schnitzer wheels, real or fake?

[cooky0709]

Hi all, just bought myself a set of schnitzer alloys, great condition. I have been told they are genuine and iv'e picked them up this afternoon. they look really good but i have no real idea what i'm looking for. they have ac schnitzer germany stamped on the lip, and route o.z stamped on the inside.
these are the type 11 i belive for the e36, (chunky 5 spoke)
form the pictures of others iv'e looked at they look genuine, but they were quite cheap. even if they are fake they were still a bargain, so i don't really care. just nice to know if they are actually genuine!
cheers. craig.

[TheEnd]

Yep, ACS contracted out their wheel making to others, OZ was one, i think Ronal might have made some too.

[SittingBull]

They should have a black "AC Schnitzer" decal applied down one spoke of each wheel if they are genuine....

[buffly]

None genuine.

[TheEnd]

I'll bet £175 they are genuine.

[cooky0709]

Nice round figure there END.
funnily enough iv;e just spotted another set on ebay that are exactly the same. no difference whatsoever. same markings. its ruote o.z not Route on the back sorry. seller claiming genuine, which goes a long way to convincing me really.
iv'e seen definate genuines without the black decal on the spoke before.
whats the reason for thinking fakes?? out of interest.

[SittingBull]

cooky0709 said:

Hi all, just bought myself a set of schnitzer alloys, great condition. I have been told they are genuine and iv'e picked them up this afternoon. they look really good but i have no real idea what i'm looking for. they have ac schnitzer germany stamped on the lip, and route o.z stamped on the inside.
these are the type 11 i belive for the e36, (chunky 5 spoke)
form the pictures of others iv'e looked at they look genuine, but they were quite cheap. even if they are fake they were still a bargain, so i don't really care. just nice to know if they are actually genuine!
cheers. craig.

I bought the silver 2003 London Motorshow AC Schnitzer 3.0 Z4, fitted with 19" identical design wheels to yours. Each rim had a black "AC Schnitzer" decal on one of the spokes. Nowhere was "AC Schnitzer" stamped into/on the wheel. The rims were replaced under BMW warranty after 12 months due to terrible corrosion - at a cost to BMW of £995 for EACH rim!! Guess what? - a further 2 years on (out of BMW Warranty) & the second set were corroding BADLY around the valve stems. I contacted AC Schnitzer direct & they didn't want to know, despite several weeks correspondence & umpteen high resolution images of the corrosion.

You have (IMHO) "Replica" ACS rims. And again (IMHO) be thankful for that! At least you haven't spent £4000 on sub standard overpriced (by 400%!!) designer poo.

I'll go further & risk a law suit from ACS: The little ACS side "gills" that replace the BMW front wing repeaters are over £500 for a pair of poorly chromed plastic inserts. The plastic ACS front lip spoiler is over £2500 (unpainted) & won't even clear British speed humps.

AC Schnitzer products are incredibly overpriced & VERY poor quality! If anybody can tell me how to post JPEG's on this site I will post many 'photo's of 12 month old corroded ACS rims....

[cooky0709]

ah right, well you seem to know your stuff.
i'll be pretty happy with the none genuines then!
anyway, going on the car tonight, and hopefully will look a lot better than my m3 sunflowers.
although a couple people have mentioned to me the o.z job for schnitzer. might look into that.

[cooky0709]

also, have a look at these i mentioned fo sale. this sounds pretty genuine to me but then again i know f*** all about it. mine are 100% identical.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/17-AC-Schnitzer-Type-1-alloy...

[Babu 01]

The OP's wheel looks like a genuine Type 1 to me, which came without the spoke lettering which the similar Type 2 had.

Type 1



Type 2

[TheEnd]

http://www.brunsnet.de/BMW/schnitzer/Bild41.jpg

Real...

note the lack of black stickers, and the visible stamping on the rim

[cooky0709]

ah yes, cheers guys for that. those 2 pics of the type 1's are exactly what i was hoping to find.
exactly the same so i'm pretty confident now, thanks for your knowledge!
Bit of a bargain then i spose.

[SittingBull]

Babu 01 said:

The OP's wheel looks like a genuine Type 1 to me, which came without the spoke lettering which the similar Type 2 had.

Type 1



Type 2


Look carefully at the OP's photograph. Look at the wheel centre cap. It stands proud & is NOT an ACS original cap. These wheels are fakes. And for God's sake, if you had £4000 of Genuine ACS rims, what would you ask for them? £265? - I don't think so!

But in all honesty, German produced "replica" ACS wheels are better quality than the "S***E" that ACS sell for mind numbing prices.....

[E30M3SE]

SittingBull said:

Babu 01 said:

The OP's wheel looks like a genuine Type 1 to me, which came without the spoke lettering which the similar Type 2 had.

Type 1



Type 2


Look carefully at the OP's photograph. Look at the wheel centre cap. It stands proud & is NOT an ACS original cap. These wheels are fakes. And for God's sake, if you had £4000 of Genuine ACS rims, what would you ask for them? £265? - I don't think so!

But in all honesty, German produced "replica" ACS wheels are better quality than the "S***E" that ACS sell for mind numbing prices.....

I'd say that the wheels are genuine, the centre caps look like they have a fake, flea bay ACS bagde stuck on them, but the wheels look genuine enough.

[SittingBull]

E30M3SE said:

SittingBull said:

Babu 01 said:

The OP's wheel looks like a genuine Type 1 to me, which came without the spoke lettering which the similar Type 2 had.

Type 1



Type 2


Look carefully at the OP's photograph. Look at the wheel centre cap. It stands proud & is NOT an ACS original cap. These wheels are fakes. And for God's sake, if you had £4000 of Genuine ACS rims, what would you ask for them? £265? - I don't think so!

But in all honesty, German produced "replica" ACS wheels are better quality than the "S***E" that ACS sell for mind numbing prices.....

I'd say that the wheels are genuine, the centre caps look like they have a fake, flea bay ACS bagde stuck on them, but the wheels look genuine enough.

Post these 'photo's to Rossiter's BMW, Kings Lynn (They were the only ACS distributor in the UK over the past 7 years) & they will tell you otherwise.

[sleep envy]

cooky0709 said:

its ruote o.z not Route

ruote is italian for wheels

[SittingBull]

sleep envy said:

cooky0709 said:

its ruote o.z not Route

ruote is italian for wheels

And in French, a sign saying "Soft Verges" means that your Willy does not work! So what are you trying to say?

[sleep envy]

I thought that was quite obvious if you read my post

maybe run your finger under the words as you read, don't worry if your mouth moves

[TheEnd]

SittingBull said:

for God's sake, if you had £4000 of Genuine ACS rims, what would you ask for them? £265? - I don't think so

Worst "I'm embarrassed about how much i paid, and jealous of others" post evarrrr

[E30M3SE]

Looks like Mike is back.