My good lady has a 71 plate VW Up GTI, which is economical, fun, and nippy, but…it’s time to move it on. Why? Three punctures in 4 months have ruined her trust in it. Ridiculous 40 profile ‘rubber band’ tyres make every pothole a potential rac call out, and the tyres are not commonly stocked - 195/40/17 so it’s out of action for 24 hours waiting for a tyre to be sourced. No spare just useless goo that won’t fix a 3” gash. Can’t get a space saver as they don’t fit over the brake discs. So she has a tricky ‘want’ list Must be a 5 door. Must do 0-60 in less than 9 seconds. Must NOT have low profile tyres. We live in the New Forest and the roads are poor. Must be a manual. Must be no bigger than a polo size. A fiesta ST appeals but stupid tyres make it a no. I can only come up with an Audi A1 1.4/1.5 technik as an idea? Budget up to £20k. Any ideas please?
As others have said, the problem is that every car in the performance category you've mentioned will have low profile tyres fitted as standard.
With luck, you may be able to source a car (or do this to your Up if pyhsically possible / allowed by your insurer [check]) and change the fitted alloys / tyres for smaller internal diameter and higher profile, but normally this also means (at least to get 'reasonably' common tyres) having skinny-er ones as well.
For example, I changed my Mazda3's OEM 16in alloys and 205/55 R16 tyres for 195/65 R15s, which are a proper like-for-like change. The smaller wheels do fit over the brakes and the slightly narrower wheels and tyres are also compatible width-ways (the handbook says they are, as does the door plate).
I'd first suggest you check your handbook and driver's side door plate to see if a higher profile tyre and smaller diameter wheel combo can be fitted (which should be allowable by the insurer, likely at no extra cost), but often 'GTi' type cars have bigger brakes and thus may not accept smaller alloys. Or at least going one size down in your case may not make much of a difference.
You may need to consult your local main dealer if the handbook / door plate aren't much use / have no info. You would need to do the same for any other supermini 'warm hatch'
Worth consulting the oponeo tyre size (re)calculator to check to see what's at least 'legal' (+1.5% / -2% tyre outer diameter difference to the OEM fitted) first - useful to see what options you may have:
www.oponeo.co.uk/tools/tyre-size-calculator
Then check some tyre dealers - Blackcircles is useful to at least gauge differences in price and availability (numbers of tyres to choose from and how new a design they are [normally those are nearer the top rated wet grip and mpg]) when 'downsizing'. It's also quite easy to use and change tyre sizes, but I'm sure other tyre dealers offer similar online info. More for comparsion than anything else.
One problem is that more often these days, cars now are far more likely to have different tyre size combos than (say) 10-20 years ago - which means there's less (new) and decent tyres to choose from, sometimes they are quite old (5+ years) designs (and thus not so good on performance criteria / mpg / safety), more difficult to get hold of and expensive, relative to the more common sizes that tend to be fitted to cars from the early 2000s - early 2010s.
In my view, you need to find a car that inherrantly has excellent handling characteristics - i.e. a well-designed 'chassis' and suspension setup, and gets excwellent reviews on this front even for the lowest specced trim / engine combo models.
I would say that getting anything with a sub-9 second 0-60 time for that size of car and that can have 'medium profile' (50-55, maybe 60) tyres fitted as an option is a VERY tall order, maybe impossible. The other thing that often doesn't help is that such cars often come with a firm suspension setup (often very much so) and a short wheelbase car will also tend to 'bounce' over poor surfaces / speed humps.
Might I suggest you moderate your expectations and look at (still nippy) cars but around the 9.5 sec 0-60 time, which opens you up to a good few 'mid-spec' superminis shod on reasonable tyres such as 195/60 R15 or 195/55 R16 or similar.
My 80yo dad is ironically coming from the other direction, having gone from a 08 plate Fiesta 1.25L (75hp / 0-60 in 13.3 sec) to a 20 plate Fiesta 1T MHEV Titanium X (125hp / 0-60 in about 9.4 sec), and he doesn't like it as it's 'too new tech' and 'too quick' (he can't get used to the differences).
His car is shod on OEMs of 205/45 R17 (sidewall 92.25mm high, your Up's are just 78mm high), but can accept a 195/55 R16 tyre (sidewall 107.25mm high), which is a reasonable height sidewall.
That (for example) might suit you without too much performance penalty, and the no ST-Line versions don't have lowered / firmer suspension but are still excellent at handling. Should also be in your price range. You'll likely need to pay to have the alloys and tyres swapped out, but with a newer car, you may be able to sell the OEMs to recoup 'some' of the extra cost. Or you buy new and get them specced as you want, but you'll have to wait a while.
I'm sure other examples:
Latest Polo 1L Tsi 110hp (0-60 in around 9.9 sec) mid-spec SE-L trim, equivalent Seat Ibiza or Skoda Fabia. I suspect the Audi A1 would have too firm a ride and/or not be able to be shod on mid-profile tyres, mainly because their range is more sporty to start with than the others.
Mazda2 1.5L 95hp SE-L Nav (0-60 in around 9.7 sec) - GT Sport Nav 115hp (or equivalent) may be fitted on too low a profile tyres or have too big brakes (not sure) but is a bit quicker at 0-60 in around 9 sec.
Possibly the Pug 208 but I'm not too up on that car (just looked at the specs), and again, you'd need to check what OEM tyres they have and what higher profile ones that are possible on them, if any.
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