2019~2025 Mazda3 New wheels and tire size...Am I nuts?

[popeyecahn]

So call me crazy, but I am just not loving the 18” rims and Toyo Proxies that came on my ’23 3 Hatch Premium. I’m supposed to like them and aesthetically I do, but… in practice I loathe them. Aside from the fact that I’ve never owned a car with low profile tires (road feel, noise), my biggest gripe is the fact that I cannot keep the rims from getting torn up, curb rash has made me give up on having nice rims. The Toyos lack a shoulder to help prevent this and you would think after the first time and 2.5 years of ownership I would have worked past scraping the curb, but for some damned reason I have not.

So the tires are ready for replacement and honestly I’m considering going with 16” steelies and a good set of all season because winter’s coming up and I head to the slopes and if I need to chain up I don’t care of the rims get scuffed like they did previously with the 18s. Here’s some photos for thought…

w/18s, though not the OEM rims...

W/16" rims and tires

As the image says, I need help lol

 

[N7turbo]

my biggest gripe is the fact that I cannot keep the rims from getting torn up, curb rash has made me give up on having nice rims. The Toyos lack a shoulder to help prevent this and you would think after the first time and 2.5 years of ownership I would have worked past scraping the curb, but for some damned reason I have not.

This won't prevent your wheels from touching the curb...it will just mean a messed up tire that needs to be replaced asap.

 

[popeyecahn]

This won't prevent your wheels from touching the curb...it will just mean a messed up tire that needs to be replaced asap.

A very low speed rub will generally just scuff the sidewall, but of course chews easily through aluminum, it's those 10mph+ drop ins that will cut the sidewall.

 

[leeharvey418]

First, those pictures are hot garbage. The first one is what a 20” or 21” wheel would look like on your car, and the second is almost as big. Go to Tire Rack and use their wheel visualizer - it only gives side views, but they’re much more representative of actual wheel sizes.

Second, a wider tire is going to be the first thing you want to do to protect your wheels.

 

[youri]

Nothing wrong with steelies. Up here in winter a lot of people use them to swap their winter tires and run them for 6 month, so you would only look out of place during the summer months. You are also forgetting about wheel cover/hub caps, you can throw some cover on them and it won’t look as out of place (it still won’t be as nice).

If you are hitting the mountains often I recommend you try all weather tires instead of all season (like the michelin crossclimate 2). It will do significantly better in ice and snow. (Between an all-season and a dedicates winter tire)

All weather tires explained:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15338788/all-weather-tires-explained-merging-all-seasons-and-winter-tires/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mgu_ga_cd_md_bm_prog_org_ca_a15338788&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21140873194&gbraid=0AAAAACfH9Whd8vTOnlx9NOwqecTP-UKDC&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq8rU_v_pkAMV2FhHAR1CNRZAEAAYASAAEgI-JPD_BwE