:) Does anybody know why manufactures fit alloy wheels to off road vehicles...if you use the vehicle how it was intended the last thing you want is alloy wheels hitting large stones etc....perhaps it's just me but I would prefer normal metal wheels...thank the Lord that my recently bought Vitara has normal metal wheels....of course I was forgetting that most off roaders only do the school runs and Morrisons car park...silly me.
ooh... what a hatful of spiders.
Reason 1... how many volume manufacturers of vehicles make "off-road" vehicles. My view... NONE
To take an example... Land Rover make 4 wheel drive cars and utility vehicles. The utility vehicles (i.e. the Defender) comes with steel wheels in the basic model. All the others (including the higher spec Defenders) come with alloys to make them look pretty.
It is only the likes of us that turn these vehicles into 'off-roaders'
Now, I'm not knocking the off-road ability of a factory vehicle.. far from it. But from a design and marketing perspective I would argue that building and 'off-roader' is not a very practical thing to do as a mass-producer of vehicles.
I would say the same is true of most of the 4x4 manufacturers on the market today. Even vehicles like the L200 and Navara, which are very squarely aimed as builders vehicles, site support, etc. come out of the factory with alloys because they make the vehicles look more expensive.
