Here's a rare sight!

[Joe Handley]

Can't remember the last time I saw a 185/65R14 waiting to go on a car

 

And here I thought the Goodyear Wranglers in  235/75r15 Walmart is putting on my Jeep Cherokee XJ right now were hard to find

[Classicgas]

Those are the size tires for the wife's 2000 Saturn SL2.

[Greg Myers]

[Dave Van]

I still run 14" on my 66 Mustang, 68 Mustang, 73 Javelin and 74 Matador......call me a rebel!!!! I hate big wheels on classic cars.

[Can-Con]

1 hour ago, Classicgas said:

Those are the size tires for the wife's 2000 Saturn SL2.

and my 2007 Ion.

[Bill J]

I'm with Dave, no big wheels!

[Chuck Most]

Well if they're rare, craigslist logic dictates they're also worth at least 500 bucks a pop. 

[El Roberto]

I don't like the huge wheels on any car.  I saw a 4x4 Dodge pick up the other day with 22s and the skinny tiers and it looked ridiculous.

[Daddyfink]

I am running 15 inch wheels on my Datsun 510 because not only do they look better, but, 14 and 13 inch tires are hard to find, especially in low profile sizes. And even 15 inch tires are getting scarce. My old Chevelle had 15 steel wheels that where a bit wider than stock and finding decent tires to fit was not easy, or cheap. 

I know some of you are thinking donk size wheels when you hear larger wheels, but that is not always the case. Nothing wrong with going one size up on wheels. 

[Dave Van]

My 46 Ford Super DeLuxe coupe has 15 wheels......at glance you can't tell if they are 14 or 15. So the 510 with 15 is not bad.....22 inch rim with rubber band tires........I might call you out!!!

[Bucky]

I remember the time when even large cars ran 14" wheels and tires. Most of the mid-size cars had them. The only reason I have 20" on the 2008 Ram 1500 is because they were already on there when I bought the truck. It did come from the factory with them, but they don't really ride very smooth. I have the same thing with the 2017 Chrysler 300s. It has 20" on it, too. From the factory...very thin tires...easy to scrub the wheels on curbs...not exactly a 'luxury car' ride to them, either. With the older set-ups, you at least had some rubber between the wheels and the curbs! A lot better for those of us who have a bit of trouble in the parking lots! HAHAHA

[Joe Handley]

I've yet to own anything with a 14" rim, even the Dodge Shadow I had ran 205/50r15 tires on a 15x6 rim, and compared to my Jeeps and 200, that's tiny.  I think that tire above would have fit the base Shadow with 2.5l TBI motor, and would have been close to base on my Lebaron, but both of those had the 2.2l Turbo in them with the handling package that included the 15×7 wheels.

[Rob Hall]

My '86 Mustang LX had 14" rims.  My '87 Mustang GT has 15" rims.  My first Jeep had 16" rims, and my current one has 20" rims (factory option, the standard rims are 18" I think). 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Rob Hall

[Atmobil]

Yeah, tires in the 14", 15" and even 16" and 17" are becoming oddball sizes these days. 18" is considered a good size for a small car these days. But then again, todays small cars are not really small compared to a older car. The 97 Civic I had was a tiny car and even that was big compared to let say a original mini. My Civic had 175/70-13 and when I some years ago wanted to buy new tires for my beetle they claimed that 165/80-15 was a tiresize that did not exist. I had to have the tireshop guy come outside with me so I could show him that I did actually have tires in that size on my bug.
My old 65 Mercedes 190 has 13" wheels and if one has a mk1 Ford Cortina or similar they came with 12" wheels. I'm glad there is suppliers of classis tires around, even if they are more expensive.

[Joe Handley]

There is one BIG advantage to the bigger rims that isn't mentioned here, bigger brakes. My Sister's Challenger does have the 20" wheels, but it also has a bigger brake package on it that might just barely fit an 18" rim from what I saw of it Saturday night. The Chrysler 200s like mine had 17x7 as the base wheel, but mine was ordered and delivered to the dealer with the 7 spoke 18×7 wheels that were the factory upgrade on theTouring package cars. Brake wise, you could fit a 16" wheel on it and clear, as I've seen earlier Avenger and Sebring wheels on later Avengers and 200s as well as some of the early SN95 V6 wheels being used for winter tires. One thing I have planned for mine is getting the parts for the Euro Market only BR2 big brake package, which included a 13.4" front rotor (vs 11.6" for stock) and 2 piston calipers like used on a bunch of Chrysler's much heavier vehicles.....like my Sister's Challenger, bigger rear rotors (305mm IIRC, bigger than the stock front rotors!) that I think just reuse the stock calipers on a different bracket.  I had originally preferred the 17" rim since it had a better tire from the factory as well as a bit more sidewall, figuring if I ever wanted to go to 18", I'd find what I liked and go wider than stock while I was at it. thing is though, with this BR2 front brake, the car needs at least an 18" rim to clear the caliper and rotors!

I already have the front caliper bracket since those are the key part and hard to get here in the US (quite literally knew an Avenger owning parts guy in NYS who knew a parts guy in Europe.....), everything else is already available here since the rotors were used on the SRT4 Caliber w/19" rims, calipers are used on most of the cars and trucks they make, brake lines from the Charger or SRT4 Caliber work, and the rear brackets (as well as rotors) are on the Journey, and if I really wanted to go all out, the Journey Master Cylinder is bigger too, but not needed from what the guy I got the brakets has found on his Avenger.

[Junkman]

Still proudly on 14 inch wheels.

 

[W-409]

I have to say that big wheels look horrible on classic cars. Even 16" wheels are definitely out of the question, despite in some Hot Rods etc where the tires still have a proper profile on them. I have 15" wheels on all of my cars, currently my daily driver Chevy S10 has 205/75/15 on front and 235/75/15 on back... They are just the right size and they definitely couldn't be any lower profile. My '62 Chevy II will have 165/80/15 "Frontrunners" and probably also 235/75/15 on back, because they are pretty common and cheap. The rear tires on that car are going to have a pretty short life...

Anyway, my S10 had somekind of 16" wheels and rubber band tires. I think they were 205/50/16 or something like that...They looked absolutely horrible so I changed them right away.

[89AKurt]

11 hours ago, Atmobil said:

[...]
My old 65 Mercedes 190 has 13" wheels [...]

You still own that?  It's the only tail fin design MB produced.  I grew up with this 1961 190, original wheels but dad choose wider tires.

I'm not a fan of the Dub wagon wheel look.  I live in a town that eats low profile tires if you don't slow down at dips.

[Bainford]

My old Lotus is running 13" wheels. Good quality performance tires are hard to find, indeed. Even my 69 Mach 1 still rides on its original 14" wheels (and four wheel, unassisted drum brakes!).

[Atmobil]

4 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

You still own that?  It's the only tail fin design MB produced.  I grew up with this 1961 190, original wheels but dad choose wider tires.

I'm not a fan of the Dub wagon wheel look.  I live in a town that eats low profile tires if you don't slow down at dips.

A friend of mine bought it a couple of years ago (he did infact also buy my 85 W123 wagon this year) Cool 190 you grew up with. My already mentioned friend just happend to buy a 61 190 just like that (only in black) this weekend. But it is all the way up north so it he will pick it up first thing in the spring.
Having a bit rubber is deffinantly a positive thing when you live in area with bad roads. Around here the roads are very bumpy and full of cracks and holes. Not a good place to drive around with big expensive rims and rubberband tires.

[ChrisBcritter]

Some guys with '61-'63 Continentals have swapped from 14" to 15" wheels with '64-up wheel covers due to the difficulty of finding the wide 14" tires; I did some junkyard scrounging for wheels/covers for a friend's '63 so he could keep it on the road.

[alan barton]

I run 195-65 x 14s on the front of my Model A roadster.  Went to buy new tyres for my annual roadworthy check last year and three major tyre retailers looked at me like I had landed from Mars! Fourth guy came good - he had a set ordered in for a guy with an old Fiat and wasn't due to pick them up til later in the week.  I snatched those and he re-ordered.

Same goes for parts in general.  When my rod first hit the road in 1984, most of the wrecking yard parts on it were under ten years old.  Some parts on it now are older than the Model A was when I started building it!  Parts that people used to give you for free are now rare collector's items.  On top of that, all our sixties and seventies muscle cars were based on poverty pack family sedans.  So you can no longer buy ,say, a lower control arm for a Holden Belmont four door sedan, it is always listed as a genuine HK Bathurst Monaro GTS 327 lower control arm!!!  With the accompanying price tag! These late sixties, early seventies sedans were the most common donor cars for hot rods back then so it is really starting to sting.

Cheers

Alan