New wheel :(

[einehund]

Long story short, wife hit a pothole in her ST and now we need a new wheel. Found one on EBAY and got outbid. Decided to try Autonation (formerly TASCA). Awesome. $250 less for the wheel than the local stealership. I'll update both here and the Autonation vendor forum when all is said and done, but pretty excited for a NEW OEM wheel at a good price.

 

[13COBRA]

Long story short, wife hit a pothole in her ST and now we need a new wheel. Found one on EBAY and got outbid. Decided to try Autonation (formerly TASCA). Awesome. $250 less for the wheel than the local stealership. I'll update both here and the Autonation vendor forum when all is said and done, but pretty excited for a NEW OEM wheel at a good price.

You should have just told your local dealer that Tasca sells parts at 10% over cost and that you'd like them to match it.

 

[Zemedici]

You should have just told your local dealer that Tasca sells parts at 10% over cost and that you'd like them to match it.

this....seems way simpler lolol

Ford's cost on parts is the same for all dealerships, so they could sell it to you at the same price. I'd rather make 10% of something than lose the sale entirely.

 

[einehund]

I tried. They wanted a printed invoice to "consider if they will price match". F them, they don't need my business.

 

[Zemedici]

I tried. They wanted a printed invoice to "consider if they will price match". F them, they don't need my business.

Stupid decision on their part. Also poor knowledge of the industry, I Know Tousely sells at 10% over, so I dont need a 'printed invoice' to price match.

Oh well, you're taken care of and that's what matters :beer: Post up how it goes and tell wifey she owes ya! ;-)

 

[einehund]

Alright, I will be posting this, both in this section and in the Autonation section...

The purchase of the wheel was very easy. Called Autonation and told them the problem (I believe I spoke with Mike, but I don't remember). He asked for the last 8 of my VIN to ensure the correct variation of wheel that was on my car... The ST's have two different colored wheels. Awesome. Gave him the info. He explained to me that the wheel would be shipped from some warehouse to Autonation, and then at that point I would be charged (which was about $200 less than my local dealer wanted to charge) and the wheel shipped to me and gave me an approximate wait time for both legs of the journey. I was totally okay with it. Sure enough, about 2 days after our conversation, I was charged for the wheel and also received the tracking number for UPS. It was a felt like forever (as is usual for car parts, when you are excited to get them!) but it was only a day longer than the estimate I was initially given. Once again, not a big issue. I was really excited to get a new, OEM wheel and not the one that I had lost out on, on Ebay... that one was used, this one is new!

My doorbell rings (go figure, 30 minutes after discount tire closes, so I can't just go get it swapped immediately) and I go out there. Now when I send something worth, meh, at least $100 worth, I insure it and go for delivery confirmation. Kind of expected the same. I open the door and there is a beat-up box just sitting there and the UPS truck pulling away.... oooookay...

Pick up the box to bring it inside and immediately think to myself, what a flimsy box.... there are rip marks on 3 corners and on the front face. The box looks crumpled on one side like it was dropped edgewise. I get a heavy feeling in my heart cause I know the wheel is gonna have issues. Crap. I grab my Gerber and cut the tape, ensuring I don't go any farther than 1mm into the tape, because the box is so thin that I don't want to cut the wheel.

I open the box. Whew! It looks like there is a good solid 3 inches of Styrofoam surrounding the wheel...

BUT WAIT! the Styrofoam is formed so that one piece can be used for multiple wheels. So the larger (and usually heavier wheels) have barely 1/2" of protection! and where the wheel was sitting , the Styrofoam had ripped, and the inside edge of the wheel (thankfully not the face) was sitting with no protection. Pulled the wheel out of the plastic wrap and the first thing I notice is a black ring of ....?.... on the inside edge of the wheel. And nicks. And chips. And dents.

That's when I notice that on the flap of the box that was against the face of the wheel, one of the spokes had crushed in the cardboard in the shape of the spoke.

So I checked the crush weight of the box...

Really? A 30 lbs wheel (shipping weight, mind you... wheel itself is ~25) in a 75 lbs crush weight box? You could drop it 6 inches and exceed 75 lbs easily...


IN SUMMARY (the TL;DR version):

Wheel Ordering was easy and awesome. Wheel delivery time was acceptable, no complaints. Price was really good for new OEM. Shipping... Not good. Not sure if warehouse's fault for shipping in a wet paper sack, Autonation for not QC the box when it got to them, or for UPS deciding a giant box would be a great thing to drop on the edge and put crap on. Would I order again, maybe. But had I ordered from my local dealer, I sure as shit would have looked at the wheel before paying. And I would have told them to either fix the wheel or get me a different one. New OEM ≠ dents and chips and mysterious black grease.

 

[TRBO VNM]

That is typically how most wheels are shipped/packed. Right or wrong, that is how they do it unfortunately.

so call them back and get a replacement.

 

[einehund]

I've never bought wheels new before, so I was going off of what I see in people's pics when they get a new wheel... I'm not going to return the wheel. I had it spun and it is true... and the dings are minor and are opposite the wheel face, so they'll never be seen. ....And it is an ST which means it will be covered in a pound and 4 ounces of brake dust within 15 seconds of driving. Just irritated by the shipping aspect. As a side note, however, Autonation will no longer be shipping the wheels only in the box they receive them in, but will be double boxing them. That alone would have probably made this wheel in mint condition. They have been super awesome and I have no issues buying from them again.

 

[FORDSVTPARTS]

Hey there

Give me a call during the day, I'd be happy to refund you some money for the damage. Sorry for the hassle.
651-484-8888

As mentioned, we will be ordering some boxes to double box the wheels, and will be doing this for most wheels from here on out. We'll usually try to package extra material on the inside, but that still does not help the fact the boxes are simply too thin. The wheels, lamps, and mirrors are just getting too expensive for these vehicles to get damaged during shipping.

Mike R