Hey Everyone,

My 2004 Cayenne V6 came with 17" 235/60?/R17 and the tires need to be replaced soon. I was just thinking of buying another set of rims+tires combo from a person off of craigslist. The ones that I'm looking to buy are the Porsche Sport Design 19" Rims.

So my question is, what are the benefits and downsides of changing my rims/tires From: 17" 235/65?/R17 To: 275/45/R19?

• I'm guessing there will be a slightly rougher ride even though the 19' still have a large sidewall
• Fuel economy drop?
• The handling should improve?

Also, my main question is how do I tell that these rims are genuine? Are they made by BBS, therefore it should have a BBS stamp in the back on the rim?

I'm going to be meeting the person at a tire shop in which they are able to rotate the tires to check for any bends and cracks.

I'm looking to buy them in a couple of day so your response is greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Sandy

I can't speak to these exact sizes, but I do change the wheels on my Cayenne from 20" to 18" for my winter tires. The smaller wheels have a little more rubber on them, and this does result in a softer ride. It's not a dramatic difference, but I can tell. The handling is also impacted, but I suspect that it's due to tire design more than wheel diameter. In normal daily driving, the difference isn't that noticeable. The gas mileage sucks with either wheel diameter, so that's not really an issue.

If you look inside the wheels you want to buy, you should see a Porsche part number. Also, many (but not all) replica wheels have a stamp that says something like: "Not OEM wheel". Look for that as well.

One thing to consider - the price of tires jumps a LOT when you go to wide-19" tires.. and the choice of tires narrows.

If you're going to use the tires that come on the rims - look for the DOT-Date -- a 4 digit number in an embossed oval. First two digits are the week, second two are the year.. ie: 1210 would mean the tire was made in December 2010.. If the tires are more then 5 years old, chances are they have hardened up and handling may be spooky in any sort of bad weather.

As I've thought about this... I think the Cayenne Sport Design wheel was available from the factory in a 20" wheel, not a 19" wheel. This leads me to believe that they are replicas, but I'm not entirely sure. Are you positive that it's this wheel and not another Cayenne wheel option? I think the Cayenne Design wheel was available in 19" diameter. I believe this is the wheel that came on the Titanium Edition Cayennes.

See images below - the wheel on the green background is the 20" Cayenne Sport Design wheel. The one on the blue background is the 19" Cayenne Design wheel.

Dennis is correct.. the Cayenne Design wheel came in 19" size - both with the dark center Titanium finish, and an all silver finish (I have a set of each for summer/winter rubber.)

Thanks, I will keep that in mind. I will probably just end up replacing the tires anyways for safety reasons.

My apologies, I thought the 19" Design rims were called SportDesign Rims.

No need to apologize! I'm just trying to help. It seems pretty silly to me that Porsche would name two different wheels with such similar names.

Well, I got the rims for quite a cheap price ($300) and I knew that one of the rims had quite a bit of curb rash. The curb rash on one of the rims caused the paint to chip in 3"x3" place, which I will get fixed soon for a $100> hopefully.

Nonetheless I still think I got quite a deal!

Now all I need is to find center caps, fix the curb rash, and purchase some tires

So I'm still quite busy lol