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Light alloy wheels

2219 Views 7 Replies 3 Participants Last post by fiesta, Mar 16, 2005

fiesta

Discussion Starter · Mar 12, 2005 (Edited)

I've given an order for E90 3 20d from german market. Since in my country, we pay taxes %110 for new cars so every accessory I add on the car costs a lot of money. I decided not to put any light alloy wheels and get the standar. They told me the standard is 16" steel wheels with plastic covers.

Does anybody have a picture of these wheels...
Do you think I should pay and upgrade the wheels?
Do you guys think 16" wheels are enough for this car?

Or else, I am thinking to buy wheels from the local market and sell the cuirrent ones. Do you think it will cost me more if I do it like that to save from the taxes.

PS- light alloy wheels upgrade 16" costs arounf 500-800 euros.
upgrade to 17" costs 1400 1600 euros. Dont forgget to add the high taxes.

Also if Im gonna change it later, I would need larger tyres since it would have 16" tyres.
Are these new run flats expens've?

Can we also use another brand wheels on bmw cars?

What do you guys recommend for me to do?

Thanks

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1 - 8 of 8 Posts

Donnalee

· #2 · Mar 12, 2005

It is usually cheaper to upgrade the wheels when ordering than after you have the car

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Rob325_in_AZ

· #3 · Mar 14, 2005

fiesta said:
I've given an order for E90 3 20d from german market. Since in my country, we pay taxes %110 for new cars so every accessory I add on the car costs a lot of money. I decided not to put any light alloy wheels and get the standar. They told me the standard is 16" steel wheels with plastic covers.

Does anybody have a picture of these wheels...
Do you think I should pay and upgrade the wheels?
Do you guys think 16" wheels are enough for this car?

Or else, I am thinking to buy wheels from the local market and sell the cuirrent ones. Do you think it will cost me more if I do it like that to save from the taxes.

PS- light alloy wheels upgrade 16" costs arounf 500-800 euros.
upgrade to 17" costs 1400 1600 euros. Dont forgget to add the high taxes.

Also if Im gonna change it later, I would need larger tyres since it would have 16" tyres.
Are these new run flats expens've?

Can we also use another brand wheels on bmw cars?

What do you guys recommend for me to do?

Thanks

You're already paying a lot for the car. My advice is don't compromise on this. You're car will still be expensive even with the cheaper wheels, and you may not be satisfied with it.

As was pointed out, it will be cheaper to do it this way than to upgrade later.

(Disclaimer, I don't know the exact euro to dollar conversion, so I am not exactly sure how much these wheels are going to cost)

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fiesta

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 14, 2005

thank you for your thoughts but the thing is if I buy it with the car, I have to pay 100% tax, because we are paying 100% tax for new cars. But if I buy it later, Then I just pay the VAT which is 18%. Thats why I was planning to purchase the wheel later...?

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Rob325_in_AZ

· #5 · Mar 15, 2005

fiesta said:
thank you for your thoughts but the thing is if I buy it with the car, I have to pay 100% tax, because we are paying 100% tax for new cars. But if I buy it later, Then I just pay the VAT which is 18%. Thats why I was planning to purchase the wheel later...?

Well in that case, it sounds like your factory installed wheels would be twice as expensive (roughly) compared to aftermarket. I haven't priced it out, but if the prices are available from your local dealer you could actually run the numbers both ways and see if it makes more sense to buy the 'good' wheels with the new car or buy them separately. If you run the numbers for adding them on later, make sure you include the labor cost, for mounting and balancing 4 tires. I suppose you could sell the originals but I don't know how much trouble you want to go through with that.

I stand by my original point which is if you'r spending this much on a car, you should make sure you get it exactly like you want it.

Good luck!

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fiesta

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 16, 2005

thanks for sharing your thoughts. This last moment I dont want to modify my order to prevent any delays. so I guess i ll be getting a wheel cap

I ll see what can I do when i get the car. Either put a 16 inch to not buy new tires or buy 18inch with new tyres depending on the prices and my ability to sell the current ones.

One last question...

Can I put another brand wheels on the car?
Does it have any bad effect, like decreasing performance or corruption on engine or mechanics?
I ve heard that there are different type of wheels. What type of a wheel should I consideer?

Thank you...

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Rob325_in_AZ

· #7 · Mar 16, 2005

fiesta said:
thanks for sharing your thoughts. This last moment I dont want to modify my order to prevent any delays. so I guess i ll be getting a wheel cap I ll see what can I do when i get the car. Either put a 16 inch to not buy new tires or buy 18inch with new tyres depending on the prices and my ability to sell the current ones.

One last question...

Can I put another brand wheels on the car?
Does it have any bad effect, like decreasing performance or corruption on engine or mechanics?
I ve heard that there are different type of wheels. What type of a wheel should I consideer?

Thank you...

(Disclaimer: I have never purchased aftermarket wheels myself. )

1. Yes you can put other brands of wheels on your car. I don't know if there are any kind of warranty issues this would void.

2. The performance issue is mostly related to the weight/size of the wheel, not brand. Bigger wheels have lower profile tires and this helps with fast cornering. However as the wheels get bigger, they tend to get heavier and this decreases acceleration, gas mileage, etc. Of course the other issues include asthetics (bigger wheels will probably look better on this bigger 3-series) and durability (more trouble with potholes, etc).

3. As to what type you should consider, I would look at the size of the wheels that would have come with the car if you had ordered the sport-package and mimic those. The car has been engineered to perform best with those sizes. Even if you order non-BMW wheels, I would get those sizes that would have come with the car in sport-package.

My personal preference if I was doing this would be to buy the BMW wheels, but that's because I don't have experience with others and I trust BMW. From what you've said, even if you order these later, you avoid the 100% tax.

All of that said, I'm sure there are others on this board can give you other input regarding aftermarket wheels.

Whatever you choose, congrats on your new car!

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fiesta

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 16, 2005 (Edited)

Thanks for your answers. I ll see how it looks in 16 inch whells, hopefully good.

based on your answers, my first choice will be original BMW but if there is going to be huge price difference, then I ll go for other brands and consider the weights. and I try to mimic the 18 inch wheels sucn has style 162 (standard in 3 30i)

What do you guys think about BMW replicas? Are they going to give me the same results?

Also we have very bad roads (bumpy roads) here from time to time. Do you think 18 inch is too much?

IF not and original 18 is too expensive, I ll go with other brands. If any of you have opinions about other brands and types it should be, I would love to hear them.

Again thanks for all your helps till now.

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