Bruzilla
Well-Known Member
Let me say, as many of you know, I'm old school. My frame of reference is if you need wheels, you've got stock, Cragars, slots, turbines, Keystone Klassics, or five or six other styles you found in the back of Hot Rod for $40 a wheel. But...
WTF is it with guys today and all these freaking wheels!
Seriously, I go on eBay to look for 1974 road runner parts and I get 37,000+ matches and 30,000 of them are auctions/sales for wheels! Page after page after page after page of wheels. And the problems don't stop there. I go on craigslist and an easy 60% of the car parts for sale are... these same damn wheels, except now they're being sold by the suckers who bought them new and they've learned the hard way that when you put these wheels on a car and try to sell it or trade it in, financiers only finance the value of a stock car, and if you've got $2,500 worth of wheels on a $10k car, the most the new buyer will get a loan for is $10k, so you're out $2,500 if you don't put the stock wheels on and try to sell the goofy aftermarket wheels separately.
Even worse is the manly hobby of cars and cruising has now become the equivalent of women's shoes and purses because now the ability of a used wheel to sell is no longer based on just size and mounting holes, but now no one wants "last year's style". As a result I not only have to see the add for "20" RIMS FOR SALE. AWESOME" for $2,000... I have to see it when the price goes to $1,750, then $1,500, then $1,200, then $1,100, and on down to $250. Now multiply those ads by a couple hundred and that's what craigslist has become.
And the topping on the cake is now that these chrome nightmare gotta-haves have captured so much of the market, lots of retailers have realized they can make money financing these wheels for pinheads, which now means the same thing that happened once cars could be financed in the 1970s is happening to wheels, and now I'm seeing sets of wheels, with no tires, selling for over $3,000!!! That's $3,000 for a set of "statement" wheels, plus another $500 to $1,000 for the huge tires you need to have to go on them, and since there are about a gazillion styles to fit every owner's tastes, few people want those wheels when the sucker tries to get rid of them. At least with a car you could expect to get 50% depreciation once you drove a mile. With these wheels it's more like 95%.
I think anyone who buys a set of wheels new today is just nuts because as saturated as the new market is, the used market is just as saturated and anyone who finances a set of these wheels is simply and utterly mad!!!
Rant off.
WTF is it with guys today and all these freaking wheels!
Seriously, I go on eBay to look for 1974 road runner parts and I get 37,000+ matches and 30,000 of them are auctions/sales for wheels! Page after page after page after page of wheels. And the problems don't stop there. I go on craigslist and an easy 60% of the car parts for sale are... these same damn wheels, except now they're being sold by the suckers who bought them new and they've learned the hard way that when you put these wheels on a car and try to sell it or trade it in, financiers only finance the value of a stock car, and if you've got $2,500 worth of wheels on a $10k car, the most the new buyer will get a loan for is $10k, so you're out $2,500 if you don't put the stock wheels on and try to sell the goofy aftermarket wheels separately.Even worse is the manly hobby of cars and cruising has now become the equivalent of women's shoes and purses because now the ability of a used wheel to sell is no longer based on just size and mounting holes, but now no one wants "last year's style".
As a result I not only have to see the add for "20" RIMS FOR SALE. AWESOME" for $2,000... I have to see it when the price goes to $1,750, then $1,500, then $1,200, then $1,100, and on down to $250. Now multiply those ads by a couple hundred and that's what craigslist has become. And the topping on the cake is now that these chrome nightmare gotta-haves have captured so much of the market, lots of retailers have realized they can make money financing these wheels for pinheads, which now means the same thing that happened once cars could be financed in the 1970s is happening to wheels, and now I'm seeing sets of wheels, with no tires, selling for over $3,000!!! That's $3,000 for a set of "statement" wheels, plus another $500 to $1,000 for the huge tires you need to have to go on them, and since there are about a gazillion styles to fit every owner's tastes, few people want those wheels when the sucker tries to get rid of them. At least with a car you could expect to get 50% depreciation once you drove a mile. With these wheels it's more like 95%.
I think anyone who buys a set of wheels new today is just nuts because as saturated as the new market is, the used market is just as saturated and anyone who finances a set of these wheels is simply and utterly mad!!!
Rant off.
