Much of the decision-making on wheels is about aesthetics, which is simply a matter of personal taste. I'll address some of the other questions...
Distance Runner said:
I want a wheel that is well priced, that I can possibly purchase as a set with tires.
I believe almost anyone that can sell you a set of wheels, can sell them to you with tires mounted and balanced. Of course, you can always buy tires yourself (either locally or shipped from a mail order vendor like the Tire Rack) and have them mounted and balanced locally. Your choice.
Distance Runner said:
Will the tires rub, or is that just on cars that are lowered?
Rubbing depends primarily on choosing the proper size tires (not too wide or too large in diameter), and the proper offset on the wheels. Lowering can also be a contributing factor, but is rarely the deciding one.
Distance Runner said:
Living in Florida, are tires such-as the Kumho 711's a bad choice, because they seem so well priced?
That depends on whether you care about performance, or only about price. The Kumho Ecsta 711 is a truly mediocre tire, compared with most high performance tires and even most Kumho tires. The 711 is the third best tire in Kumho's performance line of street tires. The Kumho Ecsta 712 is Kumho's budget tire and is better than the 711, even though the Yokohama AVS ES100 budget tire is better in every respect. And the Kumho MX is Kumho's top of the line street tire, better than the 711 or 712, and is still nowhere near as good as the best street tires around, like the Bridgestone S-03, the Goodyear F1 GS-D3, or the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2. So Kumho makes two other tires that are better than the 711, and both of those tires are inferior to tires made by other brands.
Furthermore, the 711 is only H rated, for a speed of up to 130 mph. And, while you may think that your car will never go that fast, it is certainly capable of doing so. Even if
you never intend to drive it that fast, let's say a friend or parking attendant has your car for a brief drive - do you REALLY want to create the possibility that your tires will fail and your car will crash, even if you're not on it? That's one reason why it's almost always a bad idea to have tires that can fail at speeds that your car is capable of reaching.
Is the 711 a bad choice? In a word, yes; their performance is third rate, significantly worse than the only slightly more expensive Yokohama ES100. Furthermore,
a great car with crappy tires ends up providing crappy performance. And if you really don't care about performance, to the extent that you're willing to severely downgrade that performance in order to save a few dollars on tires, it would have made a lot more sense to spend less on the car itself, not on the tires.
Distance Runner said:
There are several benefits of 17"/18" over 18"/19", including wider selection of tires, better performance (less weight), less susceptibility to damage from potholes, less expensive tires, etc. The main advantage to 18"/19" is that some people like "the look" better than the smaller sizes.
Distance Runner said:
I can't seem to find a site where a large selection is readily available and easy to navigate.
Have you looked at the Wheel Gallery in the Tires & Wheels section of the FAQ?
The Tire Rack website isn't bad, for a vendor website showing wheels on an NSX.
