I am on my. 12th pothole casualty. 4 in last two weeks. Anyone in here move down in size? Experience?
@brettinteriors Do it. Everything is better with some reasonable tire sidewall. I switched out our 2021 M3P wheels for forged
18x8.5" Titan 7 T-S5 in Satin Titanium. The ride, handling, tire cost, and of course tire + wheel reliability are all better with the smaller, lighter wheels and functional sidewall.
I've hit stuff hard enough to knock a suspension bolt loose without destroying any wheels or tires. (Yes the bolt was possibly undertorqued, but regardless the hit was HARD, and the bolt had gone thousands of miles without coming loose until that hit. The 18" wheels & tires survived just fine!)
18" is a snug fit over the M3P brakes, especially the annoying integrated parking brake in the rear. You will need to make it clear to sloppy tire techs where they can and can't put balancing weights, including emphasizing that you want to rotate wheels easily (I presume), so they need to take into account the rear parking brake for
all four wheels. (Yes you'd think all of this would be automatic, a basic part of doing their job right, but in my experience you'd better point out all of this up front, or you're liable to have weights rubbing on your brakes.)
Sadly the base Model 3 OEM 18" wheels don't clear the M3P brakes (unless you're willing to shave off a few mm of brake housing - some have done it, but no thanks for me).
Here's a closeup pic of the 18x8.5" T-S5 wheel. Tire in this pic is 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport. Lug nuts are stock open ended with cheapo
gray lug nut covers that match the wheel color pretty darn well.