Is it me or are these rims slightly off???????? Is that why they are cheap or what?

http://www.theautopartsshop.com/Search/Addtocart.aspx

 

the fact that it says replica should be a tipoff

 

ok Thats what I thought thanks

 

so if they are replica..is that something to worry about?

 

I'm never a fan of replicas

Your car undergoes tremendous amount of stress when you are driving, particularly if you push the car hard -- ie. autoX, spirited drives, or track days.

So I would never "cheap out" on anything. Things like seats, wheels, braking system, or anything in the drivetrain ... I would never mess the car around with replicas. Replicas may have slight differences in composition of materials, and in some cases, the sizes are different too. Also replicas wouldn't have gone through the same stress tests that brand name ones did.

Arguably body kids and wings are okay for replica, or maybe even lights ... but things that involve moving parts and safety? I wouldn't touch replica stuff for those. The last thing I want is to have my wheel getting warped or even falling apart when I'm trying to push my balls to the walls in a turn.

If I want to mod, I either pay up, or just keep it stock ...

Sure you are paying some of the premium for marketing and branding, but one cannot discount the importance of the time, money and effort spent on proper R&D ...

 

Note the part numbers have LKQ in them. That is body shop/insurance speak for Like Kind and Quality. Also, body shops often get their LKQ parts from Keystone. Bunch of that stuff going on my mom's damaged Saturn Ion.

 

Insurance companies tend to try and push body shops to the replica parts - I managed to hit a deer with my wifes CR-V last month, and the insurance company wanted to cheap out on the parts. My Honda dealer worked with me on it and put OEM parts back on. The difference in price really wasn't that much, so for my part, buy OEM. But that may be just because my Honda dealer is a stand up guy - he doesn't mark up over msrp - ever! And in this case, he absorbed the differnece (sold parts as his cost).

 

There are a few members with replica AP2 v1 wheels with no problems...

 

I would expect most replica wheels would be at least equal in quality to most budget aftermarket rims.

 

I've run replicas before. They hold up fine.

If you're paranoid, find a place that reconditions factory wheels.