Fake BMW parts on Fake Britain

[sramsay]

Just turned the TV on and BBC1's Fake Britain was doing a piece on fake BMW parts.  Not sure if it was a repeat but worth a view if you're considering buying wheels or brake disks.  Unsurprisingly they're not made to the same standards and fail badly when tested.

It looked like the wheel they tested for a kerb strike was a 333M. Instead of denting the alloy, the rim sheered off.

[graemeX5]

That sort of thing is scary.

I guess there's no such thing as a bargain.

[X5Sport]

There have been the odd articles over the years about 'copy' alloy wheels - and not just for BMW - failing badly when 'stressed' to the correct standard.

It's why companies such as Alloywheelsdirect are a good place to look because they only sell the genuine article, just at less than Dealer prices.  Unfortunately with the genuine rims being so expensive, there will always be a market for copies/fakes etc and always people who will buy them because they cannot afford the real ones but still want the look.  It's one of a list of what I consider 'safety critical' devices that I would only ever fit OEM for - and yes even they can have the occasional bad one.

The consequences of a failure at speed don't bear thinking about, especially on the UK's appalling roads.

Richard

[Barney]

The fakers even copy PPE equipment, I'm a Senior Test Engineer for British Standards ( the Kitemark lot) and we see items such as hard hats being copied, they fail miserably when tested One word for the people that do it.....Scum!

[sramsay]

Just watched the start of the programme that I missed on iPlayer. They covered fake Honda airbags that in one test exploded, showering the crash test dummies head with burning fragments of what was the airbag and steering wheel cover.

Agree - scumbags...