[Mr.Woolery]

The custom ordered Watanabes arrived today from Adrenaline Racing...

The Good:
-They look pretty good, have a nice deep banana spokes, and the gold color of the wheels looks as I'd hoped.
-They're very lightweight for a 16x8 wheel (made of magnesium). They weigh 14lbs. each on a postal scale.

The Bad:
-The order took MUCH longer than initially promised. The original wait time was supposed to be 6 months, but the wait ended up being 11 months.
-The wheels were really fucking expensive.

The Ugly:
-The wheels were ordered with a custom hub bore to be hubcentric to the Miata hub. They aren't, and the wheels will require hubcentric rings to be properly sized. Either Adrenaline Racing didn't place the order with Watanabe properly, or Watanabe didn't make the wheels with the proper hub bore. I paid for this option, but didn't get it.
-Despite Watanabe's assertion that they would, it doesn't look like they'll work with a BBK. Judging by some basic measurements, the hub will interfere with the calipers. Hopefully some fitment testing will prove me wrong.

Overall, I am left ambivalent about the purchase. For the amount I paid, I would've expected the wheels to be as ordered. I didn't get that. :|

 

[Betrayed]

damn.....that sounds like a LOT more bad than good.....and its not the bad that you can really just shrug off and live with......someone owes you their arse in my opinion :evil:

 

[Greg G]

Sorry to hear about your problems. The wheels look great, but if that's not exactly what you ordered, some explanations should be made... :?

 

[ExHondaMan]

Wow, what's Eddie's excuse?

Nice shoes, btw

 

[tetsuyagarage]

yes i would be pretty sour too if i paid for certain things and never got them...the wheels look sexy though

 

[Bryan]

Sorry, man...

 

[Matt [exz3owner]]

oh man. Sorry to hear that David. I remember when you ordered them. Hell, we went back and forth for months about them before I ordered my similarly sized wheels. If they don't clear the brakes what will you do? run spacers?

 

[jesseclee]

Mmm, sounds like all the custom work you asked for didn't happen.... Eddie should have some responsibility in this since he is the vendor.

what BBK are you using and how is it interfering?

 

[JDMAflac]

im guessing you paid 2400+ alone for just the wheels. hopefully everything goes well somehow

 

[Mr.Woolery]

@ Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:53 am]oh man. Sorry to hear that David. I remember when you ordered them. Hell, we went back and forth for months about them before I ordered my similarly sized wheels. If they don't clear the brakes what will you do? run spacers?

If it turns out that they don't fit, I'll be forced to make the choice of either trying spacers or forego the BBK if I want to use these wheels. That'll be a tough choice to have to make. One of the reasons I ordered these was so that I'd have the right offset/width wheel & not have to use spacers to get there. If that isn't the case, the value of these wheels are diminished for me and I'll most likely sell them...expensive lesson learned.

 

[OneSimpleRoadster]

Sigh, Adrenaline Racing at it again...

 

[Stealth97]

Those Are the kind of fitment problems that I might expect from a set of used wheels, but theese?

I'm sure eddie will take care of it.

 

[frankthetank_86]

F U C K that man i would have someones head on the chopping board that **** is just unexcusable, he needs to either get you you're money back or something.

 

[Greg G]

Guys, let's try to help solve the problem, not add fuel to the fire. Slagging Eddie without knowing all the facts isn't what Mr. Woolery would want either.

 

[timallen]

Thanks Greg.

Also, Eddie IS a member and prospective sponsor here, so let's give him a chance to respond without all the negative comments, please.

 

[roadsternut]

Thanks Greg.

Also, Eddie IS a member and prospective sponsor here, so let's give him a chance to respond without all the negative comments, please.

So if he wasn't a prospective sponsor, then the allowed response would be different?

The rule should be the same for all; no negative public debate on any vendors, commercial or private members.

 

[boogie van]

I think this just boils down to what happened a few months back with mx5roadsters over in the UK.

Yea it sucks when an order gets mixed up, but at the same time, these parts are hard enough to get as it is, the last thing you want to do is start trash talking a vendor over the situation, because you may just lose the ability to get parts from them, making it just that much harder to get what you REALLY want.

 

[JDMC]

The rule should be the same for all; no negative public debate on any vendors, commercial or private members.

So then how do we help our fellow turners avoid these types of situations in the future? I am all for keeping it a mature conversation free of name calling, but people need to share their experiences with vendors whether it be good or bad.

 

[roadsternut]

The rule should be the same for all; no negative public debate on any vendors, commercial or private members.

So then how do we help our fellow turners avoid these types of situations in the future? I am all for keeping it a mature conversation free of name calling, but people need to share their experiences with vendors whether it be good or bad.

In practice, its difficult. One bad experience does not make a trader, plus it can turn potentially libelous, involving the owners of this site. Safer not to allow it really.

Perhaps the best way to rate tuners is through a table; scores out of 10, whatever, and avoid verbose commentary.

 

[freedomgli]

Many big name websites (CNet, Amazon, BizRate) allow user reviews both good and bad. The best ones have both a numerical rating and a memo field for comments. To be truly effective such reviews must be allowed yet moderated to remove inflammatory remarks, etc.