# Terrible Experience Avant Garde Wheels



## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

I spent $900 on a set of M310 Avant Garde Wheels for the GLI back in August and thought they were beautiful. However now I've been noticing that the clear coat is peeling off. I didn't understand how this could be considering they only have a couple thousand miles on them and were cleaned properly so I took them to local paint shop that I know paints wheels. He assured me that the surface wasn't prepped properly before the clear coat was applied. At this point I went back to who I bought them off of (not releasing any names as of now) and sent pictures of each wheel. They contacted Avant Garde which basically told them... "If it was one wheel it would be a different story but considering it's all 4 something else is wrong." So at this point I don't know what the hell to do. I've invested $900 into these wheels that have a crap paint job and nobody wants to take any responsibility for it. :banghead:

Here's the wheels...








There's even more than that however I'm trying to keep this short.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Got an email back from avant garde and they claim they never told the re-seller that they wouldn't take the wheels for warranty. :facepalm::screwy: I'm getting really sick of vendors throwing me through a loop.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Now I'm suppose to ship the wheels at my expense to Avant Garde to have them checked out. If they decide they will take them for warranty they will ship new ones back to me at their expense. If not they will ship at my expense. So basically I'm going to pay $50 for dismounting the tires. Probably another $20 per wheel to ship. AG is going to get them and tell me its my fault so another $20 again per wheel charged to me to ship back. :screwy: :facepalm: This is utterly ridiculous. I would receive better service by taking them to small claims court and getting my money to have the wheels repaired.

Isn't the seller suppose to be taking responsibility in this?


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## vasillalov (Nov 5, 2003)

I am sorry for your bad experience. You do indeed get what you pay for. You paid for cheap wheels, you got cheap wheels.

You should see the horror stories in the BMW forums about Avant Garde and Miro wheels. Sorry, but you are way better off with a nice set of BBS wheels.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

vasillalov said:


> I am sorry for your bad experience. You do indeed get what you pay for. You paid for cheap wheels, you got cheap wheels.
> 
> You should see the horror stories in the BMW forums about Avant Garde and Miro wheels. Sorry, but you are way better off with a nice set of BBS wheels.


$900 is not cheap? $450 - $500 is cheap for wheels which can be had from Ebay (and even those I haven't seen clear coat peel off in such a short period of time.) If anything $900 is midrange. These wheels are not at all cheap, the quality is great. The surface just wasn't prepped properly before the clearcoat was applied. If you can show me some of those threads I would be grateful considering I'm being told they sold hundreds of these without problems.


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## shazzam (Feb 15, 2010)

just curious did u ask the shop u took them to about what they would charge to redo the clear? it might b cheaper than sending them plus unmounting and remounting? then send the bill to those jackholes, 
i do agree 900 is mid range tho


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

shazzam said:


> just curious did u ask the shop u took them to about what they would charge to redo the clear? it might b cheaper than sending them plus unmounting and remounting? then send the bill to those jackholes,
> i do agree 900 is mid range tho


This is what I was thinking. It should only cost around $200 to redo the clear, I can't see it costing much more.


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## shazzam (Feb 15, 2010)

travis_gli said:


> This is what I was thinking. It should only cost around $200 to redo the clear, I can't see it costing much more.


i would think thats ur best bet:thumbup: sadly people wont stand behind there product going through kinda the same thing with a company that mounted tires on newly powdercoated rims but after yelling at them for about half an hour they said theyd pay to get them fixed


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Just for an update on this. I'm not sending them back to AG. Rather keeping them, letting the clear coat peel off all it wants and possibly selling them in the near future. I will never buy AG wheels ever again. They are nice wheels, beautifully designed and machines however why the hell they would ruin them with a sh!t paint job beats the hell out of me.


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