exel wheels from wheelmax

sweet3rdgen · Sep 4th, 2006, 09:19 AM

I have had a set of Exel wheels, which I purchased from wheelmax.com, for about 2 and a half years. They were inexpensive and looked great, but didn't hold up well. The rims I purchased were white. The painted coating was not very chip resistant. And the clear coat over the polished area wore off very quickly, leaving the polished area "blotchy".

Recently I had an accident where it appears that one of the rims "collapsed" during hard cornering. It is guessed that the rim had maybe a hairline crack (or possible defect) and maybe I hit a pothole or dip in the road just right. I have tried contacting wheelmax twice (exel doesn't have a web page) and I only the standard "we have received your email and will get back to you within 48 hours" message. Then I get no follow up. I would call this irresponsible and poor customer service. Someone could have been injured.

My advice would be to not purchase from wheelmax. The deal seems good at first but...

sweet3rdgen · Sep 8th, 2006, 01:42 PM

I have more to add to this. I emailed wheel max again yesterday to let them know how disappointed I am with their lack of desire to provide customer service, or even acknowledge the customer. What I received back was a statement like "car was in an accident, rim damaged, your problem not ours". Even though I have informed them that the accident was a result of the rim failure not the other way around.

sweet3rdgen · Sep 14th, 2006, 12:47 PM

Even more to add.

One of the members at chicagomaximaclub.net suggested that I google "wheelmax sucks". WOW!! I also did searches on "exel sucks" and a few more variations. I am not the only one with this problem. Almost every forum, from Acura to BMW to GTO to Mazda to VW, all have threads like mine. All have said that they had problems with customer service. I even found another about a rim shattering.

DO NOT BUY FROM WHEELMAX.COM!!!!!!!!

sweet3rdgen · Sep 18th, 2006, 05:47 PM

here are some pics

the rim

the tire with no signs of damage

and what a rim should do when hitting a curb hard

you can see in the first tire pic that there is no mark on the tire, where the second tire has actually blown.

sweet3rdgen · Sep 24th, 2006, 01:43 AM

found this site today

Rip-off Report.com - badbusinessbureau.com

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!! They already have other complaints.

captain_shrapnel · Sep 30th, 2006, 01:55 AM

Thanks for the heads up, I was considering the Exels but not anymore. Sorry to hear about the crap you're dealing with. I guess cheap wheels are not the place to save money, time to start saving for some OZ's.

sweet3rdgen · Oct 1st, 2006, 09:31 PM

If I can prevent even a few people from risking their lives (and the lives of their cars) then I am glad.