that setup 205/45/17, though I really the like the width. Falken are mid range tyres, I would just use it up and get tyre of choice after. 

[haelewyn]

6 hours ago, BobbyMcLeish said:

Yes I did order it from Toyota.  Search for my thread "Toyota Aygo X Cross Space Saver Kit"  

Ok. Saw it.

Not for me. Think I will wait to order a full size wheel + tyre and store it at home. That could be cheaper than the 214 £ and is a better solution for me.
Best solution for me would be to get a wheel from a crashed vehicle but there won't be many available now.
New one would be +300 euro for one wheel, tyre not included.

If I happen to have a breakdown here , and even I don't have the wheel + tyre with me, i can have my car towed home where they will put the spare wheel on.

Towing :  Maybe Toyota assistance will only be prepared to take me to the dealer 🙂

[FROSTYBALLS]

35 minutes ago, haelewyn said:

If I happen to have a breakdown here , and even I don't have the wheel + tyre with me, i can have my car towed home where they will put the spare wheel on.

Would probably use a universal spare wheel in order to get you mobile enough to get the tyre repaired/replaced.

[haelewyn]

I heard they exist but never had one myself. We don't use them in my country. 
I know in Holland the local 'AA' use them. So does RAC it seems.

Where to buy such a thing so it's sure it will fit (AND touch the ground if I put it on) ?

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

 

6 minutes ago, haelewyn said:

I heard they exist but never had one myself. I know in Holland the local 'AA' use them.
Where to buy such a thing so it's sure it will fit (AND touch the ground if I put it on) ?

These are used by breakdown assistance companies just to get you going, rather than being on general sale, and the breakdown assistance provider would take back the universal spare once the customer's tyre had been repaired/replaced. 

[haelewyn]

Yeah. I know.  😁

In my country they don't use them.

It would be lottery. If they start working at 7 am, the spare wheel would be gone for x days / weeks before noon.

[Hornet3D]

Danger of these space saver wheels is they are often abused; they are often driven more miles and at faster speeds than recommended.  I know of at least two people who park in streets in my area that have used them on their car for well over a week before having them replaced.

[Puglet]

I'm in the spare wheel camp and always have been, even more so after few weeks ago our Astra had rear tyre blow out(sidewall), funnily just yards from home, so managed slowly limp home. Our Astra handily had space saver so popped that on and straight down tyre centre for 2 new rear tyres, all done within 2 hours. I would probably been still waiting for the AA to come out, although technically I don't have Home Start (my choice) so they shouldn't come out, I got the AA cover for when I'm miles from home and really need it, again if this blow out happened miles away at least I could got mobile again quickly as no can of goo was going to fix that shredded tyre. Also I was lucky in a sense it happened middle of the day so tyre places were open. I've had slow punctures in the past that only show themselves very early morning when had places to go etc. etc., with a spare tyre I was able to be on my way quickly and fix later in day when I had more time and tyre places were open. 

[Wiz201]

I still haven't ordered the new Aygo X yet, but I decided when it comes to it, I probably won't bother using any other tyre other than the ones it comes with because I don't do as much driving in winter any more due to working from home with only occaisonal office visits. And certainly on the odd slim chance it does snow, I'll be able to cancel any office visits with a good excuse.

[152bobby]

Insurance companies can use this as a excuse to not pay out if the car does not have the correct spec tyres, so people have to be aware of this 

[Cyker]

7 hours ago, Hornet3D said:

Danger of these space saver wheels is they are often abused; they are often driven more miles and at faster speeds than recommended.  I know of at least two people who park in streets in my area that have used them on their car for well over a week before having them replaced.

Haha you're not wrong! There's this old battered Merc I sometimes see driving around when I pass into ULEZ-land (KHAAAAAAN!), and I swear it's been on a space saver for the past year (And on the front wheel too!  ).

It did make me wonder if it's an MOT fail to be on a space saver as I'm sure it must have been through at least one MOT by now with that on!!  

[TonyHSD]

On 11/3/2022 at 7:58 PM, Cyker said:

Haha you're not wrong! There's this old battered Merc I sometimes see driving around when I pass into ULEZ-land (KHAAAAAAN!), and I swear it's been on a space saver for the past year (And on the front wheel too!  ).

It did make me wonder if it's an MOT fail to be on a space saver as I'm sure it must have been through at least one MOT by now with that on!!  

Space savers are also known as fuel savers 😂🤩, perfect for town drives