Any opinions on these Sport Edition wheels?

[welby]

I'm gonna be due for new tires in the next few months and was checking out TireRack.com. I see they have these 18x8" Sport Edition CD wheels on closeout for $79 a piece, which IMO is dirt cheap. They actually dropped the price $20 each from about a month ago. I can get the wheels and a set of mounted and balanced tires (225/40R18 XL Kumho Ecsta AST)

for $667.08 shipped. That includes new lugs and everything.

 

 

Now, locally, tires in 215/45/17 are typically running about $100 each. After taxes, mounting, tire disposal fees other little misc fees they add on, I'm looking at around $489 just for new tires for the stock wheels.

 

If I go the Tirerack route, I'd basically be getting 4 new wheels for a whopping $44.52 a piece. Seems like kind of a no-brainer, I'm just undecided on whether I really like the style of wheel and how they'd look on a stock suspended car.

 

What do you guys think??

 

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1781/sewheelsuf2.jpg

 

http://www.tirerack.com/images/wheels/sportedition/swap/se_cd_bs_ci3_l.jpg

[fonts]

I'm not a big mesh wheel fan .... but I like them.

 

Colour looks good on the BSM.

 

For the price how can you go wrong???

[TSiWRX]

The Sport Editions I have, 17x7.5 +45, A7s style, have held up well, to our typical NE-Ohio winters. I'm on my second winter on them, now, and they haven't shown any cosmetic blemishes, nor have they been any problem, in terms of winter-roadway impact damage (225/45/17 tires, inflated to 39/37, cold, so yeah, that helps, too).

 

I bought them because sister AKLGT had a set of 17" ASA JH3s on her ABP LGT, which both cleared the STi Brembo take-offs as well as looked like they were 18s, visually.

 

Just remember the price that you're paying for them - they're not going to be perfectly finished. I had some ripples in the paint under the clearcoat, but heck, it's WINTER rims.

 

I saw a set of the CDs - albeit in all silver color/finish - at the local NTB, when I was having my Xi2s put on my factory LGT rims (for transplant to my wife's WRX). I thought that they looked nice. Also, again, remember what you're paying. Don't expect the nice curvatures and angles that you'd see with the BBSs that they're styled after, these bargain rims' spokes are quite "angular."