Does replacing the stock rims of your car affect its performance?

Your car’s wheels are one of its most important components as it’s your only connection to the road. Yes, this includes your tires as well. With that said, some owners like to customize their vehicles by giving them a new set of wheels. However, with a new set of wheels, comes a few things that you need to consider. It isn’t as simple as finding the design you like that fits your car and installing it right away. That being said, we have made a quick list of things that you need to consider on how a new set of wheels will affect your vehicle’s performance.

Before we go into the reasons why you should be warry of staying away from your stock setup. For your vehicle’s stock rims or wheels, all the hard work has been done for you. The manufacturer has already chosen the correct sizing and width for it to have a balanced handling feel. This not only gives you good fuel economy by being just the right width but also the right amount of performance as well. Not to mention, the speedometer of the vehicle has also been tuned to fit these stock wheels and tires. If you stray too far from them they could lead to a few problems down the road. Take note, that there are benefits to changing to a bigger or wider set of wheels which we will discuss later. 

When you go for aftermarket wheels there are a few things you need to consider aside from the design that you like. You will need to check first if the wheels will fit your car and will match its bolt pattern. Next, you need to consider the offset of the wheels or how much they extend or retract past the center of the wheel, then you will need to consider the sizing of the wheel. All of these factors can affect your vehicle’s performance in one way or another. When you have this all sorted out then you can go for a new set of wheels. Before you buy consider the following pros and cons first.

Pros

• Aftermarket wheels give you access to wider tires

• There are better performance tire options at certain sizes

• More design options to choose from

• Aftermarket wheels can often be lighter than stock and can give you better fuel economy in certain situations.

• It will increase your vehicle’s handling performance if the wheels are lighter or wider than its stock configuration.

• You can customize the offset to your liking

• Lighter aftermarket wheels are less unsprung weight that the car has to deal with

Cons

• If your aftermarket wheels are heavier it can affect your fuel economy as it requires more energy to turn the wheel. 

• There will be speedometer reading discrepancies if you go with a bigger set of aftermarket wheels

• Wider wheels can affect your fuel economy as there is a wider contact patch with the road

• Heavier steering, this is especially true if you get wider and heavier wheels

If you want to increase the handling performance of your vehicle then going with an aftermarket set of wheels is a good start. Just keep in mind that once you deviate from the stock set up a few things will change. Your speedometer reading will be slightly different from your actual speed, your brakes may have to work harder to stop the car and your fuel economy figures will change. If you are ok with these changes then you should be ok with changing your stock rims. 

However, if you want to keep it as close to stock as possible but with a different set of wheels, you can easily do so by searching the manufacturer’s specifications for your vehicle’s wheels and by finding an aftermarket set that is as close as possible to it.  With that said, it is down to your personal preference whether or not you want to change your stock rims.