Thinking of buying cheap Chinese made rims or knock-off's ?

[Steampunk]

... I don't think it's right to put crap on people just for buying fakes (not saying that anyone here is - have just seen a lot of it on the internet).

On the interwebs, crap is put on because people are just infantile, whereas here, the main reason (at least I'd like to think it is) is that we are concerned about the safety of others.
Sure copies might not withstand the rigours of the track or regular spirited mountain runs, but some people never do either hence the wheels are not subjected to the same stresses.

We've all bought Crazy Clark's batteries instead of Duracell, bought LG instead of Sony, generic chocolate spreads instead of Nutella.
The prior are not as good as the latter, but heck, it does the job.

The HSV ones would have failed because the sheer weight of the barges they hold up.

Having said that, it's ridiculously negligent for any dealership to stock and sell these wheels for a miriad of reasons. Goes to show some people just don't give a sh*t about others, and/or are just too stupid to realise the consequences of their actions.

[Mr nanotech]

I think this is way too subjective to be one side or another. The fact of the matter is that there is no right or wrong and safety is immaterial because it's up to the owner as to what purpose they have in mind. I agree with all parties here that state it is morally and economically wrong to support a knock off as it puts financial stress on the companies who make genuine first party products. But like people have said here, it's ridiculous to get this heated about an 'issue' like this because it's so hypocritical.
Come on, like you've never been guilty of hurting an industry. I think most people are guilty of one of the biggest intellectual property crime which is music and software piracy. That puts a massive dent in the people who spend their life in an industry giving out to the community and for the most part get only a small percentage back due to the sheer amount of piracy. Go ahead and tell me its' not the same, but tell me you aren't guilty of that too?

I think if people want to buy wheels to look good and that alone, then copies are fair. Not every one has the money to throw a couple of grand on a set of BBS or Speed Stars. When you factor safety into the equation though, it's the consumers own damn fault. They knew before purchasing they were hitting economy over quality. So once again, I don't think it's as clear cut as "don't buy knock offs"

The reason I get so annoyed with these threads is because they're only put here to provoke and have no constructive gain. I've been to so many forums now of arrogant people who talk down to other car enthusiasts for having remakes of classic wheels and not the real thing. How do you think that makes the owner of those wheels feel? If the owner is happy with it and willing to show their goods on a forum, the last thing they expect is someone to pull them down for it.

I'm not trying to defend myself here, I have a legit set of RS Watanabe's on my car. But just because I have legit wheels doesn't mean I think other people have to as well. Come on guys, it's a big world. Learn to respect peoples decisions.

That said, maybe this should be turned constructive and focus on the quality of some knock offs rather than shooting people down.
I'm interested to see what the quality of AXIS wheels are and Sportmax are to be quite honest!!

[greenMachine]

Caveat emptor.

If a 'quality' wheel costs $1k upwards a set, and someone pays say $500, what do they think they are buying? Certainly not 'quality'.

It would be interesting to know how much the broken wheel referred to above actually cost the consumer? The vendor may have reinforced the expectations/hopes of the purchaser by eg inflating margins (aka rip-off), putting on brand-name identification, and so on. In this case, I hope they are sued to banruptcy.

If the purchaser has bought a bargain, I have little sympathy. There may be a case for 'not fit for purpose', but when I buy a 'bargain' I am very consious that I may not be getting a bargain, but only 'value for money', and not much money means not much value.

[deviant]

I'm amazed at the stupidity of people who buy cheap low-profile rims and fit them to high performance or heavy vehicles - Darwinism at work!

This. You see so many performance sedans and utes getting around with 20 inch rims with 30-35 profile tyres on them and the suspension so low the tyres are tucked under the guards and then camber added to stop them scraping. These cars must be horrible to be in! I have seen a commodore around my are that is like this that is so stiffly sprung the thing practically hops down the road.

I's not just aftermarket wheels now though, it's the fashion for even the most mundane cars to have 17 and 18 inch wheels fitted from factory with low profile tyres that off little protection from curbs and potholes.

Another worrying factor, is ADR's and non compliance for a lot of after-market wheels.
Would this not void insurance ?
Is this a realistic issue ?

Could be. I would think a 20in rim in an aftermarket application (I.E. if the car came from factory with 16in) would be outside of the allowable increase for that vehicle. If that wheel failed and caused an accident resulting in injury/death I guess there is the potential for you to be in a lot of trouble but in reality I think the courts might side with you being a clueless consumer being duped by the evil wheel seller, it would be to hard to prove your negligence or that you had knowledge the wheel was an illegal fitment and was of poor quality. Your insurer would pay out to the 3rd party claim (they have to) but might persue you for all or part of the money.

[NMX516]

I don't think the issue is "copies" per se, the issues are poor quality, dangerous wheels, and replica or fake wheels being sold as "the real thing" such as it seems those "HSV" wheels were.

Over the years I've spent a fair bit of time on Mini forums, reading Mini dedicated magazines and books, and every second car has some version of the Minilite style wheel, as produced in the 60's. Very very few of them are genuine Minilite wheels however. Wheels of the same style are made by numerous companies, including Performance and Watanabe (both reputable brands) and are of very good quality. No one minds that, and genuine Minilites were not made for a long time but are being reproduced again these days. They were/are made of magnesium and cost a small fortune compared to other wheels of the same size. With that style being so popular, other manufacturers saw a need for a lower cost version, and made quality wheels to suit the market demands, which is fine.

I would have thought that there would be some government standard/law which must be met for a wheel to be sold in this country, but perhaps there isn't, or that law isn't enforced, perhaps because setting up speed cameras is easier, but that's a whole new can of worms!

[xmx106]

No doubt the wallet leads the chase here, but really does anyone have a real rim failure on their hands on an mx5, that isnt track day related, or from a T-bone into a curb.

[philz]

wow, just wow.

Jdm wheels already pass their own JWL standard, which is equivalent if not much more stricter than ADR

BTW do you wear socks with sandals?