mec
11-21-2011, 12:30 AM
Over the summer I looked into getting some VMR v710's 19x18.5 hyper silver. Unfortunately they were sold out at every dealer and backordered from VMR. But I figured I could find another rim that I would like so I looked into where the design for the 710 came. I found that the design was pretty much identical, perhaps slightly less concavity to the hre p40.
So I looked up hre p40 replica companies. VMR of course came up, and among the other few companies that I found was AvantGarde. I found them for a good deal from a german specialist and high performance tuning shop in CA. I ordered the AvantGarde M310 in hyper silver, after discussing with the main salesman for a few days. He explained to me that though the AvantGarde website didn't show the correct measurements for my car, the design was new and they had not updated their page, but that they AvantGarde received their wheels from the same Taiwan manufacturer that VMR got their wheels from. So I went ahead and let the salesman put my order in, by the time I had bought my new b7 and sold my old one the wheels had been delivered. I opened one up to check them out and they looked great, real quality product and I was very excited about it.
The next day I took three un-open boxes and the open box as well as 4 tires to my local shop to have the wheels mounted on the tires and have my current wheels swapped out. When I returned I was disappointed to find that one of the wheels had a spec of black, like it had been hit and paint chipped off. I quickly confronted the technician who was working on my wheels. He explained that this was how he received the rims, I doubted it but let him explain. He showed me that the paint was slightly runny on some of the other rims and that there was another spot where the paint was chipped. These "chips" were tiny freckles but I was disappointed because I had just spent close to 1k on these rims and they were already damaged.
Unfortunately I began to realize that the technician was probably not lying, it looked like the rims had come poorly painted from the factory. I took it for a drive to see how the car felt. I got on the interstate and began to shake incredibly. My steering wheel was shaking, the headrests were visibly displacing by a an inch at least, and the shifter was shaking as well. I called the shop and asked them if they had aligned it correctly, they told me they had but if I had problems to bring it back and so I did. They were busy so I left the car and returned later, the same technician explained the wheels were correctly balanced and he had done nothing. He then explained that the wheels were not the perfect size for my car, I would need to get hub rings. So now I began to realize that I had badly painted rims and the salesman that put in my order was incorrect and did not order the correct size(I had asked him to order the hub centric size 57.1 I believe). So now I called him and he told me to find someone to measure the wheels hub and he would send me the rings for free. Of course its never that easy, shops don't work for free, so I went to big O tires, and the employee made it very clear to me that he would be happy to measure the car but he would absolutely not tell me the size and I would have to order through him. In the end it was only like $11 so I didn't mind, the car drove much better and I put everything behind me.
Now that I have been driving with these rims for almost 5 months I realize what poor craftsmanship they have.
1.) The paint is terrible, it looks great but it cracks and breaks and falls off so easily, this is just daily driving, I'm not driving on dirt roads.
2.) The lug nut sockets are too small. I don't know if VMR is the same but the OEM car lugnut wrench in the trunk scrapes the inside of these sockets, and the paint is all chipped and peeled off from having my wheels removed for suspension. I bought a set of OEM audi wheel locks, and the key did not fit into the socket, I had to take it into a machine shop to have the key cylinder cut down to fit inside the wheel lugnut socket. As a result the key broke, and it was a PITA the get the wheel locks out.
3.)The paint job is terrible, again. I don't know if these rims are really the same as VMR and just painted somewhere else, but this point deserves two rants, not only does it come off easily, but when you get close to the wheel you can tell it is painted poorly and there are runs in various areas.
4.)These rims gather so much dirt. There is always dirt trapped in these rims, and it takes like 50 mins to clean them well. Even tried wheel wax, but the design keeps dirt in the spaces very well.
So now I'm looking at spending even more money to have them repainted next year, but have learned alot of lessons, and I hope this thread can be of help to future wheel buyers.
Lessons learned:
Buy from reputable businesses who know what they are talking about and have data to prove it.
Jumping into a purchase isn't worth it, wait as long as it takes so you can buy quality products.
Avoid ordering on-line from businesses if possible, its easier to work with the businesses in your area.
Check the condition of your purchases when you get them in the mail.
ALWAYS make sure everything will work how you intend it to, don't buy wheel locks when you havent tried them on your wheels.
Be prepared for things to go wrong.
I hope the quality of the VMR's are different but for anyone considering buying the AvantGarde M310's I would definitely discourage you from doing it.
So I looked up hre p40 replica companies. VMR of course came up, and among the other few companies that I found was AvantGarde. I found them for a good deal from a german specialist and high performance tuning shop in CA. I ordered the AvantGarde M310 in hyper silver, after discussing with the main salesman for a few days. He explained to me that though the AvantGarde website didn't show the correct measurements for my car, the design was new and they had not updated their page, but that they AvantGarde received their wheels from the same Taiwan manufacturer that VMR got their wheels from. So I went ahead and let the salesman put my order in, by the time I had bought my new b7 and sold my old one the wheels had been delivered. I opened one up to check them out and they looked great, real quality product and I was very excited about it.
The next day I took three un-open boxes and the open box as well as 4 tires to my local shop to have the wheels mounted on the tires and have my current wheels swapped out. When I returned I was disappointed to find that one of the wheels had a spec of black, like it had been hit and paint chipped off. I quickly confronted the technician who was working on my wheels. He explained that this was how he received the rims, I doubted it but let him explain. He showed me that the paint was slightly runny on some of the other rims and that there was another spot where the paint was chipped. These "chips" were tiny freckles but I was disappointed because I had just spent close to 1k on these rims and they were already damaged.
Unfortunately I began to realize that the technician was probably not lying, it looked like the rims had come poorly painted from the factory. I took it for a drive to see how the car felt. I got on the interstate and began to shake incredibly. My steering wheel was shaking, the headrests were visibly displacing by a an inch at least, and the shifter was shaking as well. I called the shop and asked them if they had aligned it correctly, they told me they had but if I had problems to bring it back and so I did. They were busy so I left the car and returned later, the same technician explained the wheels were correctly balanced and he had done nothing. He then explained that the wheels were not the perfect size for my car, I would need to get hub rings. So now I began to realize that I had badly painted rims and the salesman that put in my order was incorrect and did not order the correct size(I had asked him to order the hub centric size 57.1 I believe). So now I called him and he told me to find someone to measure the wheels hub and he would send me the rings for free. Of course its never that easy, shops don't work for free, so I went to big O tires, and the employee made it very clear to me that he would be happy to measure the car but he would absolutely not tell me the size and I would have to order through him. In the end it was only like $11 so I didn't mind, the car drove much better and I put everything behind me.
Now that I have been driving with these rims for almost 5 months I realize what poor craftsmanship they have.
1.) The paint is terrible, it looks great but it cracks and breaks and falls off so easily, this is just daily driving, I'm not driving on dirt roads.
2.) The lug nut sockets are too small. I don't know if VMR is the same but the OEM car lugnut wrench in the trunk scrapes the inside of these sockets, and the paint is all chipped and peeled off from having my wheels removed for suspension. I bought a set of OEM audi wheel locks, and the key did not fit into the socket, I had to take it into a machine shop to have the key cylinder cut down to fit inside the wheel lugnut socket. As a result the key broke, and it was a PITA the get the wheel locks out.
3.)The paint job is terrible, again. I don't know if these rims are really the same as VMR and just painted somewhere else, but this point deserves two rants, not only does it come off easily, but when you get close to the wheel you can tell it is painted poorly and there are runs in various areas.
4.)These rims gather so much dirt. There is always dirt trapped in these rims, and it takes like 50 mins to clean them well. Even tried wheel wax, but the design keeps dirt in the spaces very well.
So now I'm looking at spending even more money to have them repainted next year, but have learned alot of lessons, and I hope this thread can be of help to future wheel buyers.
Lessons learned:
Buy from reputable businesses who know what they are talking about and have data to prove it.
Jumping into a purchase isn't worth it, wait as long as it takes so you can buy quality products.
Avoid ordering on-line from businesses if possible, its easier to work with the businesses in your area.
Check the condition of your purchases when you get them in the mail.
ALWAYS make sure everything will work how you intend it to, don't buy wheel locks when you havent tried them on your wheels.
Be prepared for things to go wrong.
I hope the quality of the VMR's are different but for anyone considering buying the AvantGarde M310's I would definitely discourage you from doing it.