Be glad most enthusiasts are clueless, making this gem of a wheel dirt cheap. Get yourself another set as spare before price shoots up.

Oh it must be the gunmetal ones....the earlier silver ones don’t count....

We’ve had base vs sport, base vs Nismo, etc etc.....now we can have a base vs base debate!!!!

so far we've had the following arguments:

'the base wheels are good because bugatti'

'the base wheels are good because speed limits'

'the base wheels are good because road damage'

'the base wheels are good because, uh, my wife (?)'

and now we're at 'the base wheels are good because pandemic'

the objective fact is, they are not good.

if you, subjectively, like them, great. you don't have to justify that. except to your wife I guess, but she already likes them.

Yup. Tips for any single guys; do your shopping with a member of the opposite sex. This debate is so fun, lol...

Resisted in saying this, but....

My wife’s also rather clueless about cars, yet without waver, she picked the opposite for our first Z, and even more adamantly during our second Z purchase. In her words, “the base wheels are too vanilla, doesn’t match the car’s curve, too sunken, like having nice *** but anemic legs when looking from behind”.

And I honestly think Veyrons are really ugly, “bug” ugly.

Who cares....to Gordon Murray, everything is ugly except for F1 and T50 :roflpuke2:

Your first Z would have had the older versions of the wheels on sale at that time though right?

Her opinion remains the same through all years.

We purchased our second one in 19, same words from her.

Interesting. I just asked my wife now while she's eating breakfast why she liked these again more than the sport Rays. She said the other ones "look like Civic wheels". She said "these looked more sporty, they have a beautiful shine that you wouldn't expect from something so dark and they look like Lamborghini wheels"

Both female, very different views.

Trying to objectively discuss subjective views make good fun for a while.

Don't get me wrong I also personally like the sport Rays and their increased width and what that gives you for high-speed Autobahn runs. But for a base model car, where you stereo-typically get steel wheels with plastic covers, you can't deny Nissan gives you alot for a base wheel. I factory ordered my Z so I could have ordered a sport and would have loved the Akebonos and the revmatch but I am very pleased by how much car I got for such a small amount of money for a brand new sports car. Especially when compared to something like a Toyota 86 with just a 4-banger for the same amount of money in Canada. Heck it was $7k cheaper than a brand new base soft-top Miata.

Enjoy!

:facepalm: completely irrelevant. Opinions have nothing to do with scientific data especially when they are given by someone who is ignorant on the matter.

Let's say you have a double-blind trial about the performance of two different tires, and the scientific data previously collected by competent people clearly demonstrates that Tire A performs much better in the wet weather. If the majority of the people participating are "clueless" and think Tire B performs better in the wet that doesn't mean that Tire B is all of a sudden a better value. It has the same value and quality regardless of what those idiots said about it.

Sure you are talking about technical performance characteristics here. I 100% agree that the sport Rays are better for the Autobahn or the track. This thread was solely about how much aesthetics Nissan gives you for a lowly base wheel and after I brought my wife into this, about how said aesthetics are perceived by females.

If you are single, that hot, curvy girl you are trying to impress probably sees the world in the same way as my wife and is just as clueless. Zero consideration would be given to 'wheel fitment' and the like.

:rolleyes: the comparison you made in your op was absolutely not solely about aesthetics because you brought cost into the equation...

I used the terms design language and design ethos which their definition is solely about aesthetics. Design ethos literally means 'the spirit of the aesthetic design'. Cost was also part of the point. A base 370Z is 1.5% the cost of a Bugatti. And you get wheels in a similar asthetic design ethos to said Bugatti. Sounds like a good deal to me.

:icon14:

And you just proved mine...
Do you have a way to support your argument without using faulty logic? You don't get to say your argument was solely about aesthetics when you incorporate other factors in your argument.

Let's say I have a toothbrush that costs 1.5% of the cost of another toothbrush. What if the cheap toothbrush is made of toilet paper and disintegrates immediately upon use? Or what if that toothbrush costs $100 and is being compared to a $15,000 toothbrush?

Whether you like the aesthetics of the toothbrush has absolutely nothing to do with anything else other than your own personal tastes. So your wife thinking that the base wheels look better than the sport pkg Rays or Nismo wheels is nothing more than a reflection of her tastes. For you to extrapolate and promote that these are good wheels solely from that information is a red herring fallacy.