Tyre Upgrade for the swift

[bhp]

Originally Posted by Surprise

I too booked an VXI. You and me felt that 90k is not worth for the features they offer or we may have budget constrains.

actually my dad thought that . spending 90k on a 4.5 lakh car is not worth to me and then u loose a lotta money when u sell the car

[Puffdamgcdragon]

Ok, had booked a swift zxi and is arriving sometime next month. I was checking out the tyres and alloys. I agree with what most of U say. It definitely needs upgradation. Read through all of the above and decided on 195/60r15. Same OD- am I correct? Now, which tyres to get for sharp handling and grip in the wet and high speed cornerings in mountain roads? Not really concerned bout tyre life, F.E. etc. Just, it should look good and work well. Please advise.
What alloys? Are Millenium alloys any good? any sites I can visit?

[k_ajay]

Hey bhpian buddies,

This is Ajay from chennai and this essentially be my 2nd post in the site [first being the car audio setup for swift]. I'd booked a non-ABS version of the Swift VXi on 8th June and most likely, i'd be getting my ride delivered by the end of this month. I know most people would think i'm wishing for a lil too much or that i'm crazy, but like i read elsewhere in this website, deliveries for the Swift in Chennai certainly looks like its faster than other metroes. I've seen a dozen+ swifts already in chennai, belonging to the 3 variants and of all colors... Personally, Silver, Grey and Black look HOT and so do the other colors, special mention to green, its never looked better and on any car before...

Anywayz, i'm here to ask you fellas opinion on the following:

1. Would performance take a beating if i plan to get the 185/70 tyres from the ZXi onto the VXi?
2. Is there anyone with a good reason not to recommend the bigger tyre instead of the 165/80?
3. Which would perform better at city speeds of between 40 - 100?
4. Would the 185/70 tyres reduce the mileage by a huge margin? [not the biggest of the issue, but just to know]


Some other friends of mine who know quite a lot about cars have recommended the ZXi tyres with the alloys [truly, not for the looks] but i've decided to take into consideration, the opinion of the hundreds of car enthusiasts here..


Please do post your opinions and thank ya'll in advance..

Ajay K

[speedsatya]

read this http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showth...t=tire+upgrade (Tyre Upgrade for the swift)


the wider tires will give u better grip.but mabbe the FE and top speed may go down marginally.

your friends are right.go for wider tires.

[aseem]

This is my first post in TeamBHP. First of all congrats for making such a great site for Indian auto enthusiasists.
I have also recently booked a Swift Vxi non ABS version. After the booking I have been browsing this site day and night and virtually gone through every post to try to find the right accessories for my car. I am looking for a tyre upgrade like all Swift Vxi owners. I have been doing my fare bit of research and have quite a bit of suggestions and questions for Team BHPians to answer. Firstly after going extensively through the Pros and Cons of a tyre upgrade here is what the key aspects are involving a tyre upgrade from a laymans prespective:

1) The looks of the tyres and the rims (Fatter tyres the better, bigger rims the better)
2) Car handling and performance while cornering road grip (Fatter tyres better handling and road grip)
3) Car comfort, shock absorbtion on bumps, and feul economy (The thinner the tyre the better)

Since points 1 and 2 contradict point 3 and all these three points are important thus a compromise has to be achieved while deciding which tyre to buy. Now after thorough research I went to the market yesterday (Karol Bagh). I saw virtually 100's of Swifts being worked on by tyre/alloys people. Mostly owners were upsizing to 185/65, 195/65 and 195/60 etc with (foriegn looking) tyres such as Goodyear Ventura, NCT5, Bridgestone GIII and Micheline Certis. My heart had me going for such an upgrade as well, but common sense got better of me and I decided to upgrade my car no more than 185/70 as the factory fitted on Zxi, a great compromise between comfort, FE and performace. And boy was I to be proved right, I just read an article in the messageboard in www.indiacar.com questions to autoguru the following:

B Singh question : recently i owened maruti swift vxi car and upgraded its tyre from jk tornado 165/80/14 to nexen p 2000 205/60/14 but ground clearance become low and now it is difficult to negotiate speed breakers some time underbody of car touches what should i do to raise suspension for better ground clearance

Indiacar's answer : Dear Mr. Singh, it was wrong on your part to go for this uosize, as now ground clearance has been substancially compromised. You could put pads above the shock-abs to raise ground clearance, but that will ruin car suspension and hence absolutely not recommended. My sincere advice is to return these tyres and go for 185/70R14 as tyre upsize

Of course the guy had not calculated the speedo error or ground clearance factor before the upgrade and paid the price. For any novices who want to know how to calculate a safe upgrade on their car, please goto the following link, it has a tyre size calculator. Please make sure that the new tyre and the old tyre dont differ more than 3%:

<http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbi...yre_bible.html>

Right now its a sellers market with everyone trying to upgrade. So the guy at Karol Bagh was offering me 1000 Rs per tyre.
The options of tyres available to me were:
195/60/14 Good Year NCT5 for 2400
195/65/14 Good Year Ventura for 2600
185/70/14 Good Year Standard tyres for 2300
185/70/14 JK Tyre of the Swift Zxi 2100
185/70/14 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 3000
185/65/14 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 2600
185/70/14 Michelin Certis 3100

Of these tyres, my father wanted to go for the 185/70 Michelin Certis and I wanted to go for the 185/70 Potenza GIII. However I think the guy selling the GIII is overpricing it, as I find it difficult to understand why would a Potenza GIII in one shop for 185/65 be 2650 and why will a guy at another shop give me 185/70 for 3000. Since that was the only shop that had that size, my options are limited and need advise from Team BHPians. Do they know any other shops in Delhi? What is the cost that I should get for my JK stocks in exchange?

Now comes the Alloys part. The GoodYear shop showed me League alloys in hypersilver and Full Mehive (cant read what the guy has written) for 15k and 14k. League LG 194 for 15k and LG 159 and 160 for 14k.
The guy who was selling Bridgestone Potenza GIII was demanding 14k for Hyperblack Millenium alloys and I dont know which company is better.

I really want to go for Potenza GIII as I want to gain in comfort and ride department after upsizing to a better rubber. But its rare to get a GIII in 185/70/14 size. Is 3000 Rs of the 185/70/14 Potenza reasonable? And is 1000Rs for my JK tyre reasonable? Why 185/65/14 Potenza cost so less?

Lastly what is the offset value of Swift when buying Alloys. No Alloy sellers know about this, all they know its 6J*14. If the TEAM BHPians can help me with this, its greatly appreciated.

How does Certis compare to the Potenza GIII, the look department wise, its Potenza all the way, but any suggestions. Also I have seen that if I upsize to R15 I get a lot many choices for Alloys and tyres, I can do the calculator thingie and find the right size, but I dont want this to effect by riding comfort and feul economy. So please guys, in short, HELP!!!

[Shan2nu]

as I find it difficult to understand why would a Potenza GIII in one shop for 185/65 be 2650 and why will a guy at another shop give me 185/70 for 3000.

That's bcoz they're quoting prices of 2 diff sizes. 185/70 R14 is slightly bigger compared to 185/65 R14.

Is 3000 Rs of the 185/70/14 Potenza reasonable?

I think they are, as i've found that 195/60 R14s cost around 3200 in Maharashtra and 3500-3600 in Karnataka. It differs from state to state.

Shan2nu

[Shan2nu]

Lastly what is the offset value of Swift when buying Alloys. No Alloy sellers know about this,

Ask Maruti, they'll tell you.

Is there any variant of the Swift that comes with alloys as stock? Check up with that, it's usually mentioned on the alloy itself.

Shan2nu

[aseem]

Thanks for the replies Shan. I have been researching a little more on this and decided on Chrome alloys from www.autopsyche.com from Arush, who runs the site in Gurgaon. Since going for expensive alloys I was contemplating on upgrading to 15 inches instead of the 14 inches stock tyres. The stock tyre is 185/70/14 and I am considersing 195/65/15. Is this a good idea? How will this effect FE? By how much (no one has answered this ever???) so guesses will do? Also how will the comfort of the ride be effected? How will it effect the ground clearance? If its too much than I would reconsider 185/70/14 again. Below is what I got from the tyre size calculator, the comparison of the above two specs:

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/km 185/70-14 130mm 307mm 615mm 1931mm 518 195/60-15 117mm 308mm 615mm 1932mm 518

Odo Difference 0.1%

The more research I do on this, the more confused I become

[Shan2nu]

The stock tyre is 185/70/14 and I am considersing 195/65/15.

I thought your stock tyres were 165/80 R14!!!

Shan2nu

[aseem]

The stock size for Vxi are 165/80/14 but for Zxi are 185/70/14. So I was qouting the Zxi stocks.

[speedsatya]

read this http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showth...ghlight=upsize (the right upsize) for upsizes on the swift

[abhiusa]

For those who are looking for a 15" wheel upgrade for Swift, 195/60 R15 tyres (same OD as 185/70 R14) with 15 x 6.0 alloy wheel should work the best. 15 x 6.0 alloy wheels are used as OE on the Swifts sold in Australia. Refer the following review.

http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/ar...x?id=9402&vf=1

[aseem]

Originally Posted by abhiusa

For those who are looking for a 15" wheel upgrade for Swift, 195/60 R15 tyres (same OD as 185/70 R14) with 15 x 6.0 alloy wheel should work the best. 15 x 6.0 alloy wheels are used as OE on the Swifts sold in Australia. Refer the following review.

http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/ar...x?id=9402&vf=1

Hi I went to the car dealer today for a tyre upgrade for my vxi from 165/80/14 to 195/60/15. He said that he will not sell me 195/60/15 as that will make the ride very bumpy, the car very hard, and reduce the FE by 2-3 kms. He simply refused and suggested I go for 180/70/14 even though I wanted the other. Is he right? Is 195/60/15 going to make the car hard steering and bumpy ride and reduce FE? I told him I calculated this, but he said that he knew this wont work... Bhpians please advise, this is my first car and dont want to go wrong with this.

[Shan2nu]

Hi I went to the car dealer today for a tyre upgrade for my vxi from 165/80/14 to 195/60/15. He said that he will not sell me 195/60/15 as that will make the ride very bumpy, the car very hard, and reduce the FE by 2-3 kms. He simply refused and suggested I go for 180/70/14 even though I wanted the other. Is he right? Is 195/60/15 going to make the car hard steering and bumpy ride and reduce FE? I told him I calculated this, but he said that he knew this wont work...

That's a load of cr@p!!!

There are so many guys here (including me) who have 195/60 on their cars. How does he know that it won't work?

I can understand if the aspect ratio in question was 55 or 50 but, 60 ain't that low.

Shan2nu

[aseem]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

That's a load of cr@p!!!

There are so many guys here (including me) who have 195/60 on their cars. How does he know that it won't work?

I can understand if the aspect ratio in question was 55 or 50 but, 60 ain't that low.

Shan2nu

I think he was saying ride will become hard not caz of the aspect ratio of the car, but caz I wanted to go for 15 inches instead of 14. Why is he lying, I went to buy only, so why should he care