[Antho]

'lo all,

Well thanks to 2 well placed Irish potholes:x I'll be replacing all 4 tyres (3 now have bulges in the sidewalls) over the next few days. But, as my wheels are corroded & flaking a bit I'm mulling over having them refurbished with a smoked chrome look or just replacing them with 18's. I've looked through the wheel post & have some idea's but looking for 2nd opinion's.

These are mine:

 

[PaulOliver]

Seeing as you need to replace tyres anyway, i would go for new rims too, some great deals out there!

Your old wheels will fetch a decent amount on ebay, as long as they arent bent or anything

 

[JonV]

IMO it depends on what the refurb will cost.... are you going to have the wheels "re-furbed" or get refurbed wheels with a core return? Here, I can get a refurbed 17" wheel (03 Vector)) using a core return for 150.00. So opted that route. Still 600 if you want to get all four, I just needed one.

Your in the UK, I would check out Ronal... I believe they make the OEM rims, I know they did for the C900's. They have some excellent choices, sadly no longer sold in the US.

 

[Antho]

IMO it depends on what the refurb will cost.... are you going to have the wheels "re-furbed" or get refurbed wheels with a core return? Here, I can get a refurbed 17" wheel (03 Vector)) using a core return for 150.00. So opted that route. Still 600 if you want to get all four, I just needed one.

Your in the UK, I would check out Ronal... I believe they make the OEM rims, I know they did for the C900's. They have some excellent choices, sadly no longer sold in the US.

Before I went potholeing I was quoted £340'ish for all wheels refurbed by Thewheelspecialist.com, but adding tyres(falken 452's) would now bring that to £660.

Found another company pxwheels.com who will partx my wheels for the same type for £275, but tyres on top bringing it to about £600.

Then of course Ebay is full of 18" deals inc tyres from retailers for between £6&700.

And finally I found these 18" Saab "Claw" wheels from a stealership for £499(no tyres).

Looking at wheels and imagining is so much easier than actually deciding......

 

[Antho]

And for anyone thinking of a trip to Ireland, be warned:nono; this kind of road condition is surprisingly common!

 

[93nutter]

Cant you put a claim into the local gov... Claim some road tax back?

 

[Antho]

Cant you put a claim into the local gov... Claim some road tax back?

I will try, (have geotagged pics and think I may have a vid of a polo skipping over them), but claims process isn't as straightforward as the UK, added to that every local authority is pretty much broke at the moment.

 

[JBob]

The local council won't always pay up unless the potholes in question have already been reported to them.

With the increased number of potholes after this winter, it's also getting increasingly difficult to get them to pay out. I bent a rim on a collapsed drain many years ago, and getting them to pay up involved lots of phone calls, paperwork and repair quotes from various garages. They don't like to make it easy :roll:...

 

[Cosmicflash]

IMO it depends on what the refurb will cost.... are you going to have the wheels "re-furbed" or get refurbed wheels with a core return? Here, I can get a refurbed 17" wheel (03 Vector)) using a core return for 150.00. So opted that route. Still 600 if you want to get all four, I just needed one.

Your in the UK, I would check out Ronal... I believe they make the OEM rims, I know they did for the C900's. They have some excellent choices, sadly no longer sold in the US.

Jon how did you go about finding a place that offers refurbished wheels for your Saab?
I've got 2 mildly bent wheels (enough to drive me a little nuts) and was just going to get 4 new aftermarkets for maybe $110 ea.

As the tire shop said the aftermarket would be cheaper and easier to replace if you do damage any in the future.