After market wheels

ruxCYtable

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I've never bought after market wheels before, but the previous owner of my car apparently had a love affair with curbs. Does anyone have any favorite brands, or other advice?
 

AgronAlum

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I've never bought after market wheels before, but the previous owner of my car apparently had a love affair with curbs. Does anyone have any favorite brands, or other advice?

This depends a ton on what type of car/suv/truck and whether you’re going to a bigger or smaller rim size. Also whether you want a factory type look or something else.

You can usually replace one or two factory wheels cheaper than what you’d pay for aftermarket wheels.
 

2speedy1

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Discount Tire Direct or Tire Rack. Many times you can get rims, tires, tire sensors, all mounted and balanced and ready to go on your vehicle for less than what it would cost to buy tires anywhere else.

I have bought a few sets that way, for various reasons, snow tires. leaky rims etc. Works great, They really come completely ready to go on vehicle with lug nuts etc. As long as you buy them as a set of tires and rims etc that is.

Keep in mind, Discount Tire Direct and Discount Tire have 2 different sites and will have different options and prices.
 
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BillBrasky4Cy

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If you want stock OEM rims check out places like Sam's Riverside in Des Moines and see what they have used.
 

CascadeClone

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IDK if this is what you are looking for, but I bought a replacement wheel for my car from wheelership.com recently (old one was cracked and wouldn't hold air in tire).

It was exactly same as OEM and $150 incl shipping. Good price for a Jaguar OEM wheel, and exactly as represented. Only problem is I have to now polish the other three!
 
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DJSteve

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If you want stock OEM rims check out places like Sam's Riverside in Des Moines and see what they have used.
As an extension of this, the website car-part.com will allow you search a bunch of salvage yards at once and see what they have (generally with prices). Then once you figure out who has them, call and ask if they'll give you a better price on a set of 4.
 
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ruxCYtable

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Thanks, everyone. I am not planning to change wheel sizes. I do not particularly care for the appearance of the factory wheels. I have checked out the combos on Discount Tire and like some of them, I just didn't know if certain brands were better than others.
 

jbhtexas

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Thanks, everyone. I am not planning to change wheel sizes. I do not particularly care for the appearance of the factory wheels. I have checked out the combos on Discount Tire and like some of them, I just didn't know if certain brands were better than others.
Just a note on the wheel sizes...this is my biggest regret with my Q7. I got it used, and it had pristine 20-in factory rims. So I kept them and got new tires. Later, upon checking out Q7 forums, I learned that many Q7 owners ditch the 20-in rims and go back to the factory 18-in rims. 18-in tires are less expensive, there is a much wider tire selection available (whether on-road or off-road), and the ride is much better with the 18-in rims (the narrow sidewall on the 20-in tire transmits alot of little bumps, leading to rattles). I could have made money on the rim swap, because apparently alot of people put fancy rims on Q7s and there are lots of factory 18-in rims available.

Anyway, something to consider about the wheel size, since you are making a rim switch.
 

ruxCYtable

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Just a note on the wheel sizes...this is my biggest regret with my Q7. I got it used, and it had pristine 20-in factory rims. So I kept them and got new tires. Later, upon checking out Q7 forums, I learned that many Q7 owners ditch the 20-in rims and go back to the factory 18-in rims. 18-in tires are less expensive, there is a much wider tire selection available (whether on-road or off-road), and the ride is much better with the 18-in rims (the narrow sidewall on the 20-in tire transmits alot of little bumps, leading to rattles). I could have made money on the rim swap, because apparently alot of people put fancy rims on Q7s and there are lots of factory 18-in rims available.

Anyway, something to consider about the wheel size, since you are making a rim switch.
Mine's a Lexus ES. It rides pretty well on the 18" wheels, but there is an optional 17" size as well. I might consider that. I likes me a smooth ride in my old age.
 

dmclone

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On a serious note, be careful what tire/rim combo you get. Some low profile tires are murderous on rims and ride. As an example, about every performance Tesla you see will have curb rash because the rim stick outside of the rubber. A lot of BMW's have the same issue, which is why a large percentage of their owners actually have rim insurance.
 

CloneFanInKC

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On a serious note, be careful what tire/rim combo you get. Some low profile tires are murderous on rims and ride. As an example, about every performance Tesla you see will have curb rash because the rim stick outside of the rubber. A lot of BMW's have the same issue, which is why a large percentage of their owners actually have rim insurance.
“Performance Tesla”. Lol
 
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dmclone

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“Performance Tesla”. Lol
Yes, I'm talking about the $50k Model 3 performance that runs 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and 11.6 in the quarter. These times are similar to a 2023 Porsche 911 GTS, which has a MSRP of $144k. LOL right

Or we could talk about the Model S Plaid, which has over 1000 horsepower, runs 0-60 in 2.3 seconds and goes over 200mph.
 

Yaz

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I went through this with my Audi. I ended up getting upgraded rims from Audi rather than aftermarket rims from a 3rd party rim company. I thought the design matched the car better than anything I saw in the marketplace. Went from aluminum rims to black....damn they were sexy.

I have a new truck now and will probably put different rims on. Probably have to go with a rim that is not from Ford. Haven't checked out the options yet. I'll upgrade the suspension at that time too.

Keep in mind that an offset beyond your fenders can cause road debris/dirt/mud to fling up on your vehicle.
 
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