Latest news with #alloywheels
Auto Car
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
£12,000 is all you need for this, swish, tech-rich, anti-ageing Volvo
As we had written many times before road testing the XC60, what made a great-handling mid-sized SUV was an evasive and complicated thing to define. In outright terms, the answer may simply have been 'a Porsche Macan' – but for those who wanted the comfort, isolation, versatility, space and convenience that most cars of this type afforded (and that, in many cases, the Porsche did not), that answer was as good as useless. However you prefered to define that idea, few would have expected the XC60 to set the class standard on handling dynamism – so perhaps few would care that it didn't. But we couldn't overlook the shortcomings of the car's suspension and steering on that basis. In air-suspended form and on the R-Design trim's 19in alloy wheels, the XC60 was a car that fell between two stools, providing a driving experience particularly worthy of commendation for neither its ride nor its handling. It was a dynamically competent car and felt as secure as anyone could want a Volvo to be. But the ride was excitable and hollow over poorer surfaces and sharper-edged bumps, the steering was overly light and remote and the handling was slightly mushy, unresponsive and lacking in balance and bite, even by SUV benchmarks. In some of those ways, we imagined the car was precisely as Volvo wanted it to be and as many owners would prefer it, but not in all of them. The XC60's occasionally clunky ride was perhaps its most disappointing dynamic blight and the one you may be least forgiving of in both an SUV and a Volvo. The air suspension did a reasonable job of suppressing surface roar, but presented with an averagely testing ridge or edge to deal with, it thumed and sometimes almost crashed. It was a criticism we made of all air-sprung Volvos sharing this platform, but it was more notable here than anywhere. After that, we bemoaned the fact that the XC60's Dynamic driving mode didn't do a better job of producing much of a sporting driving experience (body control ranged from decent downwards), admitting the same caveat with which this section started: that, in all likelihood, an owner wouldn't care. We simply couldn't pretend that we didn't.
The Herald
7 days ago
- Automotive
- The Herald
New Kia Carnival goes on sale in South Africa
Fitted with 19-inch alloy wheels, the Carnival SXL gains additional niceties such as a 12.3-inch integrated display supervision cluster, wireless charging, 12-speaker Bose sound system, dual tilt/slide sunroofs, heated and ventilated front seats, a driver memory seat, rear LED combination lamps, head-up display, adaptive cruise control and a 360° around-view monitor. This top-tier model also ships with an impressive list of driver aids including a blind spot view monitor, rear cross traffic alert, blind spot collision avoidance assist, lane-following assist, lane-keeping assist and forward collision avoidance assist. Finally, SXL owners can look forward to Kia's 'Slide-Flex' seating system which offers multiple configurations for seven passengers, including a sliding second-row centre seat. When moved fully forward, it allows front passengers easy access to a child or baby, and it can also be transformed into a convenient table. A powered tailgate is also standard.
Car and Driver
12-06-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
View Photos of the 2026 BMW XM Label
The 23-inch alloy wheels can also be had with a Jet Black finish, and there's a new "Welcome Light Animation" that plays using the headlights, taillights, and LED grille surround.
Times
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- Times
Does changing my car's wheel size affect the speedometer?
Q. I want to put 21in alloys on my Porsche Cayenne, replacing the 20in wheels. It occurred to me that I may have to recalibrate the speedometer and odometer to take account of the larger circumference of the tyre. Is this correct and, if so, how do I do it? GF, Renfrew A. Speedometers work by counting how many times the wheels rotate over a given time. A wheel covers a fixed distance each time it turns (the circumference) so a speedo can work out how much distance it has covered and the speed. You would think that changing the size of the wheels alters the circumference, so the speedo will be affected, but remember that what we refer to as the wheel is actually the combination of the metal wheel and the tyre. If you are moving to a larger wheel, you simply fit thinner tyres so the overall diameter and circumference stays roughly the same. • Is it worth getting my car's paintwork and upholstery treated? If the overall diameter of the new wheels is within 1 per cent of the diameter of the current ones it will make virtually no difference to your speedo and odometer. You can work this out for yourself if you're reasonably adept at basic arithmetic, although it is slightly complicated by the fact that tyres are one of the few products that mix metric and imperial measurements in their specification — tyre width is in millimetres, wheel size is in inches. If you want to do the sums, there's an example later. Thankfully, there are easier options. One is to use an online tyre-size calculator; these are available on many tyre suppliers' websites. Even simpler is to consult your owner's handbook. Without knowing the year and exact model of your Cayenne, we can't give you the right sizes, but if you don't have the handbook, go to and enter your vehicle identification number. The site will bring up the official handbook for your car and you can look up Porsche's recommended tyres sizes for different wheels. • Does a car's colour affect its resale value? As an example, we picked a 2023, petrol, 6-cylinder model. The right size for a 20in wheel, front axle, is 275/45 ZR20 whereas for the 21in wheel it's 285/40 ZR21. The first number, 275 or 285, is the width of the tyre in mm, the second is the aspect ratio, or the thickness (height) of the tyre as a percentage of the width. The number after the ZR is the wheel diameter in inches. So, for the smaller 20in wheel the tyre is 123.75mm thick and for the larger, 21in wheel the tyre is thinner, at 114mm. Convert to inches and the total diameter of the 20in fitment is 29.74in, and the 21in wheel plus tyre is 29.98in. Of course, the important figure is the overall circumference (ie the distance covered for each turn of the wheel) and to get that, multiply the diameter by π (3.142). So, the 20in set-up travels 93.44in (2,373mm) for each turn and the 21in goes for 94.17in (2,392mm). This is a difference of well under 1 per cent and will make no discernible difference to the speedo or odometer. As a comparison, it's not much more than the difference in circumference between a new tyre and one worn down to 2mm tread depth. • How can I tell how old my tyres are? One last word of caution: on many later models of Cayenne, there is a menu option that enables you to set the wheel size. This seems to give only the tyre-pressure monitoring system the right information about wheel diameter and doesn't affect the speedometer calibration. So, look in the handbook and buy the tyre size Porsche recommends for your new 21in wheels and you will still have a speedometer and odometer as accurate as with the 20in Shallcross, independent motoring expertPost your motoring questions below or send to carclinic@
