Quote:
Originally Posted by Amituk
I spoke to Rotiform and this was their response.
"Not sure where that poster got his info but its incorrect. Our forged wheels are 100% USA made. Our blanks come from Alcoa. I cant speak for any of the other companies he mentions but you can rest assured you have the highest quality wheels and they exceed VIA, JWL and TUV specifications. You have nothing to worry about  " |
Not the first itme I've heard the "Oh they certainly exceed [whatever] certification!" line. If they are not JWL or TUV certified then its just lipservice. Many legitimate wheels are. BBS, HRE, Volk, etc. It's not hard to submit wheels for testing, although it costs a bit of money. Not super uncommon for a custom wheel company though, as they have to get wheels of every variety and size tested, so if you're selling custom wheels you can easily have 50-100 combinations that would have to be tested. But many custom wheel companies DO go through that kind of trouble, and its good peace of mind to me. HRE is JWL/TUV certified. CCW is not, so it just depends, no one is going to say CCW is second rate.
http://importgenius.com/importers/rotiform-llc
http://rotiform.com/contact_us.htm
The address in Westminster, CA is also correct here. 6382 Industrial Way.
This is the real clincher to me that made me suspicious. The trend I see is most of these companies taking advantage of "made in the USA" standards which basically mean if you bolt it together here, you can say it. Most of these places will only show pictures of their warehouses full of wheel parts, and pictures of them assembling wheels. You rarely ever see any of them actually machining their own wheels. HRE for example goes through a lot of trouble to show pictures (and
videos) of their machining processes.
Rotiform's wheels are unique amongst these other companies, despite similarities in general shape, so I can beleive they actually do machine their own centers, but why there are import records showing parts from China is a mystery to me. maybe it's just centercaps or something? Or maybe its their 1 piece wheels?
Regardless, in their particular case, Im tempted to believe them. But it's a serious issue these days. You have to be real careful, because as the Cor fiasco (along with the
Sevas debacle) shows, these boutique wheel companies can get people into trouble from time to time.
Anyway, just keep an eye on em, Im sure they'll be fine. The Cor wheels that failed visibly looked fairly weak.
As a little aside,
HRE
http://importgenius.com/importers/hr...ormance-wheels
Their parts come from England and germany
BBS
http://importgenius.com/suppliers/bbs-washi-wheels-gmbh
England
So not everyone imports from China... You can play around with that site and find a lot of interesting things about different companies.