All about replicas: Corner-Cutting Commentary

[wheelhaus]

Originally Posted by AznKirby

Aaaaaaand... Adding fuel to the fire

BBS declares war:
http://www.vwvortex.com/news/afterma...brand-pirates/

I don't want to fire up the arguments again, but this article brings up a very good point...

Replica wheels are one thing, they take the same design (or a close similarity, appearance, etc) of another wheel, but they sell it under a different name. Often the copy needs to make some sacrifices to keep the price down (such as cast vs forged barrel, weight, etc). This I'm OK with.

Counterfeit wheels take the same design, but instead try to sell the copies under the original brand name (such as the BBS counterfeits in the article). Unfortunately, counterfeits can be extremely convincing. This is what needs to be avoided because it's blatant fraud.

[STV3]

Originally Posted by King Tut

Or you move out of a shit state like New Jersey to a state that doesn't have multiple pot holes per mile of road and avoid them. You will find that when you pay $900 per wheel, you try to take care of them just like when you pay $28k for a brand new car, you try to take care of it.

Yeah because moving to a different state just to avoid denting your cars wheels is a logical decision...

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by STV3

Yeah because moving to a different state just to avoid denting your cars wheels is a logical decision...

Nobody said it was logical.

[STV3]

Originally Posted by King Tut

Nobody said it was logical.

Although I agree jersey is a shitty state. They're only good for the low gas prices that I get to take advantage of because I live right on the border.

[rice_classic]

Originally Posted by STV3

Yeah because moving to a different state just to avoid denting your cars wheels is a logical decision...

You can shorten the sentence, that will make it logical.

"You should move out of New Jersey..."

[OrangeJuleas]

[Rampage]

Originally Posted by King Tut

Or you move out of a shit state like New Jersey to a state that doesn't have multiple pot holes per mile of road and avoid them. You will find that when you pay $900 per wheel, you try to take care of them just like when you pay $28k for a brand new car, you try to take care of it.

I just drove a thousand miles in the state of Florida. There are some pretty crappy roads there too. Plus they all go straight. How do you enjoy a car like the FR-S or BRZ in a state like that? No wonder you guys are always complaining that you need more power. The only thing you get to do is race from one stop light to the next and vie for the hole in traffic before someone else jumps in there.



Just kidding. I will be moving there soon but I will miss the great driving roads In Ohio. I will have to drive to northern Georgia to find anything nearly as good.

On topic. Buy the wheels you can afford and like the looks of. Do not get sucked in by the marketing hype or aftermarket snobbery. Direct knock-offs are not kosher but come on, the TE37 is not really a fancy design and I saw factory wheels way back in the 70s that looked a lot like them. Who copied who?

[Nevermore]

I don't really care about this argument, like, at all. But I am curious. I've owned a few different cars now, never put aftermarket wheels on any of them, but hit plenty of crap and big pot holes. I've never cracked, broken or damaged any wheels. I can't imagine any aftermarket wheel being weaker than a plain old stock wheel unless it's just a terrible wheel in general. So if a replica wheel is as strong, or stronger than stock, what's the point? The better quality argument for the originals kind of falls apart with that. Then again, what do I know? I'm calling myself out on my lack of knowledge.

[AznKirby]

Originally Posted by Nevermore

I don't really care about this argument, like, at all. But I am curious. I've owned a few different cars now, never put aftermarket wheels on any of them, but hit plenty of crap and big pot holes. I've never cracked, broken or damaged any wheels. I can't imagine any aftermarket wheel being weaker than a plain old stock wheel unless it's just a terrible wheel in general. So if a replica wheel is as strong, or stronger than stock, what's the point? The better quality argument for the originals kind of falls apart with that. Then again, what do I know? I'm calling myself out on my lack of knowledge.

OEM > replica
Any day of the week. That being said, some companies, like BBS, make OEM wheels.

Millions of dollars in R&D is better than knock offs from Taiwan/China.

[STV3]

My SRT-4 came stock with BBS wheels and I had two of them bend on me. Now this wasn't from any specific incident, just from daily driving and whatever unavoidable bumps or holes I may have hit over time. They weren't bent to the point that they weren't usable, just had to slap a few extra wheels weights on to get them balanced.

Also out of the two sets of XXR's I've owned I've had one of those bend on me, or more like square off. It didn't fall apart or explode into a thousand pieces sending me flying off the road. This was from a massive crater in the road about a foot deep that I didn't see because it was raining and filled with water. $120 and a few days later my wheel was replaced.

My point is that no wheel is indestructible.

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by AznKirby

OEM > replica
Any day of the week. That being said, some companies, like BBS, make OEM wheels.

Millions of dollars in R&D is better than knock offs from Taiwan/China.

I dunno. I might risk life and limb to get rid of something like this

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by Rampage

I just drove a thousand miles in the state of Florida. There are some pretty crappy roads there too. Plus they all go straight. How do you enjoy a car like the FR-S or BRZ in a state like that? No wonder you guys are always complaining that you need more power. The only thing you get to do is race from one stop light to the next and vie for the hole in traffic before someone else jumps in there.

Just kidding. I will be moving there soon but I will miss the great driving roads In Ohio. I will have to drive to northern Georgia to find anything nearly as good.

All true. I still enjoy my street cars just fine locally, but when I want to hit curves, I like them in the form of a racetrack like Sebring.

[wheelhaus]

Originally Posted by Nevermore

I don't really care about this argument, like, at all. But I am curious. I've owned a few different cars now, never put aftermarket wheels on any of them, but hit plenty of crap and big pot holes. I've never cracked, broken or damaged any wheels. I can't imagine any aftermarket wheel being weaker than a plain old stock wheel unless it's just a terrible wheel in general. So if a replica wheel is as strong, or stronger than stock, what's the point? The better quality argument for the originals kind of falls apart with that. Then again, what do I know? I'm calling myself out on my lack of knowledge.

The two biggest reasons for any aftermarket wheel are aesthetics and performance. Performance can be had by fitting wider tires for more grip, and/or to save weight and rotational mass.

You're correct, ANY wheel can crack, dent, break, etc. There's loads of evidence that every possible iteration of wheel manufacturing is still susceptible to damage. No wheel is invincible. Some are more durable than others, but there's no guarantee a forged wheel is stronger than a cast wheel. To me more specific, forged is stronger metallurgically, so they can be made lighter and achieve the same strength. Being made lighter makes them weaker. So, forging ultimately nets you lighter weight and more propensity to bend instead of crack, but they can still crack. Cast wheels usually need to be made a bit thicker, and some wheels combine the two methods (e.g. cast spokes and roll-forge the barrel) to control costs and still get some lightness from the heaviest part of the wheel.

On the other hand, some ultra cheap aftermarket wheels are made to such garbage standards that they will be damaged more easily than the majority.

Originally Posted by AznKirby

OEM > replica
Any day of the week. That being said, some companies, like BBS, make OEM wheels.

Millions of dollars in R&D is better than knock offs from Taiwan/China.

This is a blanket statement that isn't necessarily true in all cases. OEM wheels still break. Some aftermarket manufacturers are OEM manufacturers. Some aftermarket manufacturers (I'm not sure if they're required to) pass all the same safety tests that OEM's do.

Manufacturing processes can be copied as well, so just because product A comes from a big name and Product A1 comes from WTFBBQ, doesn't mean it's instantly garbage.

In many cases knockoff companies only care to make a quick buck and will copy any popular design and make it as cheaply as possible with the cheapest alloy possibly. THIS is where the problem is because now it's a real safety concern. (i.e. a thin-spoke forged design that's copied directly to a cast production, will most certainly not be as strong as it needs to be, but this is just one example).

[MokSpeed]

I buy my polo shirts from Target for $15 instead of buying the real deal at Lacoste for $80 a shirt. I guess that makes me a terrible person for promoting "knock offs" and I am hurting the industry.