Wheels are probably the single most visible styling statement of a vehicle next to it's overall shape and colour - - it has often been said that wheels make the car. At the very least the wheels of the vehicle are very visible and are the perhaps the easiest visible change that a vehicle owner can make to personalize a vehicle. 

Now having stated all the obvious lets get down to the nitty gritty.

The after-market is full of choices for wheels if anyone has been to an after-market trade show you know what I mean, you wonder where all this product comes from and where it all goes perhaps " they" dump them in the ocean to make new Islands or something because there can't possibly be that many sold. Well there are thousands made and thousands sold and like anything else "you get what you pay for" there is a difference in quality so the buyer has to be aware of what they are purchasing . The intended use cycle is what matters most.

The use or duty cycle that the wheel sees of course is the a direct reflection on the type of driving that the car experiences. If the car is mainly used on the track then usually the goal is to get the lightest wheel possible to reduce the mass of the components that have to articulate over the road surface is always a benefit to the vehicles potential performance but if the wheel flexes it could adversely affect the handling of the vehicle and the loss could be more than the benefit gained from the weight reduction . It could also be at least slightly inconvenient if the wheel breaks from flexing too much, (beyond the capabilities of the material that the wheel rim is made from). If the wheel just has to roll down the 4 lanes every morning to work (at a blistering 50 k) and once in a while get up to highway speeds on weekends or late at night then the duty cycle is pretty mild in comparison to the track use and having the ultimate strongest lightest wheel on the market is not that critical What the wheel is made of and how it is made has a lot to do with it's strength and weight. 

Back in the budding times of the auto when the term horseless carriage was the rage, car wheels were made the same way that carriage wheels were made, usually some wooden spokes of some sort with metal reinforcing. As more strength was required the content of metal went up until the all metal wheel was the standard. The spoked design stayed around because of the way that the basic configuration of the spoke gave good strength with minimal material use - - most of today's designs are modifications of the original spoked wagon wheel and spoked bicycle wheel. Somewhere along the way other materials were used to enhance the strength/weight aspect of the wheel. As usual the development centered around racing and the quest for performance. A very stiff strong and light weight material called magnesium was used for wheels some years ago and the term "MAG" wheel stuck. The term is used a lot of times to describe any sporty looking wheel no matter what it is made of. Magnesium - - although stiff and strong is very susceptible to corrosion -- pure magnesium will literally corrode while you look at it. In fact pure Mag shavings when mixed with water reacts quickly enough to create Hydrogen gas (which is highly explosive). There are a multitude of alloys of Magnesium that are available however -- this is when different other metals or elements are mixed with the base metal to change its properties. So its not like your wheels will explode while the car is sitting in the driveway the next time it rains. Most applications of Magnesium wheels over the years has been reserved for aviation or racing. 

Recently there are coatings and alloy combinations that have made it possible to have a wheel that will stand up to the elements of the street but they tend to be expensive partially due to the extra processes needed to help stave off the damage of corrosion. The next lightest material that has similar strength to Mag is aluminum and a lot of factory wheels on vehicles are made of aluminum (when they aren't steel) especially passenger cars. This material is a good durable material for a wheel and it is substantially lighter than steel so there is a performance advantage potential - - - we say potential because they are not always lighter when they are large diameter and have thick stylish spokes some can weigh as much as a steel wheel but the appearance factor enters into the picture here and there is no contest when the alternative steel wheel needs a plastic or chrome wheel cover to attempt to dress it up. At this point in time Aluminum is the most versatile and cost effective material for wheels when you add in the styling issue. 

Are all aluminum wheels created equal ? No there are huge differences in both the process and the alloy content of the metal of the wheels on the market . The OE wheels tend to be made stronger and are made of better alloys than a lot of the cheaper after-market product. (this is liability generated effort ) There are standards that wheels have to be manufactured to. The standards that a car manufacturer has to meet are much higher than what an after-market wheel manufacturer has to meet. The OE has to make something like 300,000 cycles on a dynamic lateral loading test and the after-market only needs to pass approximately half to get DOT approval. Not all after-market wheels have DOT approval, it is not actually a requirement to sell wheels (for passenger cars). The other type of approval is TUV which is the German DOT . Companies that want to sell product in Germany have to have this rating on their product -- but even some that have approval for Germany for some of the product - - don't have a TUV approval for product sold outside of Germany. I guess when you boil all of this down you get what you pay for and you have to do a little research on who made the wheels if you want some assurance of some reasonable quality. 

If appearance and price are the only criteria the wheels probably shouldn't experience the duty cycle of the race track or your experience is liable to be a bad one. If you are buying for the street then the overall strength may not be the #1 concern but the advice would be to stay with a name brand that you recognize if you want to ensure some quality. If you are in the habit of hitting big potholes at speed and jumping railway tracks and curbs with low profile tires then you probably will bend a wheel no matter who made it or what material the wheel is made of (that's why off road vehicles have more balloon shaped tires to absorb the impact) If you are putting on snows the factory wheels are just fine in steel or aluminum, some people like to look for a cheap set of steel wheels for the snows to save the fancy wheels for the summer rubber - - if you don't care about the appearance for the winter this is an excellent plan - - it also affords you the flexibility of just installing the wheel as a mounted unit in spring and fall rather than going through the pain and expense of mounting and remounting the rubber on the rim.

When talking to people in the after-market the single biggest problem they have with wheels is inappropriate sizing and fitting. It is essential that the wheel fits the car, the offset, and width, must be correct. The offset is the in and out positioning of the wheel in relation to the bolt up surface. It is obvious if the tire is rubbing on the fender lip or on the strut or any other part of the suspension that this could be really wrong but a slight change in and out will make the car feel differently. You may end up with the car wanting to follow all the cracks in the pavement on the highway or not wanting to negotiate corners. The handling was better before the installation of the hot looking product that you just had installed because you couldn't get that picture out of your head that you saw on the cover of the latest publication and had to have them.  

Now what ?? Don't always blame the product! Remember it is a big compromise and when you change one thing other things are effected. What this means is that the alignment of the vehicle might have to be set slightly different than is says in the factory specs in order to compensate for the different input that this new wheel and tire combination needs. The factory spec's are generated based on the wheels and tires that they installed -- if you do something different you may have set things up differently in order to take advantage of the parts you are using. So the fast talking cheap tire and wheel place may have the best price for the same product but if you are going to change one of the dimensional parameters then you might be better purchasing through someone who can re-adjust your suspension to suit even though it costs a bit more for the wheels it may be worth it in the long run. 

Balancing is another issue the same is true of the balancing and installation of the wheel as the wheel itself , some shops are definitely better at this than others. If you have a vibration on the steering wheel after the install of the new wheels that wasn't there before then squawk -- if you have invested in at least a reasonable level of quality wheel and tire they should run as smooth as the factory stuff when you picked up the car new or better depending on your dealer - they are not all created equal either and just because they sell the product doesn't mean they are experts at fixing them - - pick a dealer or shop where they like what they sell and care how the product runs.  

Another factor that may enter into the picture is that some cars do not have adjustments on the suspension so if the hot appearing wheel package is what you have to have then you may nave to live with whatever handling changes or deficiencies that show up after the fact. Having said that, sometimes the change in the vehicles handling characteristics is the goal along with the appearance, and if this is the case then great!