Road trip Detroit to Mexico City. I want to run 4 identical wheels and tires.
 

I am planning this long road trip in August. My friend from Mexico City will fly up to Texas and ride along through Mexico to Mexico City and then down to the beach.

Anyhow, I would like to run 4 identical tires and rims, and have a full sized spare in the back seat or trunk. I prefer to use 16" and I will buy durable tires that will be easy to replace. I am very worried about having a bent wheel or blow out in the middle of nowhere and being stuck.

I have some d 90's and also 16" cup 1 wheels, so I would just buy another set of either of those if possible. Are there steel wheels that would work? Would V rated All Seasons like Michelin MXV4 be OK for such a trip?

My car is a 1989 C4 Coupe.

Thanks!

If you put smaller tires on the rear you are going to change the way the car handles. Maybe you arent planning to take any twisties, but you can never be sure when you will have to make an emergency maneuver and if you've altered the handling from what you are used to you could easily find your car not reacting like you'd like. Consider that the brakes are set up not to lock the rear. If you put a smaller tire back there you will have less traction and possibly lock them. Yeah you have abs, but it would still be a mess.

I'm not sure what you are worried about. If you have the spare it can go on the front if you get a blowout. If a rear blows out you take a front wheel and put it on the back and the spare goes on the front still.

Take one of your front wheels and put it on the back and see what it looks like. I bet it would be way up under the wheel well.

Maybe I'm just being closed minded, but I think you are asking for trouble.

just my .00001

Don't do it! You can find a Goodyear or Michelin dealer in most major and somewhat minor cities.

You might as well just run what you usually run, and get a full sized spare that matches your front wheel/tire combo. At least then you will only have to put up with bad handling if you lose a tire in the rear, and only until you get to a place to fix/replace it.

You are going to make your car unbalanced , to much tire in the front or to little tire in the rear . Unsafe is the best thing I can say . Illegal , dangerous , etc etc etc
The brakes are not going to be able to stop the car as well as if you did not mess with the tire sizes .
Going around a corner in your car set up with the wrong size tires is a big no no .
Talk about bad oversteer ! The shock / spring rates will be all wrong for the tire you chose to put on .

Get yourself a nice roof rack / tire carry set up if you really feel the fright of being stuck, down a tire . Have an extra front and rear tire , no rim . Keep the weight down . Get a good tire patch kit and a good pump .

On a long trip I busted a trans on the road , had it pulled into a storeage yard , call back for a trans to be put on a buss . When the trans came , we put it in laying in the dirt , very few tools , just made do , good fun / memories .

I guess I'll play the wet blanket here, but I assume you've done your research on insurance, bond, etc for the car and your liability on the trip. Remember that if you are in a car wreck (even minor) in Mexico, it is technically a criminal offense, and they may likely impound your car and possibly put you in the local jail while they sort it out. Even if it isn't your fault, they may still impound the car. Bribes may help, but maybe not. I know a guy that drove his car over to Mexico and was in a very minor fender bender. The local cops impounded his car and he spent several hours sitting in a cell at the police station while they interviewed witnesses. They finally let him go, but not the car. He was finally able to get the car back about 3 weeks later with the help of an expensive attorney, but the car had been stripped of a number of components by then. This was a Firebird. Not trying to scare you, but just make sure you fully research it before you go and find out what your risks are.

Also, I'm not sure if you've ever seen the aggressive traffic in Mexico City, but it makes driving in Manhattan look tame. Bottom line is, if it were me, I don't think I'd drive a car I care a lot about into Mexico. Maybe take another car down there.

Truer words have never been spoken. I wouldn't drive my Porsche into Mexico under any circumstance. You are risking a lot - not just the car, but your health as well. When you drive your shiny Porsche into Mexico City, you might as well pull over and paint "carjack me por favor" on the decklid. Or, "Sr. Policeman, extort me por favor".

If you have some romantic dream of an adventure filled trip through Mexico in a German car, buy a $5000 Karmann Ghia with sorted mechanicals but bad paint. If it breaks down, anyone can fix it. If you make it back into the US with it, you could probably sell it to someone else for what you paid (or more if you have some good pictures of it in Mexico).

I suppose you have watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien" tambien? :eek:

Thank you for the advice. I may change my plans.

I think that would be smart. So, buy this for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Guide-...4072853&sr=8-1

and buy this for the Karmann Ghia:

http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswage...4072982&sr=1-1

and send pictures :cool:

For those of us over here, just out of innterest, what distance are we talking about here?

2400 miles each way from Detroit to Mexico City.

The real problem with Mexico City is the street crime. My company does business there and had an office there (finally shut it down a couple of years ago). When I would travel to Mexico City to visit our customers, the Mexican citizens that worked in our own office would warn me about the street crime and kidnapping problems and precautions to take. One of our employees that was a Mexican citizen was kidnapped and held for ransom. And it was his cab driver that set him up. It is a very dangerous city to be out and about on the streets, especially at night, and especially as a foreign national. You've got "target" written all over you. The Mexicans there told me not to take a cab because you couldn't trust them unless it was a cab driver that your hotel was familiar with. My company had a car service with a driver that doubled as a body guard. The executives with our customer companies had the same kind of protection. Their corporate headquarters looked like a fortress (fences with razor wire, armed security, etc). Now this was 3 to 5 years ago, but I doubt its improved a lot. And I'm not saying that all Mexico City residents are criminals, but the city clearly has a serious crime problem that they have trouble getting their arms around. Even Mexican citizens in other cities such as Monterey and Guadalajara voiced concerns about traveling to Mexico City. I felt completely safe out at night in those cities, but not Mexico City.

Others may have different experiences....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=7492272

"More and more private owners have seen a benefit of owning a helicopter for security and for saving time. Mexico is the kidnapping capital in the hemisphere. On the ground, traffic snarls are infamous."

Here is an idea. Have your friend meet you in TX and drive to California to go to the beach :D With different size tires too :thumbup:

My experience is basically the same. I lived down there briefly in 94, before the devaluation of the peso. It wasn't too bad from a crime standpoint, but traffic was still horrific. Later, after the peso crashed, I traveled down there on business, and we had similar security due to the crime spike. In fact, one night a co-worker got mugged between the front door of the Four Seasons and our waiting car service car (a distance of 20 feet).

I would never drive anything in Mexico City. I don't even like riding around in a car there. Mexico essentially has Napoleonic law, i.e. guilty until proven innocent. So, as TR6 stated, a simple fender bender could be a nightmare, and would be best resolved with cash on the spot, unless somebody gets killed, then you need to just flee.

Outside of Mexico City the bigger risks are 1) having some small town cop cook up some violation that must be resolved with a bribe, and 2) hitting something in the road and damaging the car in the middle of nowhere.

Once our car, a VW Fox I think, wouldn't crank in Puebla. To get a jump I had to pay 4 different guys who had two pieces of wire between them. Each held one end of one wire on one terminal of our battery or their truck's battery! (There's a joke in there somewhere.) Another time we got pulled over in the middle of nowhere. The cop took off his hat, stuck it in the window, and never even looked at us. We threw a bunch of pesos in it. Transaction completed. Yet another time we were in a Bug and ran head on (at slow speed) into a water truck going the wrong way on a one way street. The driver stepped out with a gun. More pesos required to resolve that situation amicably.

So, as you can imagine, you would probably leave Mexico a lot poorer if you were cruising around in a C4.