[sameern.85]

Hi Bhpians,

Hope all are driving well and revving hard..!

After, 1 month of rigorous searching/ visiting aftermarket parts in Mumbai and Thane, I have finally bought a new set of tyres and alloy wheels.

Background-

I drive a 2005 Santro, daily running is about 40 kms, the car had run only 22k kms in 5 years due to various reasons. Now, I use it for office commute.
Anyways, since the tyres had done their life in terms of the time and my stock steel rim had got some bends and bruises, I opted for fresh rubber and new alloy wheels as well.

Search begins -

I am one of those customers, who is very nit picky, espcially when it comes to car accessories and always look around bang for my buck.

I inquired at many places including local markets at Kurla. But, either the design was not of my taste or in lots of after market shops where the imported rims didnt really impress me. I also looked for Indian brands Neo and Aura by Hindalco. I found out that Aura alloy wheels are no longer in the market as production has stopped. I looked at brands like Plati, BSA, 69 etc. in the imports category, mainly because, I was looking for 13 inch rims and they fit my budget

I then turned to our desi brand - Neo wheels. I must admit and I know some of you guys wont agree, but some designs were really good, they are economical and come with replacement warranty and in case if you need only one piece, you can get one.

After, searching on the NEO wheels website, I liked one design called Boomerang with red and black spokes. I liked it because it compliments, my car color and black bumpers. Instead of going to a dealer, I called up their factory and spoke to their national sales manager to get 1st hand info on the manufacturing process and other details.

He was a nice guy and put me through to their territory sales executive Mr.Yogesh. I got a call within 10 minutes after I spoke with the NSM at Neo wheels. I was quite impressed. He gave a lot of info and answered my questions, I told him, I want to see the wheels and if you have a gallery or if i can come to your factory and check it out.
He said that, the factory which is at Rabale, Navi Mumbai did not give permission to visit, but he will arrange for me to see the wheels. He sent 4 alloy wheels to the nearest dealer close to my house and I checked it out.
They look pretty cool..or rather HOT...!

Tyre confusion -

After checking out the alloy wheels, which were 13 inch rims, I spoke to the dealer for tyres. he is only dealer in my area, hence I was a bit skeptical and thought will check out others as well. The tyre guy was pushing 'Goodyear Ducaro Hi-Miler' really hard, which kind of made me raise my eyebrow.
I finalised on the size as 165/65R13.

Currently, I was running OE tyres and stock wheels. The tyres were Bridgestone 155/70R13 and aluminium factory fitted wheels

I was interested in Michelin XM1 or Yokohama S Drive. The dealer showed me other brands like Bridgestone, Maxxis and Falken, but kept pushing Goodyear. I said, I will get back to him and left.

I went straight to another tyre dealer and asked for the same specs. i got considerable amount for difference in the price. But there was one more issue now, that this guy did not have NEO wheels and showed me some other imported brands, I was not impressed by them, he told me that he can arrange for it and made some calls in front of me. I asked him to call me if he gets hold on the design I liked, I showed him on my laptop and left for the time being and checked out some other shops as well.

Finally -

An hour later, I got a call from him saying that his person is collecting it from the NEO wheels factory...! i was impressed that he went to great lengths to get the wheel of my choice.
I finally decided to got for Michelin XM1 tubeless radials as he was out of stock for Yokohama and I would have to wait a couple of days.
I reached with lot of excitement but realized that their guy was still at the factory and will reach in 20 minutes. The 20 minutes was stretched to an hour and a half which was quite boring, but I was checking out tyres and wheel designs.
After the agonizing wait, the new running gear for my car arrived. Brand new alloy wheels and fresh set of Michelin XM1's

Attached are some pics of current stock tyres, new wheels and installation process and the overall look of my car after new wheels.
Also, now using nitrogen. I will post my driving experience soon.
I hope you like the experience. Comments welcome.

[vigsom]

Personally,I believe the alloys should be bright(silver/metal finish) ;choice of tyres is good,though.

[sameern.85]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Personally,I believe the alloys should be bright(silver/metal finish) ;choice of tyres is good,though.

Hi Som,

Thanks for the feedback. I think, the colour of the alloys compliments the color of my car. Like I mentioned before, 13 inch rims did not have more options in the imported category and in the desi brands category, did not like the designs.

Cheers..!

[ByDesign]

Beautiful wheels my friend. Very lethal indeed. Congrats, and I love the tyres too.

[sachinj12]

Any alloy other than silver/black doesn't gel well. But this is an exception. It made me go wow!. A bit of waxing and they would look killer

[motomaverick]

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[rakesh_r]

nice alloys,how much did the alloys and the tyres set you back by?

[anachronix]

Looks like the alloys are fitted on the wrong sides of the car. The alloy wheel looks to be rollin in reverse direction.

Body coloured bumpers & the new front grills of the Santro should add more niche!

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Looks like the alloys are fitted on the wrong sides of the car. The alloy wheel looks to be rollin in reverse direction.

It will be that way on one side of the car.

[anachronix]

^^ Oh yeah! I did overlook that

[Epic]

This is probably the weirdest design I have ever seen with the weirdest colour. You will have your alloys looking different on either side of the car? Man you got guts to fit such a thing on your car. A more sober/toned down design would have looked much better. For example like black multispoke rims with a red outer lining.

But hey, this is just my personal opinion so as long as you are happy with it it doesnt matter.

[kpzen]

Its a unique design. IMO, you need more red in your car to match the alloys.. Get the bumpers, door handles & mirrors painted in red.

[rajiv0]

Hello Sameer,
Congrats on your new wheels. Looks cool with your red car.

I am looking to replace my tires (run for 40K km) with Michellin XM1. But iam confused between stock size 155/70 vs 165/65.

I feel the suspension on my santro is on harder side, so taking 165/65 seems like asking for more bumpier ride.
Pls share your experience with regards to drive (on average to poor roads).

Thanks
Rajiv

[sameern.85]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

nice alloys,how much did the alloys and the tyres set you back by?

Alloys costed Rs.2750 a piece - grand total of 11k...

Thanks man... Appreciate it..

[abhi1309]

Crazy design man, never seen anything like those wheels. Get rid of the ugly mud flaps and do justice to the good looking rims.