i'd like to buy some wheels for my g but while looking at some of the posts on this board i see that some brands are called cheap or lower quality. is this because the higher priced brands are forged instead of cast? is it because the more expensive wheels are lighter? is the chrome finish rims damaged easier on "cheap" rims than on expensive rims? i know that some chinese brands don't have safety standards aren't as high are known to crack or break. my thought is if they are bought at a reputable store the wheel's safety shouldn't be an issue.

i like car audio and know that there are speaker/amp/head unit snobs and wonder if wheel snobbery at work when some people suggest which wheels to buy. i see posts that say that you shouldn't put 1k wheels on a 35-40k car but there's no telling what nissan's costs are for the oem wheels. some people would just like better/different looking wheels than the oem wheels, not necessarily an upgrade in performance.

i'm not trying to start a flame war but i would like honest opinions.

 

A store's reputation is only as good as their service. The products you choose to buy from them should not affect this, although some shops won't let you buy garbage from them. The best a good shop can do is advise you better, and if that's not good enough, replace a damaged wheel that you picked out if anything happens. Rotas are considered crappy wheels, but many use them for track days, which IMO, is usually alright. You have a higher risk of damaging the wheels on the streets and freeways.

Since casting the metal isn't the only part of manufacturing a wheel, many more factors come in here. Some manufacturers just use cheap quality materials, some have poor manufacturing procedures, while others cheap out on quality control. Minor cracks that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye can turn a one piece wheel into a 2+ piece wheel after so many miles or bumps and potholes. Powdercoating and paint can help cover up minor defects too. The direction a wheel cracks can show you why it cracked.

And unless you are getting lightweight wheels like Gram Lights, etc... you aren't going to see much gain in performance. Larger wheels can help give you better response because you'll probably need lower profile tires, but you're sacrificing turning radius, acceleration and braking due to the added mass and size of the wheel. Just keep in mind that if a wheel fails, the occupants of the car's safety is at stake.

 

"The direction a wheel cracks can show you why it cracked."

Please explain this!!!

 

Just say there wasn't an impact, a hairline fracture on a defective can become big enough for us to see over time. I don't remember how it went, but there are different reasons if the crack is going up or down a spoke, or if it's splitting the hub in two, or if the cracks are going the other way on either the spoke or the hub. I think you can see the differences if there was an impact too...

 

Lets be straight here though, even cheap wheels very rarely fail catastrophically. Cast rims tend to bend easier and are harder to fix. These are the main issues for cheaper wheels. To say that every manuacturer of cheap wheels is crap, using unsafe materials and having no QC is just wheel-snobbery rubbish. Sure, you get what you pay for but the disparity between a $6k set of HRE's and a $2k set of Vossens is certainly not worth $4k IMO.

 

+1

Most definitely people exadurate the events in which wheel failure occurs. I have seen a handful of time with cast wheels and tracking, but hardly ever, if every ran into an incident where someone was driving normally and their wheel fell apart.

This being said, I already have the OEM 19"s which are forged Rays, so I can't justify spending money on a wheel that is cast, why downgrade.

 

lol, dont get chinese brands thats for sure~ i'm a chinese n i dont even trust them

 

Great attitude, I totally agree. If I had the forged Rays 19" on my car, it'd have to take a really awesome wheel to convince me to switch. I don't get these guys replacing their Rays 19" with big heavy 20" cast Axis wheels, why pay to downgrade?

 

LOL, so f'ing true.

 

im filippino and i dont want rotas for my G. maybe a civic or integra cause the wheel sizes are smaller. but not 18inch +

 

The difference is that those of us who really take pride in our cars (and tend to use a little common sense) are not willing to spend money on wheels that "might" break. Those who value their dollars are the same. And those who are made of money... they shouldn't even be looking to cut corners like this in the first place.

No set of wheels cost much over $1000 to produce unless it's made in Japan. But different brand names offer different quality and designs, while some also carry a popular name.

 

I just think people should be able to get what they want without having some net-hater ******* them out for getting non-$4k rims. Some people just want the look but would rather not spend that kind of money. And I don't buy the "you have a $40k car, whats $4k for rims?" argument. Just because I bought a $40k car doesn't mean I want to unnecessarily waste money.

 

Although it may not be true about some wheel brands, with these cheap rims made from China and the Philippines, you really do get what you pay for. And for the price at $400-1000 for a set of rims when very decent and much safer ones cost a few hundred more, it really isn't that much.

 

Sad. You're Filipino but can't spell it correctly.

 

so i added a "p" out, i also didnt use caps. and its really with a "Ph" what does that have to do with anything?