We're probably not that far apart in beliefs...

But seriously, everyone throws around "oh, **I** bought the high quality replicas that are made by the same factory that makes BMW wheels'... so I wanted to find out who really DOES make the X5 wheels. Thats all.

And my thesis is that any replica MUST be done by a fly by night company that is 'un-sueable'...and hence more likely to be a risk. The big name vendors simply cannot risk copying BMW patterns.

I suppose there MAY be very high quality copies put there (and hence I agree that an aftermarket copy wheel is 'automatically' inferior)- but I cannot understand how one can actually identify them.