So, my Max came with those fugly optional rims for the GXE's. You know, the ones that look like plates. Completely horrible looking. I'd like to upgrade to some nicer looking wheels, but I don't have a ton to spend. Also, I want to stick with 16 inches. I don't want to slow the car down by going to 17's.

So, my questions.

How much do these stock 16's weigh?
If I went with rims that were 16x7 or 16x7.5 would I have rubbing issues inside the wheel well.
What other installation issues would I run into?

Also, if you have a set of the oem 16's, the five or six spoke kind for 2ks and want to sell them dirt cheap, give me a pm.

 

upgrading to 17s wont slow your car down...depending on how much you wanna spend, your gonna either have to find someone whos selling their own wheels, look online for good deals, or spend well over 1000 and go to a town fair tire type place...oh, you can check ebay to

 

If I remember correctly, the stock 16" weighs 20 lbs. and whether the wheel would rub or not depends on the offset. A good range would be 35mm to 45mm. The stock OEM would not rub at all.

 

The effect might not be that apparent with your 3.5 VQ. However, going from 16" to 17" and putting on wider tires will definitely be felt on the 3.0 VQ. It's more like removing an underdrive pulley from the engine.

 

I just bought some rotas (circuit 10's) 16x7 that weigh 14-15lbs for $475 incl shipping. Bet the stockers are 20-22 lbs. You could probably sell those for a coupla hundred on this forum or ebay. A lot of guys looking for spare wheels for winter tires right now. Dont be afraid to go with 17's though, which is still very conservative for your car. My 16's were for winter and I have 17's for summer.
Everybody has different tastes in the style of wheels. Rota is about as light as you can get and stay at a low price. A lot of wheels in the 11-15 lb range are $1200-2000 a set. You will have no probs with wheels up to 8" in width (7.5's for sure) if you stay with a 35-45 offset.