are style 47's worth it?

[rochey6957]

I recently decided to find a replacement wheel for the set that came on my brothers car. one rim was badly damaged and was taken to the scrap yard. My Dad put regular 15's on the car and the other three 17'' wheels went in to the shed. Thanks to some help on this forum i determined the wheels to be style 47's 8x17. They are not OEM wheels but are very similar in style and quality seems good.

The problems came when trying to locate said size style 47.The replica wheel is all but non-existent. The style 47 did come stock on the z3 coupe but in a 7x16 size. i tried contacting the dealer to see if they could search through their database for style 47 and give me the part number for the 8x17 variety. No, to do that id need the VIN the wheels came stock to or the actual part number. i began to consider finding a shop to remake a wheel from one of the remaining wheels. Luckily i found the correct part number for the wheel. the wheel didnt come as an option for US cars only European. so i called the dealership to see price on the wheel. $329 for one wheel!

i did not order the wheel yet and am seriously considering if i should. for a little more i could find a decent set of 4 rims but on the other hand... how many people are actually running style 47's? as far as i know 1 person has them on a ti but in the 7x16 size.

I really do like the wheel style but the ones i have would need to be refinished.

What do you guys think? Go for it and be one of a very few to run style 47's on a US e36 let alone ti? or just leave them and find another set of 17's somewhere else.

Here are some pics of one of the wheels.




link to oem pic
http://www.k-lach.net/

[cooljess76]

meh, I don't think they're all that great. If you did get the OEM wheel, you'd have 3 reps and one real one. They might not be an exact match and that would be kinda lame. Put that $329 towards the wheels you REALLY want, don't just settle for something because it fell in your lap

[rochey6957]

i know what you mean but the thing is i dont know what rims i like exactly. If i knew of a rim i loved i wouldnt even be considering the $329 for just one. i dont like the m contours at all and everyone does the style fives. i like style fives but i dont think id every buy a set. i have bottlecaps and hate them. but the stock style 18's i like cause the are a clean five spoke. i like these cause they feel like an extension of the style 18 five spoke that looks just a little more aggressive. and i cant really see spending crazy money for bbs rims. they are nice but i cant afford that.

I've still got some more pondering to do lol

[Mr.Squeelerz]

I don't think they look all that bad, but as Jesse points out, the scenario you are contemplating would likely yield lame results... and ultimately wasting money. I picked up a set of darned cool BBS's for not much more than you are willing to spend on one wheel. Think about it.

It's not even spring yet. You got plenty of time to figure out a better plan.

[cooljess76]

By "Everyone does Style 5's", do you mean the hundred or so people on the internet? People do it because it looks damn good, and they're cheap OEM wheels that are readily available should one ever become damaged. Putting parts on your car simply because nobody else has them is a backwards way of doing things. I'm pretty sure nobody has painted a ti turd brown yet, but I wouldn't want to be the first. FWIW, any OEM wheel will look better than a mix matched set of reps. But hey, that's just my opinion.

[Monkfish]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

By "Everyone does Style 5's", do you mean the hundred or so people on the internet? People do it because it looks damn good, and they're cheap OEM wheels that are readily available should one ever become damaged. Putting parts on your car simply because nobody else has them is a backwards way of doing things. I'm pretty sure nobody has painted a ti turd brown yet, but I wouldn't want to be the first. FWIW, any OEM wheel will look better than a mix matched set of reps. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Agreed. Also DS1 and DSII are a good OEM option. Search your local craigslist for "bmw wheels 17" and lots of nice wheels come up. It just takes a little sorting through.