I was hoping I could get some opinions or information on my situation:

I have a '01 GS300 which has 17" chrome wheels. I am looking for 18" wheels to upgrade to but want to avoid lowering the vehicle or adding a body kit.

Have any of you seen vehicles with 18" aftermarket wheels but no body kits or lowered suspension? I would appreciate it if someone could direct me to some pictures of GS vehicles of this type.

Thanks!

 

With wheels it's highly suggested you lower the car. With 18's and no drop your car will look like an Expedition. Why not get 18's and drop it with L-Tuned? Ride will still be good.

 

I've seen several posts of people that installed 18"+ rims before lowering their rides... its not pretty. The gap between the tire and the wheel well will be more magnified because of less rubber around the rim. Your GS will definitely have a 4x4 look to it (not a good thing).

If you really want 18" rims, strongly consider lowering the GS. You have several options; springs/shocks, coilovers. Some of the coilovers allow you to change height settings, so you can adjust the ride height to match your needs easily (like winter time, if you want to swap to factory rims and increased ride hight for snow).

Somebody... post a before/after pic for this man...

 

getting bigger wheels without lowering the car would make teh car look very weird imho. at least drop the car a little bit

 

Which coilovers do this? I know someTeins can adjust its dampening electronically via EDFC but I did not know of an electronically height adjustable one.

 

Oops, didn't review my post before submitting I was going to mention the electronic damping force controller, but you already know about this.