OK, I was looking for some cheap Work Euroline S2H knockoffs:



and I came across these:



They are RS Racing RS-110 17x7 4/100 +38. Is RS Racing (not to be confused with RS Limited) a quality brand? I think they are affiliated with Arospeed products, not sure though?

Also, do you know where I can find these locally (Bay Area or Sac) as I am weary of ordering from Florida! Plus, I'd like to see em in person...

Finally, what are your opinions!

I think I found something I like and in my price range....

 

Hmm....those are actually nice..i like them...I haven't heard of that brand until now, so i don't know about quality. As for style though, I'd rock those! :D

 

wait a minute. the website http://store.yahoo.com/speedandstyle/rsracingf1.html says 4x100, but those look like 5 holes? That either means they have a 4 hole version not pictured, or they mesed up?! Wheels usually come in different hole patterns, right? I just don't want to get my hopes up....

 

Here's the deal with most of the wheels you see for sale for under 1200 (with tires) from these big-time wheel outlets: they're all made by the same manufacturers. If you look through a magazine like Super Street or Sport Compact Car, notice how many wheels sold under different names look similar. That's because they're all made in factories in Taiwan or the Fillipines, or recently, in Korea. Now, there's NOTHING wrong with products made in those countries... in fact, my friends are manufacturers and they produce very quality stuff. BUT, they can also produce crap quality products if a customer so desired.

And in the case of most of these cheap wheel companies, that is exactly what they want. They're not concerned about quality. They approach these wheel manufacturers and ask them to copy existing designs (which is why you see so many knockoffs of name-brand wheels; the r&d cost is minimized when you have no r&d other than buying one wheel and making a copy of it instead of designing your own from the ground up) and to produce X number of wheels for them at Y price. Of course the Y price is low, so to accomodate, shortcuts are taken by the manufacturer. Cheaper alloys are used. Molds aren't inspected as often between casts. Machining isn't performed to as close tolerance. The finish isn't applied with such care. Etc... it all adds up.

Now, several other companies will approach these handful of wheel manufacturers, and choose to have the same wheel made (the mold and tooling is already made, so it's going to be cheap to manufacture), but the only difference is that they want their name on the wheel. Fair enough... a couple extra bucks for a piece of plastic center cap with a different logo is no big deal. And so, you have the knock-off wheel. Now not all knock-off wheels are bad. In fact, if you think of them just as round pieces of decorative metal, then they're not a bad deal when you consider the price you can get them for. And if you had a Honda, which is the fitment all of these cheap wheels are made for, then such wheels are REALLY not a bad deal. But with the Scions, these commonly-available fitments actually don't fit the car as well as something more... "appropriate," so now before you buy a knockoff wheel, you gotta consider whether you want to buy something knowing that not only is of prety poor quality, but also won't fit the car well. But again, if you can't TRULY justify paying more for a different set of wheels, then there's no problem going with the wheels that YOU consider are the best deal. It does all come down to you!

 

Thanks for the reply Van. Considereing the price, I didn't expect great quality. I don't need the best, just so long as it is not a total POS. It's tough looking for a great wheel (looks, quality, and fitment) on a low budget, but I think you are right when it comes to cheap wheels. I think I was ready to "settle" for these. The generic-ness of these wheels gave me second thoughts anyways. :?

I think I might've actually bought these at such a dirt cheap price if they were in a local shop just to hold me over But, I don't think it's worth the hassle over a product sight unseen.

So, the search continues for a god "value" rather than a "deal" or until I save up to get what I really want ;)