Sherwood06GT

With the plethora of wheels available for the Mustang GT and the huge range of prices available it is a confusing tale of which is good and which is bad and which is overpriced. There are many wheels available in the 159.00-259.00 range and I'm wondering what makes the ones for 500.00+ each so much better? Are the cheaper ones "cheaper" in regard to quality and safety? I'd rally like to put 9 and 10 inch wide, staggered, on my GT but don't want to spend high dollar. I also don't want to compromise safety. Feed back and opinions from those in the know would be appreciated.

CrazyAl

A lot of the wheels in the $149-259 category are just fine. They are typically made overseas, but they still must meet US standards. There is absoloutley nothing wrong with them, but then again they're nothing special either. They are comporable to OEM wheels as far as weight and quality goes.

When you start talking about expensive wheels, there's really two reasons why they are so expensive.

Some wheels, like Foose, are expensive simply becasue they have a fancy name stuck on them. You're paying for the look and the name, but they are no better than any other wheels from a technical standpoint. In fact, many of these "designer" wheels are very heavy and entail a performance LOSS.

Other wheels are expensive becasue they push the limits of the design and may be made with exotic processes and/or materials. For example, the Fikse racing wheels. While I'm sure the name has something to do with the cost, the main reason why people buy those wheels is the strength and the light weight.

Sherwood06GT

Thanks AL, your input is highly valued. I do believe that many times it is the name on the wheel that implicitly dictates the price. The average driving that most of us do, meaning not competitively on the track more than a few times, does not require the expensive wheels designed for just that sort of application. Wheels are probably much the same as cars are, the more expensive, the better (usually) they are, but not necessarily safer or higher in performance.

Other opinions are welcomed.

6xStang

unless you are into high tech superlight racing wheels for racing applications, wheels are all about style these days. Get what you like and can afford.

05gtdriver

I hear from a price to weight/strength ratio that the Steeda line of wheels are hard to match, although they're not to everyone's visual delight.........

natuning

All good questions. Here is my spin [IMG][/IMG] on it:
Example: American Racing, a huge wheel manufacturer with 2,000 employees worldwide and plants in the US and the Far East make very good quality rims because even the foreign products are made with U.S. standards. So you can spend $200 for a 17x9 American Racing Shelby Razor and have a very good quality rim. No compromise there. Crazy expensive rims like the Z50 from American Racing cost around $900-1,000/each because it's a chrome forged alloy rim. Another factor as pointed as pointed by CrazyAl is the marketing and the excessive price tag from Foose and the likes, who pretend to be the Cartier of the aftermarket industry.
Bottom line, I think as long as you stick to a BRAND NAME, you'll get more than decent quality.