Painted wheel pics
Pics of the painted wheel. Anybody contact MB to see what's up?
why are sport wheels different ?
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Joined: Sep 2005
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From: Los Angeles
2007-E350
why are sport wheels different ?
Ok I seen my bro's 07 e350 with sport pack and then I got mine yesterday and my sport wheels are different. His are high polished like every one else's I see, but mine are plain silver. What’s up with that???????
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From: Arizona
BMW FTW
Post pictures.... I have posted an 07 sports package rim.. Your brother might of had them chromed I have seen a few around town that have had this done, but all it does is add weight to the rims.
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From: San Diego
2004 E320
Same thing that happened with the 03s and 04-05. In 03, the finish on the sport wheels were high/machined polish. From 04-05, they were painted silver. Weird.
I prefer the silver though because I've seen many stock rims that are machined polish and have the clear coat peeling off after several years.
I prefer the silver though because I've seen many stock rims that are machined polish and have the clear coat peeling off after several years.
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From: San Carlos (SF Peninsula) CA
'03 ML500, '07 E350 Sport (wife's)
Ours too. Painted flat silver. Really dull. Would love them in chrome, but,... Like the machined finish, but I'm not so impressed with these. Same spoke design, but I noticed the other day at the dealer another Sport on the lot with the different rims...flat outer facing surfaces are machine polished and other surfaces painted like the old style rims. Bummed. Wish I had known and could have specified.
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From: Ft. Lauderdale Area, USA
2015 ML 350
Hard to tell from the pix but it looks like the wheels are the same except that the last step of finishing, the buff polishing of certain surfaces, was not done.
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From: Kansas City
2007 E350 Sport Obsidian Black & 2005 Cadillac Escalade
OK, Now I had to go out & check mine out.... they are the same as "MissMyBenz's".... flat outer facing surfaces are machine polished while the inner parts are painted. The machine polished part has much more shine than the painted. I'm going to the dealership tomorrow so I'll have to check out the ones on the lot...
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Member
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: San Carlos (SF Peninsula) CA
'03 ML500, '07 E350 Sport (wife's)
Actually, tlbeedy. Mine are all painted. No machine polishing. We were not given a choice of the 2 styles and never saw it as an option. Certainly would have chosen the polished. We got every other option but the wood wheel and pano roof which we didn't want. Wish I hadn't seen the others because I'm disappointed now.
Last edited by MissMyBenz; Apr 15, 2007 at 12:47 PM.
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From: Kansas City
2007 E350 Sport Obsidian Black & 2005 Cadillac Escalade
Actually, tlbeedy. Mine are all painted. No machine polishing. We were not given a choice of the 2 styles and never saw it as an option. Certainly would have chosen the polished. We got every other option but the wood wheel and pano roof which we didn't want. Wish I hadn't seen the others because I'm disappointed now.
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From: Ft. Lauderdale Area, USA
2015 ML 350
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: GMT -8 hours
Mercedes-Benz
Cheap mercedes. The process they use to do that costs more, because they have to paint the whole wheel silver, machine the paint off the face, re treat the wheel (to clean it for paint again), and clearcoat or powdercoat the whole wheel. With the all silver wheel they can paint it all in one step and its done.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Mar 2004
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From: Ft. Lauderdale Area, USA
2015 ML 350
Cheap mercedes. The process they use to do that costs more, because they have to paint the whole wheel silver, machine the paint off the face, re treat the wheel (to clean it for paint again), and clearcoat or powdercoat the whole wheel. With the all silver wheel they can paint it all in one step and its done.
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From: GMT -8 hours
Mercedes-Benz
I don't think so Barry. As indicated above MB made the same change to the appearance pkg wheel between 03 and 04. The 03s had a completely machined face while in 04 they switched to a full silver finish (same exact wheel).
The process to machine face the wheel costs more money, reduces plant capacity (since the wheels have to get retreated), and first run ratio decreases. It is simply MB being cheap.
The process to machine face the wheel costs more money, reduces plant capacity (since the wheels have to get retreated), and first run ratio decreases. It is simply MB being cheap.
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: SF Bay Area
2007 E350 4matic
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Wow - what a difference the finish makes!
Had the chance to compare the shiny finish to the flat finish - and I can honestly say there is a huge difference. The flat finish looks terrible compared to the shiny finish. If this is a cost saving measure, it is simply idiotic. How much could they really be saving compared to how much worse these wheels look compared to the shiny ones? I bet you lose the sale of one car and then it makes no difference. Bean counters are winning at MB which is unfortunate and a dangerous precedent.
