Hello to all fellow Ford nuts.

I am a new member to the forum and really enjoy reading the numerous posts.

What do you guys/gals think about the wheels on the current XR range - both the 17" & 18" variants?

Has anybody out there changed to larger OD rims? If so, why?

I work at FMC as the Wheel Design Engineer and would love to hear what customers out there would like to see on the next generation XR's.

Hi Suresh

your game mate you work at Ford hey , why dont you guys spend more time designing better brakes for us instead ,the rims are fine.

I have the factory 18s on my XR and reckon they look great. I do have to agree with Andrew about them being a little hard to get brake dust out of the little grooves on the end of the spokes but a minor inconvenience really.

Try cleaning GT wheels.

They're the biggest pain in the bum to clean brake dust off.

I love my factory 18".

Best looking factory wheel I can recall IMO.

I find them easy to clean.

Love 'em!

Goodaye suresh,

I am happy with the design of the 17 inch rims,have a question though since the dealer has already scratched one of my rims was wondering how the rims would look if you polished off the powder coating. Would they have the polished shiny look. Would they be easier to maintain.

regards

Stang

Put me down as a lover of the factory 18"s, love the polished look and their design. I don't find it hard to remove brake dust from the little groove, I love my wheels.

Goodaye suresh,

I am happy with the design of the 17 inch rims,have a question though since the dealer has already scratched one of my rims was wondering how the rims would look if you polished off the powder coating. Would they have the polished shiny look. Would they be easier to maintain.

regards

Stang

Yeh if you got em polished they'd come up with a finish like the 18" ones. I have seen an AU2 XR8 with the stock rims polished. It looked impressive.

Heres an attatched pic

The 18s are the way to go IMO, easy to clean , look great and the Dunlop sport 9000s stick like Only downfall is the replacement cost.

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

I've been trying to push 4 variants of XR wheels for a while now, but the beancounters and the assembly plant cannot deal with the complexity of parts at the moment. The thing most people don't realise, is the complexity of vehicles that get built at the Broady assembly plant is more than most other plants in the automotive world, including the European marques.

10 years ago, it was only the sedan that got built in the main plant. Utes and wagons were built in the second plant. Now, we have all Barra Sedans, Utes including the RTV, wagons, and Territory all under the one roof with 70 units being built an hour. that's more than 1 car every minute coming off the line!!

What all this means, is a s%itload of wheels in a relatively small area to support the build.

Anyhow, check out wheel finishes I've looked into for XR.

Nice wheel SURESH.

I certainly would have considered it over the 18" wheel I got when I bought the T back in May 03

Suresh! That finish looks great. Makes the rim look totally different. I like it!