I have been watching reps for a long time on ebay and the forums.

If its all show and no go........meaning your not running the track, go for the lower priced reps or take your time and be an ebay hound for OEM pull offs that someone just wants to get rid of on the cheap, and make sure you look at the shipping costs ahead of time in the total!

Reps on a track and not from a reputable retailer can get you killed, maimed, and destroy your car..........I think I saw an old thread where a guys reps distengrated on the track...and they had the official stamps to indicate quality....and if you have a nice car, pay for forged wheels if your on the track.

I have 06 base and could care less if my wheels are OEM/triple forged high dollar wheels. I just care that I can find the right tires for my pig is my concern.......if the tire breaks or gets rashed up, fine, Ill source a new cheapo online if it cant be repaired.........my OEMS are showing bubbling and chipping now anyways.......

 

Not really the same comparison.

Knocking off a Rolex is different than knocking off a wheel design. Especially when many of the wheels are actually being made by the same companies in the same equipment with the same materials.

Some are very reputable wheel manufacturers that have simply found a market niche for a lower cost alternative to the OEM markup.


FWIW, I have 4 wheels for my 2 Porsches. 2 OEM sets, a moderately high quality set for the one car and a stupid expensive set for the other. I would consider a replica set for winter beater wheels in a heartbeat though.


One last thing to consider is that many of the "replica" wheels are built to use on other applications and not just a direct "knock off". For example, the 18" & 20" versions of the GTS wheels allow for nice winter wheels or for a larger selection of winter tires over the 21" factory wheels.

They also allow the use of say a "GTS style" wheel to be used on another model of car. (not that this is the best example......but....) I could fit Cayenne GTS style wheels in an 18" size on my 951 where a 21" simply won't fit.

 

Seriously here,

I'm not saying that everything replica is in comparison such as watches, I'm speaking only about what I have extensive knowledge about, since I don't sell, repair and refinish watches daily I can't offer you a reply based on years of experience, however if we are speaking WHEELS then I think I've had enough experience since I've had the opportunity to repair almost every manufactured line.

Important to know your retailer and for your retailer to know their vendors this is where you will learn more about your wheels replica or not. A seasoned retailer should be able to provide some history on the manufacture or at least let you know what is their track record on returns, blems, etc.

Once again, welcome to 6-spd, enjoy the ride...

-Eli

 

I agree, no retailer is going to be retailing wheels he knows come from a bad mfr. I suspect it wouldn't take too many sets sold before there would be some pattern of issues. Can;t stay in business too long selling wheels that don't hold up well.

 

Watch out on the Used Private Party deals. I bought a set off a Rennlist member. 3 out of 4 had to be scrapped. I like paying for the guarantee now.

 

I agree but disagree.... Most of those or us with shops will pay more in order to deal with better manufactures but there are plenty on ebay who don't care since they can change their name over night and close up shop as there are quite a few of those who are actually sellers from their garage....

Best to deal with a reputable shop when considering a purchase of replicas if you ask me. Lot of times I'm out of stock only because we will refuse to purchase cheap wheels and would rather wait for our goods to arrive from those we can trust.

-Eli

 

To the bold portion of your comment -> you will be really surprized to see how many people are penny pinchers when it comes to purchasing wheels for their $120K car, which I dont get because the wheels are one of the most valuable performance mods you can make....without voiding warranty and still people dont want to spend money on them...totally escapes me!!

On the other part, you are right that knock offs suck no matter what and that they bend crack really easily.......I have never had the bad luck of purchasing a replica but I have seen other people with replicas and its literally money , time and effort in correcting the resulting situation down the drain (no matter how much money that is)

OEM wheels do bend , crack etc and of course someone who specializes in wheel repair must have seen it ....but that doesnt mean anything, they bend and crack way less often than replicas......and no matter who manufactures the replica that still applies.

There are plenty of places to get an OEM part for cheaper or may be even used parts but always buy OEM, will give you peace of mind and keep you safe...the reason we love OEM is because when a manufacturer manufactures a wheel for Porsche they maintain a different kind of quality control which is surpassed by no other...but when the same manufacturers are making reps they are cutting corners as obviously the return is way less.....

I mean comeon, porsche is so demanding that they need N1, N2, N4 rated tires from a top of the line tire manufacturer like Michelin..isnt that iindication enough towards how specific should the parts be for your porsche to get the best out of your porsche?

 

There is a little more that everyone may be over looking regarding wheel damages, the air pressure in the tire, the tire brand, ie. side wall stiffness, the nature of the pot-hole, deep, sharp, speed of impact, load of impact, impact during a turn, brake to impact, area of damage = close to spoke, impact inside or outside of wheel, center mass....

There are so many reasons why wheels get damaged, I've seen wheels with bullet holes in them.... Yes, that's right... more than once I might add...

So have I seen it all.... and them some, so please don't discount it by saying that means nothing... It sure does, it means I've seen broken TechArt, HRE, Irforged, Speedlines which by the way are an OE manufacture, BBS again OE manufacture....

The only one can surely say we can compare apples with apples is to actually set up a road "real world" test, same vehicle, same tire, same air pressure, same load, same impact location on wheel. This was be extremely difficult to do but if you have the money by all means.

I'm just saying with the amount of wheels I see I can tell you they are all fragile and given the right conditions they will ALL FAIL...

-Eli

 

I think that there are several types of porsche owners and many have not spent $120K on their cars or even a 1/4 of that. There is a large segment of porsche owners that, for instance, have bought an 04 CS for $20K or even less. Does it really make sense to spend $5K+ on 'quality' wheels? I think, and this is solely my opinion, you should have your head examined for spending 25% of the cars value on wheels. We have to put things into perspective. I agree, putting knock-offs on a new 997t is ludicrous but so is putting new techarts on a $10K boxster. There is a market for knock-off wheels and there is a purpose or place for them. They really make sense depending on situation. My wife has a 08 MB ML320cdi. I put 20" AMG knock-offs on her ride, it looks and drives fantasticly. She carts my 2 kids around in it and I have absolutely no concerns over their safety whatsoever. She drives like a snail, and goes to the mall, work, drops off the kids and thats it. Why would I spend $5K on wheels that are going to be be curbed to hell anyways. They are all dead straight, balance perfectly and after 4 winters still have a great finish. And you know what, if one of them bends, I'll throw it away and buy a new one for $200. Just makes sense to me. You know what really makes me laugh...seeing a guy spend $5K+ on wheels and then you look at the tires and they are the cheapest crap you can get. You wanna talk safety, tires are way more important that the wheel. Anyways, you would be stupid to take knock-offs to the track but lets no be so dramatic about quality, OEM specifications, safety, blah, blah, blah...end of the day, knock offs are totally safe and adequate for all but the highest performance machines. Let's not forget folks, speed limits in north america are not exactly blistering. Autobahn...well, that's a whole new ball of wax

 

an '04 CS for 20K and you might say a 2007 boxter will be $10K? .....may be I should go to Canada to get my next porsche

 

Yes, Eli, they are all going to break, althoug I dont agree to the fragile terminology that you used, my point is that the right conditions are different and much severe for OEM compared to replicas....

 

I dunno...a high mile 04CS isn't that hard to find for $20k...03 for even less. 99 boxster can be had for almost nothing these days...anyways, not really the point I was trying to make. Maybe I should have used a 924 as an example

 

Actaully there are a lot of '04 CS's in the low 20's. I've seen a few under. They usually have pretty high miles and are not the best examples. I paid $37K for my '06 ****. It is in perfect condition and had only 24K miles CPO.

There are plenty of aftermarket wheel companies that make high quality wheels. I went with OZ for both the cayenne and my turbo. Lighter than OEM and easily equal in quality for 1/2 the price.