I bought a set of RINSPEED C5/1 23" Alloys about 9 months ago and have covered under 5000 miles in them.
I was driving with my family onboard last month and one of the rear tyres had a blow out and completely shredded. Luckily I wasn't going to fast so managed to control the skid.

When I fitted the spare I noticed the inside of the RINSPEED alloy had cracks all the way around leading from the inside edge towards the centre.

I thought this was a one off so decided to buy a new RINSPEED alloy.

My car has just been into Land Rover to fit the new RINSPEED alloy and to check a problem I've been having with the tyres going flat. It turns out that all 3 of the other RINSPEED alloys have similar large unrepairable cracks in them which are the reason for the tyres constantly going flat. This is obviously not acceptable on a set of alloys that are only 8-9 months old and have covered so few miles.

When I contacted RINSPEED and BORBET (who manufacturer the alloys for Rinspeed) I asked them to replace or refund the wheels under warranty due to their poor build quality, saying that it was probably a bad batch and overlooking the fact that my families lives were put at risk.

I was eventually told by the director of RINSPEED, Mr. Frank M. Rinderknecht, that BORBET say the failure was due to my driving style, i.e. smashing into kerbs etc and that they were not prepared to honour the warranty!
I was furious as I am over cautious not to damage the wheels and would say I'm a pretty safe driver.

Rinspeed say this is nothing to do with them as the wheels are manufactured by BORBET. BORBET will not reply to any of my emails even though I have threatened legal action.

Do I have a case and would you say I am entitled to replacements or a refund? With most products, if they fail under warranty they are replaced. This seems to me a case of the manufacturer trying to brush his hands of the matter.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

I appreciate any advice

I have attached photos and as you can see this damage is not down to driving style, it's poor build quality.



 2008 RRS Supercharged
Lucerne Green, HST Kit, 23" Rinspeed Alloys, Side Steps, Mud Flaps.

They look DANGEROUS!!!

Call Trading standards????? I keep telling myself 'It's a toy'
But I've broken quite a lot of toys in my time.....

Bodster,

I guess proving it wasn't due to you driving hard over some kerbs etc is difficult. I imagine they are thinking you have damaged them and are now trying to claim failure to get refund/replacements etc. I would imagine lab tests will confirm the failure mechanism (i.e. fatigue or catastrophic failure) so if your confident of the care you have taken, then persuing legal steps is the best way forward.

I would expect their insurance cover would recommend paying out

Kaine

Is their load rating high enough for the RRS?

disgraceful!

We are talking life and limb here, would they rather have seen a fatality...

If you are 100% happy you have done nothing to cause these cracks or hinder these wheels I would go for the jugular. Its not just the financial loss and the inconvenience - people could have been killed or injured.

I would e-mail them a link to this thread

i'd be so f mad!
hope it works out fine. MY08 TDV8 HSE
Buckingham Blue / Ebony / Lined oak / 19" Factory / Sunroof / Roof rail / Ipod Dock

Leo wrote:

Is their load rating high enough for the RRS?

Vogue wrote:

disgraceful!

We are talking life and limb here, would they rather have seen a fatality...

If you are 100% happy you have done nothing to cause these cracks or hinder these wheels I would go for the jugular. Its not just the financial loss and the inconvenience - people could have been killed or injured.

I would e-mail them a link to this thread

Hi Vougue, that's a good idea, I will do just that.

I'm 100% positive I did not cause this damage by my driving style. 2008 RRS Supercharged
Lucerne Green, HST Kit, 23" Rinspeed Alloys, Side Steps, Mud Flaps.

No way was that caused by kerbs or potholes - they would bend first before cracking.

if you 'had' been bouncing up kerbs which lead to the damage would the wheels been mishaped/dented where the impacts were.

From the pictures, there isn't any marks apart from the crack

IMO they must be either be too weak a build/material or a bad batch

guess the moral of the storey is don't buy Rinspeed if they are not prepared to stand behind their products...

If it's a batch/quaity issue then there should be others out there with a similar problem - try posting widely across a number of websites/car forums and see if you can find the others.

Have the company confirmed to you that they have not heard of any similar cases?

Good luck.

Threaten legal action against Rinspeed, your sale of contract is with them and they are responsible for them !!!!!

Go for Stormers !!! 22''

Where did you buy them from? Under the "sale of goods" act your fight is with the shop that you purchased them from, not the manufacturer. It is down to the shop to claim a refund from the distributer/manufacturer.

I am not a lawyer and please correct me if I am wrong
kc
ps
I would not have thought that 23" rims would be practical for a "off roader" the rubber bands protecting them cannot absorb any bumps as you travel along that freshly laid tarmac! but then again - they sold them to you - their problem

Very dangerous - and as Nick says, there's no surrounding damage to show that you've been kerbing them. These would actually be very easy to kerb so to me that says you have been taking good care of them.

 

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