Look like arse, but only cost me postage so I can't complain. Plus I will probably get the cost of postage back when I scrap the old wheels, so I can't really complain.
EDIT - Picture is pre-clean but most of the shit wont come off anyway.
I've got some wheel cleaner, but it's last squirt this morning. Will pick some up tomorrow and give it another go when I get round to fitting them (i.e. the winter).
I bought the first set really for the tyres (£50, bargain). The wheels fitting would of been a bonus but alas no. I got the second set for free, so I really can't complain at that...
No 15" wheel is going to look good on my car tbh, especially not the sort of thing in my price range (trust me, i've been looking...)
15" wheels are always going to look rediculous on a car that big, i don't see how you can justify the outlay either, you paid £50 for a set of 2nd hand tyres, 15" ones, then i imagine £40 for the other wheels to be posted, then you've got to get them fitted and at the end of that your stuck with some shitty wheels all so you can drive in some snow for about 5 days a year i know they work better in colder/wetter conditions aswell but most seem to get by with normal tyres. Just seems to me you fanny about alot, not just with these wheels/tyres but in general.
Every mile I do on the cheap wheels with cheap tyres is a mile i'm not doing on my (much more expensive to replace) summer tyres.
I "got by" with my summer tyres last year, but I did very nearly rear-end a car through no fault of my own. As I was sliding towards the back of the Mondeo the overriding thought in my head was "this accident is going to cost much much more than winter tyres would of done".
I felt this required two different quote boxes. If you're sliding in the snow you was going too fast for the road conditions or your tyres ability to cope in the conditions. The fault was squarely in your court. You cannot blame nature for shit driving.
After work I decided I would "get the feel" of the ZT in the snowy conditions (having a large empty car park helps). I got the hang of feeling up to (and over) the limit, practicing stopping, feeling how much grip there was etc. I spent about half an hour doing this, so I had a pretty good idea on the conditions.
Once I'd stopped doing this, I come to leave. Theres a roundabout leaving work, as I come up to it theres a car stopped in front of me waiting to join. I've got miles of room to stop, i'm doing maybe 10 MPH at most. I brake nice and early (nice and early even taking the conditions into account), only for the wheels to lock up instantly, ABS to kick in, wheels lock again all the while losing no speed. There simply was pretty much no grip that my tyres could find.
No warning, no funny looking ice... just some grip to none in a second. I slid straight towards the back of the Mondeo up ahead, and luckily managed to go between it and the traffic island (just enough room) and came to rest in the middle of the roundabout. I was very lucky there was room and not a car coming...
The only way to avoid such a thing would be to do ~3 MPH everywhere "just in case" or to get some decent tyres... I chose the latter.
EDIT - Just to point out again, I wasn't doing any sort of stupid speed and I knew full well how long my car would take to stop in the conditions. I then braked much much earlier than I needed to, there just wasn't any grip there. There was no way any sort of driver skill (or lack thereof) could of got me out of that situation, or stopped me getting into it (unless I decided to take every snowy road at 1MPH just in case).