Going for bigger wheels

Car companies are coming out with new cars with increasingly larger wheels with each new model. 10 years ago a typical 1.5 or 1.6 litre engine car would run on 13" or 14" wheels. Now you can see 1.6 litre engine cars running on 16" and 17" wheels. This is the same for 2.0 litre engine cars that were running on 14" and 15" wheels 10 years ago. Now you will see a 2.0 litre engine car running on 17" and 18" wheels. The reason for this is to provide better grip as the engine becomes more powerful with improvement in technology. BMW has been leading the way with large wheels for their cars. The BMW 5 series (E39) in late 1990s were running on 16" wheels, the current BMW 5 series (F10) is running on 18". Comparing this with Mercedes of a similar class such as the E-Class, it is only running on 17" wheels.

The Japanese car manufacturers have also been increasing the wheel sizes for their cars but not nearly as aggressive as BMW.
However, some new car owners will find the original size too small for their liking and size up even further. It is no uncommon to find a current model Honda Civic running on 18" wheels. It may look outlandishly big but it somehow makes the car look better.

The original wheels and tyre combination chosen by the car manufacturing is designed to take into consideration the grip level, fuel consumption, speed rating, tyre wear and ride comfort. Once the new set of larger after market wheels are used, many factors will change and it is not always for the better. Sizing up wheels and tyre can lead to several issues such as aqua planing when driving in heavy rain, poor fuel consumption, faster tyre wear and speedometer inaccuracy.
Making the car look good with bigger wheels is one thing but with larger tyres it also means more expensive replacement cost. Large tyres are without a doubt more expensive than smaller tyres and large low profile tyres wear out a lot faster than smaller tyres.