Buying an S Line or SE Avant, tyre wear.

[WELSHJIM22]

So narrowed down my search to an S Line Avant with basic infotainment or SE with tech pack (not VC) and reversing camera.  Both 2.0 tdi 150's. Torn between the two but concerned the S Line might eat through tyres. SE has 17's and cheaper tyres.  Normally use Michelin Primacy 4's on my mondeo with 16 inch alloys and easily get 20k out the front and more out the back.  But the don't make the Primacy in 245/40/18's.

 

Whats peoples experiences?

 

On a separate note with the tech pack does the map display on 7inch colour DIS?

[Magnet]

Hello James from the Homeland.

Many thanks for being in touch with the forum.

In theory, the rate at which the tyres wear should not be influenced by the wheel diameter, since the logic is that the outside diameter of wheel plus tyre will remain constant, and this is achieved by lowering the profile of the tyre, as the wheel diameter increases. It might also be argued that since the profile is lower on larger wheels, that the rolling resistance is less, so this could even increase tyre life. 
You raise a good point about prices and availability, and yes, certain sizes can be inexplicably dearer, but the inexplicable bit is really explained by volume demand for that size. It sounds like you’ve been doing your homework - which is great. My personal experience also points to you making a good decision in terms of brands of tyres, if longevity is of primary importance. 
Two points I would make:- I would be far more interested in the adverse effect of ride quality on larger diameter wheels, due to the low profile tyres, and as an aside, you may find that the specified tyres are run-flat, which have an inherent increased lack of flexibility. All fine if swinging around corners is your bag, not so good otherwise! 
Cost of a new set of tyres vs. cost of the car?? Could be considered to be rather like being too worried about the cost of road tax? 
All just observations. 
Enjoy your search.
Kind regards,

Gareth.  
 

[Stevey Y]

Hi, larger wheels with low profile tyres will wear tyres more quickly as the rims are much heavier than the smaller rims add to this that the wider the tyre the more rolling resistance will be created thus using more of the engines available power to drive the heavier/wider wheels, one of the basic selling points when I bought my car as it had 225x55x17 wheels which have a somewhat lower rolling coefficient than the 18/19 inch set ups with wider tyres.

I to used to run Mondeos as Cabs the 2.2 Titanium x Sport I had was fitted with lunatic 19 inch rims with 245 width tyres these would last about 4k on the front and 9k on the back, allied to the aquaplaning and tram lining on uneven roads it made the whole driving experience in bad weather to say the least entertaining, I finally got fed up with the expense and the ratty handling and changed to a 16 inch wheel with 60 series tyres 225x60x16 which produced a whole lot better ride with none of the above handling problems plus about another 5mpg, as long as you buy the extra load tyres 101 there is virtually no wall flexing on the tyre, 20k wear on the fronts, 30k on the rears with the prices being half for a good mid range as I was paying for a mid range 19inch tyre.

If you look at it logically why are economy cars all fitted with skinny tyres with big profiles  and 15-16 inch wheels?, because the rolling resistance is less.

Steve.

[Magnet]

Many thanks Steve,

I’m not sure I fully follow all of the logic, but it’s probably me. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

11 hours ago, Magnet said:

Many thanks Steve,

I’m not sure I fully follow all of the logic, but it’s probably me. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth, the information and experience was from changing the wheel size on my last Mondeo whilst having a conversation with a neighbour who was German and was an ex Wolfsburg powertrain engineer who to prove a point weighed a 19inch wheel and tyre on some scales he produced and then weighed the 16inch wheel and tyre, there was four kilos difference to which he remarked can you imagine how much extra power will be used to drive the larger wheels, the simple question that resolves this is why is the VED higher on an S LINE 2.0 tdi than the SE Ultra 2.0 tdi apart from the difference in trim/spec the engines are the same, I asked the question by email to VOSA and their short reply was that the S LINE has bigger wheels, so working it back from what I have learned from the MPG gain on the Mondeo it must have to use more fuel to drive the bigger heavier wheels which equals more emissions.

Steve.