I wasn't sure if I should post this in the feedback sub-forum since Rotiform and Cedar Performance don’t sponsor R3v at all. Move thread if need be. I just figured other could benefit from a long read.
I originally ordered a set of wheels through a Rotiform distributor in late October of last year. They were a custom 2pc welded set of MLW style in 17x9 in a fairly aggressive offset that I knew were going to take a ~2months to make which I was completely fine with. First off, I made a mistake in using a company halfway across the country instead of just tracking down a local place that understood what I wanted. I got excited because places around here that were listed as distributors didn't understand building a custom set of wheels because they were generic tires shops (Les Schwab for any PNW locals) and the place I found seemed to know exactly what I was after. I used Cedar Performance out of Lebanon, Tennessee. What a cluster. I would never recommend them to anyone. To further that, order custom wheels locally or from someone you can trust. Communication was nill. I initiated all contact other than payment request, the wheels were shipped to the wrong place, and multiple times I was ghosted. That's not even my issue anymore. I hate Cedar Performance. I have just stopped trying to get a hold of them.
The wheel problem. In December I was told the wheels were sitting in will call at Rotiform by Cedar. Whether that was true or not, who knows. I finally received them in late January after that shipping problem. Well, they didn't clear my front wilwoods. Which in and of itself is my own fault because I never told Cedar, or Rotiform that I had aftermarket brakes. However, I tried the wheels on my other e30 and they didn't clear the factory brakes either. I was under the impression because the factory caliper carrier rides so close to the hub that if they cleared factory brakes they'd probably clear my wilwoods. Also, I communicated that I was okay if they only wanted to fix it to factory specs because I could put them on another car. In late January I emailed back and forth with Cedar about measurements. That's the first time I was ghosted. He stopped emailing me on Jan 26th. This is when I started calling. Once a week for a few weeks with either no one picking up or answering and say he has to get with Rotiform and they usually hand off all the manufacturing issue communication and I should hear from someone.
Mar4th I emailed Rotiform direct and surprisingly got a hold of someone. They never revealed their name but asked for order info, caliper interference pictures and was told they've done countless e30s and there shouldn't be a problem. I emailed pictures over the next few day and thought things might be happening. On the 6th of March they said they had to contact the rep for my distributor. and then ghosted me.
By the end of March I was making sporadic phones calls to Cedar performance who never called back and never picked up my calls. My girlfriend has family in Tennessee and I contemplated flying down there. I told Cedar I just wanted to be kept updated. I didn’t care if nothing happened just call me or email and tell me that. I was getting tired of initiating all the contact. I started calling what I thought was Rotiform directly but it was MHT's (parent company of Rotiform) network of distributor reps. I was bounced locally to California where I was told the name of the rep I should be dealing with. I called and left a voicemail or two. I feel I was being calm and collected during all of this. No swearing, no yelling, just the facts as I knew them and a request for info. Either tell me you're going to fix the wheels or tell me to go pound sand. I’m fin e with either, just want closure.
Apr5th I get an email from what I was told was a great rep and would take care of me. He reached out asking if Cedar had talked to me and I told him it had been 3 and a half months or so since I talked to them. I was told that there had been attempts at communication but they couldn’t get a hold of me. I didn’t have any missed calls other than spam but maybe google mislabeled those. Either way, no messages left.
Apr12th I finally get an email from Cedar saying the same thing. They tried calling, left a message and wanted me to call back. Which I never got. At this point Cedar only really wanted to talk by phone, and even then, once a week max. I felt like he didn’t want a paper trail of the conversation but that’s pure conjecture. Cedar said again they were getting with Rotiform about fixing the issue. Apr12th is the last time I received any communication with Cedar Performance.
At this point I just went straight to the rep and emailed him to see what was going on. I was told that Rotiform was making me a pair of replacement wheels that would clear. Which was awesome, and disappointing. One of the reasons I ordered a custom set of wheel was I wanted to run square and be able to rotate. Now my fronts won’t match the rears. Oh well. At least they were getting finished. The rep told me the wheel order went in on the 26th of May and would take at least 6 weeks, maybe 8. Which was longer than the original order.
July25th I emailed asking for a status on the wheels. I was told they were in finishing. Awesome! I was also told I’d need to send back two original wheels before they would ship the replacements. While I understand why, I was a bit perturbed. That after all this time, this was a caveat. 3 of the wheels I hadn’t even opened so I labeled two up and shipped them out.
Sept6th I emailed asking for updates because I hadn’t seen or heard anything. I was finally told they were on their way. No tracking info provided.
I got the wheels on the 13th which was a Friday and didn’t have a chance to look at them until the week. I test fit them on the car and they fit. They fit. Amazing. The lip is a different size than the rear because they thickend up the hub to make the caliper clear. Rotiform never went over how they were fixing the wheels just that it was happening. And I’m sure no one but myself will notice but now fronts and rears have different lips sizes. I also noticed the new wheels were stamped with a July build date.
I went to mount all my tires up which now had been sitting around since the previous December. I unboxed the last original wheel and saw that the powdercoat had bubbles in it. A lot of bubbles. Some large enough that they had popped. All along the seam where the face meets the barrel. Not exactly subtle. The two new wheels had large gashes on the barrels down to bare metal and both had flat spots on the lips. Not huge ones, and not ones that wouldn’t balance out but when you see the wheel rotate you can notice a large dimple in the lip.
Oct3rd I emailed the rep I was dealing with. I sent him multiple pictures and a description of the problem. I waited a few weeks to see if I could get a local repair guy to fix it. I work at a Dealership and the onsite wheel repair guy said he didn’t want to try it because he wasn’t 100% sure he could match the color and get the finish correct with the bubbles at the joint. At this point I was just going to eat the repair so I could get the wheels on my car and enjoy them
Oct 8th I email again because I haven’t heard anything and get a message back fairly quickly saying he passed the email/pictures off to Rotiform and hasn’t heard anything yet.
Oct10th, I get an email saying they’re moving and will follow up soon. That was today. I don’t have my hopes very high. In sixteen days it will be one year since I payed for the wheels to be made and I don’t have a full set yet.
I originally ordered a set of wheels through a Rotiform distributor in late October of last year. They were a custom 2pc welded set of MLW style in 17x9 in a fairly aggressive offset that I knew were going to take a ~2months to make which I was completely fine with. First off, I made a mistake in using a company halfway across the country instead of just tracking down a local place that understood what I wanted. I got excited because places around here that were listed as distributors didn't understand building a custom set of wheels because they were generic tires shops (Les Schwab for any PNW locals) and the place I found seemed to know exactly what I was after. I used Cedar Performance out of Lebanon, Tennessee. What a cluster. I would never recommend them to anyone. To further that, order custom wheels locally or from someone you can trust. Communication was nill. I initiated all contact other than payment request, the wheels were shipped to the wrong place, and multiple times I was ghosted. That's not even my issue anymore. I hate Cedar Performance. I have just stopped trying to get a hold of them.
The wheel problem. In December I was told the wheels were sitting in will call at Rotiform by Cedar. Whether that was true or not, who knows. I finally received them in late January after that shipping problem. Well, they didn't clear my front wilwoods. Which in and of itself is my own fault because I never told Cedar, or Rotiform that I had aftermarket brakes. However, I tried the wheels on my other e30 and they didn't clear the factory brakes either. I was under the impression because the factory caliper carrier rides so close to the hub that if they cleared factory brakes they'd probably clear my wilwoods. Also, I communicated that I was okay if they only wanted to fix it to factory specs because I could put them on another car. In late January I emailed back and forth with Cedar about measurements. That's the first time I was ghosted. He stopped emailing me on Jan 26th. This is when I started calling. Once a week for a few weeks with either no one picking up or answering and say he has to get with Rotiform and they usually hand off all the manufacturing issue communication and I should hear from someone.
Mar4th I emailed Rotiform direct and surprisingly got a hold of someone. They never revealed their name but asked for order info, caliper interference pictures and was told they've done countless e30s and there shouldn't be a problem. I emailed pictures over the next few day and thought things might be happening. On the 6th of March they said they had to contact the rep for my distributor. and then ghosted me.
By the end of March I was making sporadic phones calls to Cedar performance who never called back and never picked up my calls. My girlfriend has family in Tennessee and I contemplated flying down there. I told Cedar I just wanted to be kept updated. I didn’t care if nothing happened just call me or email and tell me that. I was getting tired of initiating all the contact. I started calling what I thought was Rotiform directly but it was MHT's (parent company of Rotiform) network of distributor reps. I was bounced locally to California where I was told the name of the rep I should be dealing with. I called and left a voicemail or two. I feel I was being calm and collected during all of this. No swearing, no yelling, just the facts as I knew them and a request for info. Either tell me you're going to fix the wheels or tell me to go pound sand. I’m fin e with either, just want closure.
Apr5th I get an email from what I was told was a great rep and would take care of me. He reached out asking if Cedar had talked to me and I told him it had been 3 and a half months or so since I talked to them. I was told that there had been attempts at communication but they couldn’t get a hold of me. I didn’t have any missed calls other than spam but maybe google mislabeled those. Either way, no messages left.
Apr12th I finally get an email from Cedar saying the same thing. They tried calling, left a message and wanted me to call back. Which I never got. At this point Cedar only really wanted to talk by phone, and even then, once a week max. I felt like he didn’t want a paper trail of the conversation but that’s pure conjecture. Cedar said again they were getting with Rotiform about fixing the issue. Apr12th is the last time I received any communication with Cedar Performance.
At this point I just went straight to the rep and emailed him to see what was going on. I was told that Rotiform was making me a pair of replacement wheels that would clear. Which was awesome, and disappointing. One of the reasons I ordered a custom set of wheel was I wanted to run square and be able to rotate. Now my fronts won’t match the rears. Oh well. At least they were getting finished. The rep told me the wheel order went in on the 26th of May and would take at least 6 weeks, maybe 8. Which was longer than the original order.
July25th I emailed asking for a status on the wheels. I was told they were in finishing. Awesome! I was also told I’d need to send back two original wheels before they would ship the replacements. While I understand why, I was a bit perturbed. That after all this time, this was a caveat. 3 of the wheels I hadn’t even opened so I labeled two up and shipped them out.
Sept6th I emailed asking for updates because I hadn’t seen or heard anything. I was finally told they were on their way. No tracking info provided.
I got the wheels on the 13th which was a Friday and didn’t have a chance to look at them until the week. I test fit them on the car and they fit. They fit. Amazing. The lip is a different size than the rear because they thickend up the hub to make the caliper clear. Rotiform never went over how they were fixing the wheels just that it was happening. And I’m sure no one but myself will notice but now fronts and rears have different lips sizes. I also noticed the new wheels were stamped with a July build date.
I went to mount all my tires up which now had been sitting around since the previous December. I unboxed the last original wheel and saw that the powdercoat had bubbles in it. A lot of bubbles. Some large enough that they had popped. All along the seam where the face meets the barrel. Not exactly subtle. The two new wheels had large gashes on the barrels down to bare metal and both had flat spots on the lips. Not huge ones, and not ones that wouldn’t balance out but when you see the wheel rotate you can notice a large dimple in the lip.
Oct3rd I emailed the rep I was dealing with. I sent him multiple pictures and a description of the problem. I waited a few weeks to see if I could get a local repair guy to fix it. I work at a Dealership and the onsite wheel repair guy said he didn’t want to try it because he wasn’t 100% sure he could match the color and get the finish correct with the bubbles at the joint. At this point I was just going to eat the repair so I could get the wheels on my car and enjoy them
Oct 8th I email again because I haven’t heard anything and get a message back fairly quickly saying he passed the email/pictures off to Rotiform and hasn’t heard anything yet.
Oct10th, I get an email saying they’re moving and will follow up soon. That was today. I don’t have my hopes very high. In sixteen days it will be one year since I payed for the wheels to be made and I don’t have a full set yet.
_(edited)_IMG_20200926_170054(2).jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
Manual swap all the things!
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