Daisy1

I'm buying 2007 IS250 AWD and I want to upgrade stock 17"s to stock 18"s.
I see that some dealers have 18" upgrade options for wheels on IS250 AWD,

Dealer options for IS250 AWD

..but for some reason our local dealer's tech is claiming that 18" can damage suspension / AWD (yes I know )

Our sales guy is very nice but I got the feeling that tech guys don't know what they're talking about so I want to clear that out.

joonsta

I'm no mechanical expert, but I can say that some IS 250 AWD owners here in CL put 20 inch rims with wider widths and staggered setups.

lol, they even lowered their cars too, so the techs there are talking out of their asses

I think you'll have no problems installing the 18 inch OEM rims.

But if I were you, I'd get after-market rims if I were to dish out money for a new set of wheels.

Evitzee

Ah, the tech guy is just plain misinformed. A two minute look at Lexus.com confirms that 18" wheels are an option. Stick to your guns.

warrionex

Amazing! You should know better. The tech guy knows almost everything about car. The dealer just want to sell the cars in-stock with 17" wheels. They all have weekly meetings with the manager to establish sales strategys.

Do you really thing the "tech guy" would told you that if the dealer only have in-stock IS with 18" wheels? I think not.

PW007

I believe the 17's that come with IS250 AWD are not staggered, so when you ask to upgrade to 18's the tech is probably thinking you want to upgrade to 18's that are staggered. Most tech's would highly advise not to go staggered when it comes to the AWD. The AWD was designed to use the same size wheels all the way around. Just my 2 cents.

Daisy1

I don't want staggered setup, just regular (same offset) 18" all around. This car will be just a daily driver but I don't want to run 17"s and try to switch them later for 18"s, when I can get 18" from the start.

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

You don't have to go staggered - just buy two sets of 18" fronts and you'll be within spec.

Javier

Seahawks

what does staggered mean?? i got is250awd and someone told me staggered wheels is the best way to go on my car.

kryolla

Staggered means the rear rims are wider than the fronts giving the car a more aggresive look

ReLexin

what style 18"s are you going with the stock 18"s that are on the Is350, the ISP mode rims, or the G spiders? I personally love the ISP mode rims. they are cheap too. 900 bucks for a set.

mctuners

Is having staggered wheels on AWD really harmful to the transmission in a long run? when I digged up all of old threads about this, half of people say that it's ok, but some says it's not, because AWD should have same weighted wheels + tires all around, otherwise, it will mess up the tranny.
So, what is the truth?

Julez

wouldn't it be better to get 2 sets of the 18" stock wheels from the back because they are 8.5s, running 8s all around is pretty tiny isn't it?

Have you looked at the Mach. Tourmalines(spelling?) off the GS, I don't believe they are staggered

RU514

Yeah, I was planning on doing exactly this. Even though a staggered setup is better and gives a sportier look, I rather get 18 x 8 wheels on all 4 of them so that they all have the same height and I can also rotate them.

mctuners

Let me know if you want to trade your 2 front wheels for my 2 rear wheels, because I want to put 4 of 18 inch front wheels on my AWD.