I have both 16" and 17" wheels. Car came with 17x7" 22.5 lb. Crown Spokes. I replaced them with 16 lb. 17x7" CenterLine RPM. Good price, poor finish, and I found out later that the company got an F grade from the BBB for bad customer service. So, not recommended.

I was dissatisfied with the ride roughness of the 17" so I bought some Rota RB 16.6 lb. 16x7" wheels from a guy who bought them before he found out he couldn't use them for AutoX and keep the stock classification. I put 205/55-16 tires on them.


Ride was better, turn-in a little less responsive than the 17" but that may be the difference in tires as much as wheels. They are a little tedious to clean.

Two of them got damaged in an accident so I decided to replace them with Rota Slipstream 16x7" 14 lb. wheels that seem like they would be easier to clean.

 

why would you replace a tire for a screw in it? Why not plug it?

 

Well if you want a softer ride moving up to 17's (even with switching to non runflats) isn't going to accomplish that. To my surpirse I found the 16" runflats (conti all-seasons) to be way better than advertised, I also don't like giving up the security of runflats w/o a spare, no amount of slime or compressors are going to help that. I to eventually want to run summer wheels, and was originally going to go with 17's, but I'm thinking 16's now.



Wow Robin I love the Rota RB's so classic looking, to bad they got damaged. Any problems with rubbing with the wider tires?

 

There are Miata compact spares that have the same bolt pattern and are available on eBay. The center hole for the hub is slightly too small so needs to be enlarged with a file - this does not have to be very accurate as it is the bolts that locate the spare on the hub. The spare does not fit over the front brakes so you need to move a wheel from the back to the front if you get a flat at the front - this is also the case if you use a MINI compact spare.

 

I drove the tire to the dealer for repair. However, since the dealer is 75 miles from my home I drove further than the 50 miles allowed on a damaged runflat so they said they couldn't repair it-it had to be replaced. I guess I should have had the car towed-but I was relying on the fact that it was a run flat!

 

The dealer is always going to tell you to get it replaced even if it was 1 mile away (they are also going to charge you up the a$$ for it), in this case though you did have to have it replaced (driving 75 miles on it). If you would have driven to a local tire shop, it probably could have simply been patched/plugged depending on where it went in. Runflats can be patched/plugged (as long as they are not driven on for to long) despite what the dealer tells you.