Is it a bad idea to get bigger rims if my car is a city car. Are rims more suceptible to damage from pot holes when there is less side tire surface? I would like to get 18's if possible.

 

yes, but that being said, assuming you are careful and buy a decent quality wheel you should be fine

 

Would 17's be a better option? Also how do I know it's quality? Can't go by price.

 

well, you ideally want a forged wheel and 17s would obviously give you more side wall

what wheels are you interested in?

 

I find when you roll on bigger wheels, you become VERY aware of what's on the road...like potholes, junk, biga$$ bumps and curbs...
Some of us that live here in Chicago can atest to this!

 

17's would be a little safer, but 18's look OH SO MUCH BETTER!

Personally I'm planning on 18x7.5 with +42 to +45 offset, and 225/45 tires to get 1/2" of sidewall back, as compared to 225/40-18. I'm dropped on Tanabe NF210's.

205/55-16 (stock) = 4.5" sidewall, 24.9" OD
225/45-17 = 4" sidewall, 25" OD
225/40-18 = 3.5" sidewall, 25.1" OD
225/45-18 = 4" sidewall, 26" OD

 

usually when you get bigger rims, your introducing more weight to the vehicle, so in a sense you are requiring more work from the engine and the brakes when going and stopping (really depends on what material the rims are made of let's say chrome (very heavy) and how big you really go like let's say 19's and also how wide you go with tires--205's are like 8" wide and 225 are almost 9" wide).

so you'd maybe lessen ur mpg a tad, maybe have to change brake pads a lil sooner than usual, and the car could accelerate less, but that's if you go with a bigger rim that's heavier. the stock steel rims are heavy as-is, so actually switching to a rim might help out.

goin to 17's or 18's should generally be fine. but to make-up for the bigger rim you need a smaller diameter tire (lower profile)--to not throw off your speedometer when you are driving); there are tire calculators all over the net just search google.com to find an equivalent overall outer tire diameter. when you go with the smaller tire (lower profile), the steering responsiveness of the car is actually improved (less material flex due to its smaller, yet reinforced side profile length), but with this comes with the drawback of less ride comfort (you'll feel bumps more), hence potholes/bad bumps are not good.

and also when swapping rims on the xB, if you want to keep your tire-pressure monitoring system intact, you'd have to either swap the current sensors on the stems of your current tire, or get new ones and put them in the new rims/tires. or you could ditch them, it'll just leave the tire-pressure icon on your dash lit-up 24/7.

generally the lighter rims are more expensive.
http://www.wheelweights.net/ (check this out for a good list of rim weights).

 

well said PM