Chinese Wheels

Having produced a lot of high quality items in China, I have to agree with CWWHK. If the specs given to the manufacturer there are high and QC is properly adhered to, China is certainly capable of producing products of extremely high quality. It's down to the person who specifies what they build to which the blame lies. A lot of people think that China is not capable of making high quality product, but that's not the case. They generally build to a specification (or price) that is provided to them by the company they manufacture for. The old adage of garbage in, garbage out applies here.

 

Like I said no ignorance here, your entitled to your opinion, I'm glad you can speak Chinese good for you. You can buy all the Chinese stuff you want that's fine with me. I've worked with products done in China also and I don't agree with you. I'm not singling out just the Chinese (remember this started about Chinese wheels) I won't put anything on my vehicles that I feel is not up to par. If I have a choice between buying a wheel made in China or a BBS made in Germany I'll buy the BBS hands down. Take a look at that Chinese car they crash tested recently and failed miserably that should make you want to run right out and buy one. I think this is post that needs to stop here, the person that posted this in the first place can go right ahead and buy his wheels he's got enough info to make up his own mine.

 

China is a quarter of the world's population. That's a lot of businesses. Like any country, some are better than others.

But the potential issue is the disconnect from the world court system -- if there are warranty or liability issues, China is behind a barrier.


(Too many americans get their view of "Red China" from "Blood Alley" or "The Chairman". I think the Chinese gov was wrong to object to "Red Corner" -- it portrayed a diverse population, not a bunch of robots, waiving little red books. Pretending a large government doesn't have corruption is just stupid -- nobody's going to believe that.)

 

You hit the nail on the head.

The biggest problem really is that there is no recourse if the Chinese part fails. They are not carrying any US product liability insurance and Chinese law makes it practically impossible to sue a Chinese manufacturer. So knowing this, they generally take shortcuts in quality to keep costs down. This means inferior materials, inferior processes and little to no QC. In 99% of cases, I bet Chinese rims will be fine, but the other 1%..... I wouldn't want to be in the car.

Some things I'd have no problem using Chinese cheap knock-offs. Rims, tires, wheel bearings, hubs, steering columns/racks, etc, no way.

 

They have more, but they do not have better. In general, the ultra-high end of any market manufacturing resides outside of China - the USA, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, etc. China's specialty is low cost. They usually achieve that with low labor costs. Sure, you can ask for higher quality (and you pay more), but if you are looking for the high end stuff whether it be electronics, machining, etc, you sure won't find it in China!

And I source products from China every day too, love their business model overall, but to say they have better facilities (for end quality/precision) than we do in the US is laughable.

It is, however, very true that the notion that Chinese = cheap and therefore shoddy is equally laughable.

 

That's not true! I've toured R&D facilities in Shanghai and Shenzhen for Underwriter's Laboratories that are tops in the world. Why wouldn't they be? Do they not have the money? Do they not have the education? Poppycock!

 

Well, my point is that to base your opinion on the country of origin and not the design specs or the specific company you're dealing with is ignorant, and probably stems from something OTHER than just a search for quality.

 

I noticed that after all these highly interesting points Nobody here actually has any experience of these wheels ,which is i believe the original question. As usual we get all the i dont trust anything Chinese comments which are ill informed at best. There is no question that a lot of cheap crap comes out of China but thats true of every country in the world, but they also produce a hell of a lot of things that are the equal to anything you can buy from the squeeky clean countries.I have purchased precision engineering equipment that was every bit as good as the best the world has to offer.Sure they are behind on the legal comebacks that you all take for granted but then you do pay a third more for all your products just to cover the liabilities. The little Red book China is long gone get over it. Oh and i noticed that nobody got too upset when the Chinese government donated $1 billion U.S to your most famous university recently.And i would be prepaired to bet that 10 years from now not only will Chinese cars be common on roads around the world that one of them will be flashing his lights in your rear view mirror to get you to move over.

 

The University of Miami??? IF so, then why do I keep getting those fundraiser notices in the mail???

BT

 

This must be some kind of a joke thread.
No-one in their right mind would ever consider putting a wheel made in China on a Ferrari. That is the same China with no quality control, no accountability and so much corruption you could pass amlmost anything off as anything you want to call it? Isn't that the same china that leads the world in counterfeited goods such as DVD's? I'm sure that everyone here who does business in China loves it. What is not to love about profits? But quality? Let's get real.
This is the comedy section of F-chat isn't it?
Morris

 

The bottom line here is if you feel comfortable buying items that come from China go right ahead and buy it.

 

A search on Google finds nothing - Got a link?

 

I am a Mechanical Engineer, been working as a Machinery Engineer for the past 15 years. Our company, and all of our clients will not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES buy Chinese steel for structural use as the metallurgy is VERY inconsistant from lot to lot.

I would not recommend buying wheels manufactured from Chinese steel.

 

I seriously doubt he's looking at buying STEEL wheels!

 

I'm glad we have people posting here that deal in China, We can no longer afford to ignore them as business partners..

I also agree with the comments about performance specifications......

Let's keep on the track here about specific applications.......the trouble I have found is usually the fitment to the car.

Ferraris have an uncommon bolt pattern and offset in my experience. That's why you do not have many actuall users responding to this thread.

China DOES have some accountability as they just shot that guy in the head over the Food and Drug contamination.......that's accountabilty in my book.....of course, they have also lost a lot of customers around the world over issues like that...

I have the stock wheels on my Ferraris, made by Campagnolo, Speedline, and Chromodora.... and also run track wheels by Etoile and BBS.........

*shrugs shoulders*

If you pull over fast enough you can survive a wheel failure, but I had a friend flip his truck when a mag failed and we had to swim out into Galveston Bay to retrieve the beer keg flung from his truck bed.....

 

I would not recommend buying wheels made from Chinese steel for a Ferrari either, too much unsprung weight.

On the other hand, if you ever want to construct a nice building at your own personal F1 track then I can highly recommend Chinese structural steel as used on this impressive looking building at Shanghai.
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The hell with the truck... save the Shiner Bock!

 

And as much as I love Italian steel, I am sorry to report it does fail occasionally. I wonder if people driving Fiats around with steel wheels should start to worry?
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That is so true. Even OZ and BBS has very limited fitment for Ferraris.

 

i heard that most of the lips and wheel inner barrels on all high-end rims (HRE, Kinesis, etc..) are all made in china these days. only the wheel centers are made by the wheel companies themselves. someone correct me if im wrong please

 

[China DOES have some accountability as they just shot that guy in the head over the Food and Drug contamination.......that's accountabilty in my book.....of course, they have also lost a lot of customers around the world over issues like that...

One blown out back of the head does not a country of high quality goods make!!
Morris

 

Made in China does not automatically mean low quality.

It depends on who owns/runs the factory. My company has two factories in China and we produce high quality products that we sell around the world. Quality equal or better to our Mexico or US factories on a part by part comparison. We are fully ISO certified and have a global quality control system.

Now, admittedly, there are a lot of fly by night outfitters in China as well. We have to select our suppliers to the factories very, very carefully to avoid getting inferior or counterfeit product and we do not have any dock to stock programs as we have in North America. But the future of manufacturing is in China, unless you want to pay $150 for your US made blender. The continuous push for lower prices will push companies to go to China.

Sure, in the high end market you can still afford to build in the US or Germany, but in the low margin consumer business you can't compete unless you are in a low cost manufacturing environment.

 

Thanks, cwwhk, I just hated to see the broad generalizations vs. hard facts in the thread......

That's why I was trying to lighten it up a little, with the beer keg story..........it was one of those mags that looked like a turbine vane...darn thing sheared right off and left the center section bolted to the brake drum!

The keg was foamy for awhile, as well........

 

Surprisingly, the only wheels I have ever had fail on me (On the street) have been BBS wheels.....Hmmm!