Why are some cars four-lug and some five-lug? Options

[Coomer]

Why are some cars four-lug, while others are five-lug? To me, it seems like a lot of nicer cars have five-lug.

For example, the third gen. Integras are all 4-lug, except the Type R which is 5-lug.

The fourth gen. Celica GT and ST in the US are 4-lug, but the nicer GT-S and even nicer All-Trac are 5-lug.

The fifth gen. Celica ST is 4-lug, while the nicer other models are all 5-lug.

So why do manufacturers decide to make some cars 4-lug and others 5-lug? It seems to me like 5-lug maybe adds a bit more weight, but is marginally safer because it's one more lugnut for protection in case others fail. It also seems slightly more expensive to make a 5-lug setup because of more materials. But I dunno...anyone have any good explanation for this?

[Clipsetuner]

4-5lug has always been strange. like on full size trucks, typicaly 1/4 tons have 5 lug, 1/2 tons have 6 lugs, 3/4 and 1ton that 8 lugs, then typicaly beyond that you get into strange 10-18 lug patterns.

My buddys has a Datsun 521 and its got a smaller sized 6 lug and almost no one makes rims that will even come close to fitting it.

DTE