I have had a set of Exel "speed" wheels on my Maxima for about two and half years. They were inexpensive and exactly the look I wanted. About a month ago, while taking a turn, one of the rims seemed to collapse. I have never seen a rim destroyed like this one. I have spoken with some mechanics who deal with alignments and they have never seen a rim destroyed this badly either. The rim, if you want to call it that, is now a hub and about five pieces of outer rim. It literally shattered. The rim breaking sent me sideways towards the curb causing me have an accident. The mechanics that I have spoken with have all said that it looks like the rim was either defective or had developed a hairline crack, and, while taking the corner, I must have hit a dip or pothole "just right".

I have tried to contact the dealer, WheelMax.com, a few times now and they have responded once, only after sending multiple emails, saying that they need more information before they could comment. I then told them everything that I know and gave full details of the accident. They have not gotten back to me. I get the "we have recieved your email and will be getting back to you within 48 hours" message. I cannot find a contact for Exel Wheels directly.

I am very disappointed with the customer service and their lack of desire to stand behind the product that they sell. Someone could have been seriously injured!

I am just frustrated and I thought maybe you all would want to know.

 

oh wow I was going to order exel wheels before my old maxima got totaled, good to know. Sorry to hear about your experience.

 

Oh, I have a new comment that I received today. I emailed them further explaining my disappointment with their willingness to stand behind their product or show customer service and I got back a "your car was in an accident, the rim was damaged, your problem not ours" statement. I clearly informed them that the accident was a result of the rim failing.

 

Mention to them that your insurance co. is getting ready to litigate this matter if they don't offer some kind of settlement.

 

Sue their assess if you have the time and money, don't wait.

 

good to know I almost bought some last year but bought mille miglia instead. Let your insurance co. handle it.

 

^ +1 to letting insurance deal with it... Sorry to hear about that! Glad you're ok, though. I've heard of the same thing happening to Primax wheels (the multi-spoke "swirl" from Wal-Mart).

 

I spoke with a friend of my sister today that used to forge aluminum. He said it looked like it may have been poured too cold.

Either way, I am not one of those "sue their asses off" people. But I am one of those "tell everybody my bad experience" kind of people.

My view is this, you can tell the quality of the product by the quality of the customer service. I quality manufacturer (or dealer) will stand behind their product, without hesitation. When Fiber Images accidently sent me the wrong hood, they quickly sent the right one and let me keep the wrong one to sell for my trouble. When I let Matt know that one of the Blehmco radius rods had bent he sent me another (not necessary or expected since it was a result not a fault). I offered, and wanted, to pay him but he would not accept it. That is good customer service.

I should not have to ask for a settlement, or threaten. Good customer service is taking the steps to make the customer feel confident in the product again. as the old cliche goes "one happy customer tells one other person, one unhappy customer tells ten or more". I am one very unhappy customer and I plan to tell the world.

 

Im not a sue their assess off kinda guy either, but you could have been going 70mph and flew into the path of oncoming traffic because of that. For that reason I think the company that made Excel should get it where it hurts, especially if you don't get satisfactory customer service after this. There might be several accidents waiting to happen out there.

 

Yea taht's what you get for buying cheap-o wheels from wheelmax, wheelmax makes them and they are actually copies of racing hart and volk and whatnot, very good looking, but NOT LP cast and heavy and i think they are made out of cardboard that is painted silver .... NEVER BUY EXEL, EVER, just type in google, EXEL SUCKS and you'll get like a 1 000 000 returns on that quote, ****ing wheelmax they make me sick....

 

yup, I learned the hard way to, when it comes to buying mods, you get what you paid for.......


Just make as many people as you can aware of the ****y product by posting it all over forums and anywere you can.

 

Take some pics of the destroyed wheel if you can.

 

That is kind of my plan. Let the world know. I am also asking everyone else to let others know my story. Alone I can only have a little effect.

 

Then I wold have this thread in the Dealership/Vendor forum.

 

I'd like to see pictures of the destroyed rim!

 

yep...thing like that happen all the time at the track

 

that just opened my eyes.
thanks for great info!

 

Pics would really drive home the point you're trying to make (hint)

 

I am working on some pics, it takes a while. I have to borrow a friends camera and getting his schedule and my schedule to agree is often difficult. As it is we barely get to see each other once per month.

 

some pics

the rim (or whats left of it)


the tire with no damage


normal curb damage

 

wow.. pretty surprising stuff. That thing literally crumbled. Poor brittle casting.

 

Damn, thats weak! Im not one to sue others either but damn, id definately make that company pay or something.

 

Yeah this is one of those times where the company should learn a lesson. Think of it this way, would you feel differently about taking legal action against the company if the wheel crumbling had resulted in you being in a head on collision where you were paralyzed?

That could happen to other people who have the same rims you got and whats going to stop a company from producing defective rims? Thats Knowing that producing defective rims will cost them more in court settlements and lawsuits than they saved by producing them cheaply and in a manner that is unsafe.

I am not a sue happy guy I feel lawyers are mainly leaches on the soft white underbelly of the justice system but in this case I would feel compelled to act on this. I am sure your insurance company will want to contact the manufacturer of the rims as well.

 

file a negligence claim!

 

Wow what a piece of ****...even the curba damage you call normal isnt normal. I whacked the curb at 55mph with my car a few months ago and got some pretty bad flattened metal spots on the rim but NOTHING like that whole section that is gone on your wheel. Holy ****!

 

found this site today and surprise! wheelmax.com is already on there

www.ripoffreport.com

 

I agree wholeheartedly with everything said here. I would whatever I could do to make them pay. They could have caused a complete disaster, and you deserve recompence for anything and everything that came because of this... plus maybe a little more.

 

WOW, HOLY SH!!!T. I did a google search of Exel wheels and i had no idea I was the only guy that has been screwed by wheelmax. It's a friggin' epidemic: those bastards are screwing everybody.

Hi guys, i just registered today so i can speak about my experiences on wheelmax. No i do not own a maxima, they are really good cars though and i like them. i actually own a modded 350z and last november i bought from wheel max.

my story is posted on my350z.com, but here is the link: http://my350z.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153061

anyway guys, 8 mos. later and those f$%kers never gave me back my money that they owed me for their mistake on my order. so all in all i paid for their mistakes and their fraud on my order. Oh, and this is icing on the cake, now my wheels are starting to flake. im just glad i came across this forum b/c i easily get into the triple digits in my Z. Now i now that these wheels are volatile and not too be trusted. I even went so far as to call a miami consumer lawyer but the whole damn thing started to drag and i lost energy cause i felt like i was fighting an uphill battle.

I say this b/c their customer service is run by a lady who is a major C.U.N.T (lydia)! And the owner/manager (diego i think is his name) is a douchei that started arguing and never even listened to me and he claimed the whole thing was my fault.

WARNING: WHEEL MAX EMPLOYEES ARE CON ARTIST!!! This is not an exaggeration. they completely frauded me and i paid literally twice in time and money trying to fix their f.u.c.k. ups.

I am planning on purchasing a set of SSR GT3's which are the real thing. It's expensive, but you can't put a price on your safety. dude (jon), i'm just gald you're well and not too seriously hurt.

 

I am looking into having a lab run a test on the remains of the rim. I spoke with a foundry that says they can reconstruct the rim to test the strength. It all depends on cost, it sounds real costly. If I can prove, without any question, that the rim was faulty, I am going to start litigation.

 

jon

when i was going through my bad exerience with wheelmax.com, i had asked the idiot sales man who sold me the wheels in the first place if wheelmax had ever been sued and he said "yes". but he also stated that wheelmax has never lost a case.

i honestly think you have a great case. who knows? maybe people who have sue wheelmax in the past did not adequately prepare for their case and/or had insufficient evidence. i think the lab test results will be proven definitely that wheelmax is at fault. man i hope wheelmax loses big time.

to this day i am still angry for how they treated me and took my money (and now my wheels are flaking off clear coat). again, i even tried to sue but it seems like no lawyer wants to mess with something that to them seems petty. now if i got injured like you did i would have an army of lawyers wanting to sue wheelmax since the ambulance chasers are always hungry for work. good luck bro.

 

I don't know why, with so many complaints, no one has not yet tried a class action suit.

 

Why reconstruct the rim? Couldnt you just comparre the density of a metal sample from your ruined rim to theother rims, or to a comparable new rim?

 

I don't know the details (being that I am not a metalurgust). That is the method that he told me. I think he knows more than I so I didn't question.