My factory wheels have indeed been stolen!

All the the worst case scenarios that I had read about, along with all of the testimonials happening to fitfreaks across the country, my procrastination of getting wheel locks finally caught up with me. Having lived in inner city Boston for the past FOUR years and had nothing happen to any of my vehicles, I unfortunately lapsed into the suburb mind of thinking that nothing should happen. Lo, and behold, not two weeks after I had moved, I come out in the morning just in time to find my little baby on cinder blocks with nothing left of her "actual" go-parts.

So pissed I was shaking, pictures soon to follow.

And, for those GE8 owners carrying anything more than a $500 deuctible, switch it quick, as the factory wheels happen to carry a $500 per wheel price tag, not including tires or TPMS sensors.

Scott

 

Sorry to hear that man hopefully you find those aholes gosh this ticks me off!!! But atleast you can go get some volks or something!

 

Sad to hear bro...damn low lifes

 

Yea man, I hope you find those jerks.. If you have 3 other cars.. probably you can use the spare to run on spares? probably not, but i'm assuming that you can. good luck on finding the wheels.

 

Here's an old idea that never came to be, but check it out:
Wheels of Zeus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's a market somewhere for these wheels. Who is buying the factory alloys from non-dealers? Where are they being sold?

If there were a way to track wheels, once they were separated from the car, it would shut down those thefts. Right?

Somehow tied in with the car itself, so that the way the system is activated is when the wheels get to be too far from the car.

There would be some way of reprogramming the wheels to go with another car, via the dealership, with an authorized sale transfer. So if you did want to sell your own wheels, you could, but you (the old owner) has to have them deactivated. The new owner could have them hooked up to their own car, only if the old owner had them deactivated and had said they were deactivated via this idea of a website for tracing/tracking the wheels.

Would be perfect for police and other law enforcement agencies to track down stolen wheels. If the whole car was stolen and the thieves took off the wheels, that would also activate the system, again leading a person to the criminals.

Nobody would steal them if they knew that there would be a knock at the door and the police could go right to the stolen wheels, hidden under a bag of lawn clippings or something.

And for everyone, do NOT buy wheels off anyone other than dealers or friends who actually purchased the items. If there is NO market for the stolen items, they won't be stolen anymore.

Another thing that might be useful for those who have no intention of swapping out their Honda alloys, have the VIN of the car engraved on the wheels. That won't stop anyone from taking them but might stop someone from buying them and would be a total giveaway if the person is caught with wheels in their possession that have someone's car VIN who just reported the wheels stolen.

I have steelies. But maybe those of you with the variations of the alloys, could decide on the best place to have a VIN etched or engraved. And then those that want to do it, can all have it done on the same spot. So it's consistent. And if someone does decide to buy from a swap meet, they can check that special spot and make sure there isn't a VIN there or some indication that numbers were removed.

Perhaps even considering coming out with small warning stickers we could put on our cars (if we wanted to) that would identify the car as having VIN ID wheels.

 

@TaffetaWhite, etching services already exist and they include warning stickers. I even got a lower rate on insurance when they did my car.

 

Don't replace them with factory wheels, you can get a killer set of aftermarkets and really nice tires with the money your insurance is going to dish out for the factories, even without your deductible.

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear about that. I'm hoping my base steel wheels will be less of a target.

 

wow. these wheels are sought after? that's crazy. i personally don't like the look of'em...but that's jus me. i like aftermarket. good thing mines came w/ honda locks. good luck mang. n buy those locks. hehe.

 

are the sport fit stock wheels really sought for by thieves??

 

Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. I suppose if you just go around ripping off everyone's wheels, you'll eventually land a set that's really worth something. Even you don't find "good" wheels, getting $50 for a set of wheels that you didn't pay for is a $50 profit.

 

yes.... its happened to a lot of sport owners already

 

^maybe only on east coast..seems pretty chill here in cali.


does this mean i can sell my stockies for $1g? hahahah

 

Quoted for truth.

 

plus one on that, it would pay for a lot of toys

 

Somebody is trying to make big $$ selling stock wheels for $500. They're $209 at Bernardi parts, and $183 "clearance" at College Hills:

Honda Fit Alloy Wheels - Genuine 2009-2010 Honda Fit Alloy Wheels

 

even then for those prices you could get rpf1's or possibly even used volks

 

Excellent! What parts get etched? Can you tell folks what all happens, what is involved, how much it costs, how long it takes for the job to be done, what kind of savings is possible with insurance?

 

Just a very few years ago, the stealing of Xenon headlight bulbs was quite common. Formula: do $5000 worth of damage tearing off front bumper etal, extract the bulbs, worth a few hundred $$ each, sell them online for $100. In my opinion, the buyers, who had to be aware of the likely origins are criminals equal to the actual thieves. Fortunately, Xenons are no longer quite as rare or expensive, so that has slowed down.

 

wheel locks would definitely help, but if someone wanted to steal your wheels, wheel locks wont affect them one bit. I've heard about a couple guys in my shop getting wheels stolen even with wheel locks installed. A true wheel thief has the tools for the job unfortunately.