Change 21" wheels to 18"?
 

My daughter has the 2015 Q7 with the factory 21" rims. Like all of you, she gets terrible tire wear, and goes through tires about every 12k miles. She needs to cut back on her expenses, and was thinking of selling the car just because of the tire costs. Is it possible for her to put 18" rims on the car, and would it save her much on tire expenses? I know the 18" tires would be cheaper. Will the 18's last longer than 12k miles? It is worth it or should she just sell the car are get something else?

yes q7's like to eat tires
 

I typically get 10 to 15 k and have tried several brands with the same result. Going smaller would IMHO add to the problem as the weight of the car and its sporting nature determine tire wear. I drive fairly aggressively and If I toned it down a bit I think I could get 20K but not much more. I LOVE my Q7 for its sporting nature and ability to go hard time after time so I won't be changing anytime soon.

This is Deadlocks' favorite topic. C'mon man get on here and show off those off-road tires.

Grey

Move down to a 20" rim and tire combo, you'll be fine and the tires will be nearly half off with a minimum double the mileage wear rate. Hit Tirerack.com and see what fits to get ideas and prices for local shopping.

haha, okay if you insist
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12k miles on this set so far and I cant really see any wear, tons of tread left.. yeah drop down to 18in wheels and put truck rated tires on it instead of passenger tires and the'll last alot longer.. also makes taking curbs and potholes alot easier, ride comfort is dramatically better.. These tires are $700 installed, not rated for >115mph but I really cant see me wanting to drive this faster than that, they are heavy so stop/go mpg got hurt, load ratings and PSI are actually significantly higher than OEM.. still handles very well, perhaps not as good as before but its still very fun to drive and pushing a vehicle with this much weight too hard around corners is asking alot.

keep the OD as close to stock as possible and the OEM spare should still be suitable in an emergency, but the tolerance I think is pretty high.. OEM 21in wheels and 20in wheels have different OD's and for some reason I doubt they provide different size spares.. iirc there are at least two common 18in sizes that fall within OEM OD range.

Last year I get my car through two blizzards before xmas towing a lil trailer, that convinced my self to get a vehicle with awd, clearance and monster tires.. this year, like an inch of snow in october and bone dry since. sigh.. I really wanna go play in the snow but damn mother nature has other ideas..

In my case, I have a 2011 on stock 20’s with Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Season Tires and I swap to 18’s with Bridgestone Blizzaks for winters.

Both were new when we picked up the Q7 in December 2013. Between the two sets I’ve put on roughly 45,000 miles (estimate off the top of my head without checking paperwork).

The split between the two sets is probably 70% on the the Pirelli and 30% on the Bridgestones. So that puts the Pirellis roughly at about 30,000 miles! Now I might be off a few thousand miles due to longer/short swap over periods, or maybe driving less/more on the winters - but still, it must be at least 20,000 miles minimum. That’s well above 12,000.

Further, when i swapped over last weekend, they noted that the remaining tread depth on the Pirellis was at 6/32, so they’re getting low but should still have a few thousand more miles left on them.

So it is possible to get some decent tire life with a Q7....

I'm still thinking about buying a new 2015 s-line stop sale. Same problem as you...it comes with factory 21's. They just don't make sense with both tire wear and also in a snow climate, so the first thing I will have to do is buy a set of 20" rims and tires. I've been running 20" on my 2011 TDI and we get 20-22K miles on these. I'm OK with that but to get 12K miles on a set of 21's would irritate me. I love the look of the s-line but I'm having a hard time making any sense of it with the stock 21's. I've seen the s-lines come with these rims on rare occasions, but I can't find one close to me for sale with these rims, so I may buy it with the 21's and look for a set of these. Anybody have a set?


.https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...1dbd9f833f.jpg

Look for the Off-road Style Plus package or 20" S-Line Plus package. Both come with those 20" rims and all-season tires.

http://www.audiusa.com/content/dam/a...7-brochure.pdf

Grey

Yes, I took this picture today on my dealer lot off an Off-road Style Plus package stop sale TDI they are selling. I've seen them on the 20" S-Line Plus package also but right now tough to find on a stop sale Q7. I've looked extensively! If i buy an s-line that comes with 21's I may just have to buy some cheap 20" TireRack rims. Some people warn against Tirerack rims? what do you think of TireRack rims? Thanks Grey.

just get some OEM rims, they are not that difficult to find.. I just sold a set of mint 20in wheels/tires 3months ago for $800

With as much weight as these things have, I'd only trust OEM wheels to be safe.. A Q7 taking a pothole at interstate speeds would surely turn Chineesium to dust.