Alloy Aluminum and Magnesium Tire Wheels/Rims for Cars Worth getting for cheaper lowend cars?

froggyboy604

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Alloy aluminum and magnesium wheels for an average cheap car can be worth it if you use your car as a taxi or limo where a customer may pick a nicer looking taxi with nicer looking alloy wheels rather than steel wheels which are more basic looking. Alloy wheels are good for amateur car racing where better handling lightweight alloy wheels can help you win a car race like a drag race. Alloy wheels increases your car's chance of wining 1st place in a car styling and customization contests where you win a prize for having the best looking car at the contest. Alloy wheels also look better than most steel wheels.

Aluminum and Magnesium wheels may help your car save gas or electricity in electric cars because they are more lightweight metals, but some aluminum wheels to use more gas because the wheel is heavier because it has more metal to increase the durability of the wheel, so a light metal like aluminum can hold up the weight of heavier car. Using more metal make the wheels look higher quality and have a custom wheel pattern, so buyers think they are worth the high price of hundreds to thousands of dollars. Star and spoke pattern on alloy wheels are less aerodynamic than a steel wheel with a solid disc style hub cap with no holes or very few cooling holes.

Lightweight alloy wheels can improve the car's acceleration time, and stopping distance because the wheels don't require as much energy to accelerate and stop a lightweight wheel. Wheels with thinner spokes will cool the car brakes better because of more air flow, so your brakes are less likely to overheat when braking too hard.

But, I think expensive most alloy wheels made from more expensive metals like Aluminum and Magnesium are usually not worth installing on an average cheaper cars like a Mitsubishi Mirage, Nissan Versa, Chevy Spark, and Kia Rio which are worth $20000 US dollars or less. Most cheaper cars are mainly used for driving to work, school, and other daily tasks like going to the post office. The better car handling of some lightweight alloy wheels does not usually matter because of speed limits, and poor city road conditions with traffic jams, pot holes, rough roads, flooded roads, and snow which can make you lose control of your car when you drive too fast. Some aluminum alloy wheels made for heavier cars and trucks may have worse car handling because the wheels are heavier because the wheel needs more aluminum metal to support a heavy car's weight, and make the alloy wheel less likely to crack when it hit the curb or pothole.

I read a few news posts which said alloy wheels can crack and get scratched easily when you run over a large pot hole, scrap or hit your car's wheels against the curb.

Metal Alloys like aluminum can get corrosion/oxidation problems where some older aluminum wheels can get holes in the metal rims where the holes leak air and cause the metal to lose its strength and crack if you don't repair or replace the corroded alloy car wheel. But, most newer aluminum wheels fix oxidation problems from occurring by adding an anti-corrosion treatment to the metal.

Scratch up alloy aluminum wheels also look ugly, and fixing scratches is more expensive than replacing a plastic $20 hubcap on a steel wheel car.

Aluminum Alloy wheels also get stolen from people's car more often because of the high re-sale value of recycled aluminum, and aluminum wheels can be sold for hundreds of dollars on the used market. Having aluminum wheels may make some robbers more likely steal your entire car, or steal stuff from inside your car because they think your car is worth a lot of money, and can be sold for a high price, and you have a lot of valuable stuff in your car, so they steal from inside your car, and take your stereo, sun glasses, and money inside your car.

Replacing one alloy car wheel can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, and the cost of repairing an allow wheel cost more than repairing a steel wheel.

Magnesium wheels are more expensive, and also may more likely crack when you hit pot holes. Older magnesium wheels may corrode if they don't have a anti-corrosion treatment on them.

I think average cars are fine with cheaper steel wheels which are less likely to crack when driving into pot holes or hitting the wheel on a curb because steel is more flexible. Steel wheels can be repaired by using more basic metal tools like a metal hammer to smooth out dents in the wheels. It also cheap to fully replace 1 steel wheel which cost $50 USD at most stores. The rust on steel wheels is easy to removed with a metal brush, and you can repaint the steel wheel with metal spray paint. Steel wheels also can use hub caps which help protect steel wheels from scratches, low speed hits to curbs, and rust caused by road salt which winter salt trucks put road salt on the roads to melt the snow. Fewer robbers will steal a car's steel wheels because they $50 new, and are more difficult to sell for a good price like $40 on the used car parts market when they cost $50 new. Steel wheels also last a long time under normal driving conditions. I rarely hear many problems of steel wheels breaking unless it gets bent offroading from a large rock or from contacting a large pot hole causing a bent or crack. Steel wheels can last longer than the life of your other car parts like the engine, transmission, and exhaust system in gas cars.
 
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