I have been told that with 16 inch wheels, the ride is "horrible" compared to the standard 15". Is that true?

hope not.

haven't driven a 500 with 15" alloys, but the 16" alloys feel o.k to me.

Mine's got 16" ers and the ride is fine, apart from really pot-holed roads.

same here 16's are fine

The ride is awful on all 500's...

I found that when I test drove a 1.4 before purchase it was to noisy on the motorway with 16's can't really remeber if the ride was bad. I chose 15's over 16's as a lot of my driving is on the motorway. However I also chose a 1.2 over the 1.4 and I think its also a lot quieter than the 1.4.

her indoors 1.4 on 15's has got a lot better, ride wise, now it's done 1200 miles

It's all subjective really. We've got 16's on our sport with the 1.4 engine, and it all seems to just suit it really well.

They're a little louder and harder but it's kinda what you'd expect or even want on a sport model.

Got 16's on mine and it's fine, no jarring over pot holes or the like. But then again, I also have a BMW on 19" run-flats and the ride is truly awful, so my 500 is like a breath of fresh air.

Tried a 1.3 Sport on 15" and I thought that it was a firm ride with a fair amount of road noise so I was in two minds as to whether I should put 16s on mine. Went for the 16" and found the ride seemed better and the road noise was less which would seem to be the opposite of what I was expecting.
I wonder if the tyres have any bearing on this anomaly. I don't know which make were on the demo model but I have Bridgestones on mine and I am very pleased with the overall ride.

Thanks everyone.
I have gone ahead and ordered 16" on a 1.2 lounge.
FYI - I tested out the interscope and found it annoying - too bassy, and the standard kit is extremely good anyway.

Nice one.

By pure chance I tried a 500 on 15's yesterday. The ride is a little better, but it didn't make me wish I had gone for them over the 16's. As ever, it's personal choice, both have good and bad points.

Having found out my 500 had 3.0 bar of pressure in the tyres, which made the car very very hard with a lot of (and i mean a lot) of road noise, I wonder if that is what was wrong with the 500s with 16"s someone tried when comparing it to a 500 with 15"s?

The 16" alloys have lower profile tyres which will make the ride a bit firmer than the 15" ones.