Wait, what? There are people who actually spend ~a year's salary on a car? I understand why some people finanace a car instead of paying cash.. I don't agree with doing it, but I understand it. But a whole year of your working life on a car?

You spent 2 years barely able to make payments.. on a car? Wow

You guys are your own worse enemies, and you wonder why Volks, SSR's, TopSecret, etc.. are so expensive.... Its bc people in the US are lazy and instead of designing their own wheel or body part its easier to COPY.... It has lead for TopSecret to stop importing G37 parts to the US bc of replicas.

Over the the 350z vendor forum, 90% of the parts being sold are all replicas of Japanese companies and it irritates me. What I wish for is that people that buy these parts have something of theirs that they spent thousands in researching and designing just get swiped and copied and see how good it feels.

Im done buying replica sh!t and have slowly transformed my car to support the market and not hurt it. I would be embarrased to rock fake crap on my 40k plus car and proud to have real JDM/American made parts.

Another example: ARK Exhaust = HKS copy

^ rims are rims xD

:rolleyes: I really hope you dont think that these replicas are the same quality of a Volk rims.:icon14: And with that statement I take it you really have no clue on how the real ones are made:icon14:

^yea the reps are nowhere close to the originals xD but in the end there are more important things in life like feeding the family etc..

Wow. Jump down from the high horse much? There is only one question to ask yourself when buying products. Will this serve the purpose I want it to serve for the amount of time I need it to? If so, purchase. Plain and simple.

...Other than the canister with the resonator in the back the exhaust is still differently enough NOT to be a 'replica'

The tips are different, HKS is an H-pipe while ARK is X-pipe, so how are they replicas??? These wheels are replica's because they are damn near IDENTICAL but not authentic...

If ARK copied HKS - they sure as hell made it different enough to call it their own.

:wtf2:

if i can get the same wheels of the same quality for cheaper why would i want to spend more...that doesnt make economic sense...

but you're not getting the same quality, nor anything close to the same quality

all fine and well if you don't want a forged wheel, or a $3000 set of wheels...everyone gets to spend their money on what they want.

I have no problem with saying that $3k is too much to spend on a set of wheels, there are other priorities in life, etc. But I do think it's lame to spend money -- any amount of money -- on fakes. Let me put it this way. How much is a Rolex Daytona? $10k? More? Personally, I could never imagine spending that much on a watch. But that doesn't mean I'm going to run out and buy an imitation/counterfeit Rolex Daytona either. I'd rather get a genuine TAG Heuer (for example) than a fake Rolex. It's just a matter of self-respect, IMHO. My wife's the same way. She thinks Coach bags (and Dooney and Louis Vuitton) are way overpriced. So she usually goes for Aigner bags. She doesn't go buying Coach knockoffs, because like me, she thinks knockoffs are for poseurs who want other people to think they have something they don't really have. So when it comes to wheels, I'd rather buy authentic Enkei or Axis or TSW or whatever than fake Volks. That's just my :twocents:

Semtex, I understand your points, but I don't think people would be buying these wheels to pose (or act like they are having Volks). I think people would buy these wheels because they like the way they look - not status. The difference in your thoughts is everything you mention are status symbol items. I don't view wheels as a status symbol - I view them as something nice to look at (aesthetics). Now if people are buying them, because they want to 'brag' about having Volks, then I stand corrected (but that wouldn't be my reason). Everyone has opinions, I respect yours, but if I were to buy these wheels, I would buy them because I like the look, and they are the cheapest (and won't fall apart). Also, others talking about the quality differences, probably shouldn't make any assumptions unless you have done some testing and have data to prove it. And if you have that, great, I would love to see it, so if I decide to purchase these, that would help me make a decision. I am not saying these wheels are good quality or not - I just like the look in a bronze color on a white car - I could care less about the status symbol of Volk.

obviously this is a touchy subject...

however i agree with speedworks in that its not a status thing at all for me...

its about having the look i want in a wheel at a fraction of the price for the one that is out of my price range at this time...


as for quality...well thats open for debate...because we do need more data and it doesnt look like its readliy available...

Eh, I could go either way on this looks vs. status thing, I guess. If someone carried a counterfeit Louis Vuitton and said she just likes the way those bags look, it's not about status, what would your reaction be? I'm just thinking out loud. Like I said, I could go either way.

i wonder if the certications are real or not...

says on the craigslist site:

Certification: JWL/VIA

JWL Certification - Japan Light Alloy Wheel (JWL) standard is a certification level instituted by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport which requires that alloy wheels being purchased in Japan, must have the JWL mark on them thus showing the alloy wheels to have passed through a rigorous self-certification process.

VIA Certification - Vehicle Inspection Association (VIA) is a third-party group in Japan which can test and verify whether or not any alloy wheels can meet up to the JWL certification tests.

can this be true of cast wheels?

See, I think purses/bags are nothing but status symbols, and that people buy them for that vs the looks (some of them look absolutely rediculous to me). It's like buying houses - some spend tons of cash just to say they live in an area, when they could spend 1/2 in another area, and many times get a better house.