Walking to my car this evening I saw three cars in the space of about 50 yards wearing what I must describe as hideous alloy wheels. They weren't bangers either - a BMW, a VW, and a Peugeot all less than 3 years old.
So, apart from some dubious points about taste and some strange aesthetics, what is the point of these things? I would gladly save a few hundred for some plain covers to steel wheels.
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Sorry if the links don't work - you can always cut and paste.
Incredible French Cars
Bavarian Motor Wasters
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www.thejackytouch.com
www.jimmy540i.com/bmwnightmare.htm
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Tells you all you need to know about (some) BMW owners!
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Reduces unsprung weight therefore improving steering feel.
As for looks.... eye of the beholder .
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err you may be surprised at the flash looking alloy wheel weight versus a bog standard steel wheel weight comparison
trust me on a normal family car/rep mobile there is no gain to be had other than looks
my main bug bear is the makers/distributors who insist on the steel wheel option being thin tyres and wider tyres only available on alloys (i would normally rather have the wider tyres but on steel wheels)
but where the tyres are the same steel are usually much better bet than alloys
for a whole buch of reasons
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I'm with you on this one Crazed - I want wide tyres on the car but want them on steel wheels and not ruddy alloys!
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I would go for that.
25 years ago I put bigger (steel) wheels on my Sprite.
HUGE. 5.5J x 13!! With Pirelli Cinturato tyres!!
Really sorted the roadholding. (Now aquaplaned like a bitch - brown trousers job - but that's different story)
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Most alloy wheels are heavier than the steel wheels;what you see on Rally/racing cars are magnesium wheels which are something else altogether.
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Crazed and j. cronin are both right. Proper magnesium wheels might have a disadvantage though. A few years ago (30 or so) I read a newspaper report about a London bus that had caught fire. The fire crew were unable to extinguish the heart of the fire, which was a brilliant white / blue fireball.
Apparently the magnesium gearbox casing was alight. Heavy brakers beware.
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I've been spending a lot of time in Frankfurt over the last 18m and notice that the locals here do not seem very interested in alloys. Even the smartest cars (and there are thousands of Mercs and BMWs on the road here) often have regular wheels with hub caps. Many even follow the trend we had at home many years ago of just bare black wheels with no caps at all.
(does this expose the hub to any additional danger of dirt getting in?)
They all look pretty good to me. I wonder why we have become so obsessed in the UK with the idea that alloys enhance the look of a car, to the extent that we are prepared to pay much more for them? I am guilty myself - I can't remember the last car I had without alloys.
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In my local supermarket car park last week, I saw a nice Rover 25 completely riuned by a set of over-the-top 3-spoke alloys. They had btight red centres and were ostentatious to a vomit-inducing degree.
I quite like a set of alloys, but some people have no sense of reserve!
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You see, the Germans have much higher standards than we Brits. To them a BMW or a Merc or an AUDI is just an ordinary every day sort of car; a taxi, in fact. High quality, of course, but why would anything not be of the highest possible quality? Many Germans find our obsession with MB in particular quite bizarre. We put a premium on that kind of quality and get snobbish about it because we have much lower standards overall. Alloy wheels make Brits feel special. It won't happen in Germany, because Germans feel special anyway.
Chris
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How absolutely ridiculous.
The Germans and Dutch are *the* most inventive in the VW scene in terms of modifying their vehicles and are just as, if not more alloy wheel obsessed than us here in Blighty.
BBS are German aren't they? Come on!
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Maybe for modifiers, Guy, but my experience is that their cars in general are less specced up than ours. In other words the average German is less willing to pay for extras when the car is new. Isn't that one problem with importing cars form the continent, that you have to make sure to get UK spec?
Chris
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Fair dinkum!
Could it be that the German Marques tend to leave the alloys, etc to their accredited specialists such as AMG (Merc) Alpine/Hartge/AC Schnitzer (BMW)?
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Funnily enough the Germans own more cars per head than we do, so it's not as if they are not interested in spending money...
Chris
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