[mollyalice51]

Hi all-

I'm tragically ignorant of car mechanics, so any advice is appreciated. I have a 2016 CX-3 (it's my first-ever car!) and I absolutely love it, but I'm pretty short and find it frustrating to feel so low to the ground when I'm driving. I live in a place that gets a lot of snow, and I'm finding the ground clearance to be somewhat of an issue when I drive.

This might be dumb, but I thought an easy way to add a bit of height to the car would be to get slightly bigger wheels. Nothing crazy, just enough so the front bumper isn't scraping over parking barriers or snow on unplowed streets.

Is that a terrible idea? Does it mess with the internal mechanics of the car, or is it ok?

TL;DR: 2016 CX-3 AWD Touring ground clearance is too low, can I make it a bit higher with bigger wheels or am I being a moron?

 

[DJ9999]

Larger tires are not the answer as the radius is negatively changed. This increases wear on many items, impacts braking and handling. Throws your speedometer off etc.

There are some threads on raising the seat height. You can do a custom suspension at a high cost.

Personally, I'd live with it until you buy your next car.

 

[Cman]

Larger wheel size usually goes with a shorter sidewall tire so you keep the overall circumference of the tire/wheel assy the same as OE (to keep your speedo reading true).

Did you get an AWD CX-3? If you did do you have a nice snow tire on it? I would first try to raise the seat as high as possible for you to still be able to drive the car and see how that works for you before worrying about changing things with the car.

To increase the height of the car using tires you need to install a tire on your car with a taller sidewall but like DJ9999 said you will throw off your speedo reading and the handling designed into the car from Mazda will be compromised.

The only real way to do this is the raise the car doing the suspension (lift kit if it's avail for this car or coilovers (avail but pricey).

Tony