I've just buckled my NSF wheel in one of the lovely big potholes my local council seems to be cultivating at the moment. Just had the wheel balanced, but it hasn't sorted the problem, so I need to get a new wheel. I've been quoted £200 inc VAT by my local dealer.

Anyone know where I can buy them cheaper?

Thanks in advance.

I don't think £200 is too bad actually but obviously better if you didn't have to spend it at all. Get pictures of the pot hole and write to your council for compensation. Am sure others can advise on how to go about it etc.

Found new on Ebay for £185 inc delivery - getting better!

Found new on Ebay for £185 inc delivery - getting better!

on a related note, I have the FL vRS CR DSG hatch. Thinking of buying alloy wheels for winter tyres. I can't seem to find the exact size of my current alloy wheels. the brochure tells me the Neptune wheel tyre size (225/45 R17 91W) but I've seen people talking about alloy wheel size e.g. 7J x 17inch and offsets? Don't really understand this. I was hoping I could get 17 or 16 inch alloys and fit appropriate tyres to match the rolling circumference. Some advice would be apreciated.

If you are looking for wheels specifically for Winter Tyres then I would go for 16s - lots of cheap Audi 16 wheels on ebay, just make sure they are 5x112 stud diameter and not the earlier 5x100. Any Audi after 2002 will have suitable wheels.

You will need to go up to 55 aspect 16 tyres to maintain the rolling radius, also 16 tyres are much cheaper than 17s. Typically go for 205,55,16 in a winter tyre.

The 17" Zenith is £140 inc. vat from the Skoda accessory catalogue, so the 18" cant be that much more.

http://www.accessories.skoda.co.uk/productdetail.aspx?p_no=CCH600008

I bought a complete set of 18 zeniths for £250 (luck on ebay really) because i wanted the spare to be an 18 also and 2 wheels were damaged when i had the car.

As for claiming off the council if yours are anything like mine there is no chance as ive fought them twice over damaged wheels and both times they have cover for up to 6 months on a checked and/or repaired road. Basically if a council check has been done within 6 months then they are covered as safe. Bonkers and i said how can they state the roads are safe if there is a great big feckin pot hole and i have a photo of it, but just hid behind a law that they have managed to get introduced the bar stewards!! Hope they aint the same as down here :(.

Edited 16 October, 201015 yr by dainott

Bonkers and i said how can they state the roads are safe if there is a great big feckin pot hole and i have a photo of it, but just hid behind a law that they have managed to get introduced the bar stewards!! Hope they aint the same as down here :(.

It's not quite as simple as that - the Council's insurors won't settle any claim in your favour unless you can prove that the Council have been negligent in some way. Just because a pothole exists does not mean that the Council is negligent - if that was the case they would have to keep an eye on every metre of road, every minute of the day which is obviously unreasonable.

The Council can be proved negligent if -

1. They do not have a reasonable inspection regime for the road in question (depending on the road class/hierarchy, traffic volume etc, a reasonable inspection interval may be anything from weekly to annually), or

2. They have the above, but have not adhered to it, or

3. You can prove that they were aware of the pothole already, and didn't repair it within a reasonable time (again, the Council will have set timescales for repairing defects such as this, and can vary from immediate (within 2 hrs probably) up to maybe 6 months or so, depending on the nature and severity of the defect)).

If you submit a claim, the Council's insuror will request all of the above information from the Council, or you can ask for it yourself using an FOI.

But how can anyone claim these days for a damaged wheel! We all know how bad the roads are for potholes and due to the recession the councils are just constantly patching the roads up instead or resurfacing them.

When i tried to claim they said that no one else had complained about the pothole, but how do i know that is the case its just my word against theirs. This beggers the question why employ a road inpection system when they could just wait until someone phones to complain and then go repair it and saves them some more money.

My opinion is that if there is a big hole in a road which will badly damage my wheel and possibly cause a blow out then that is an unsafe part of road regardless of it was checked a few months previously.

Councils have a duty of care...

In fact they WILL pay out if you can prove a particular pothole caused your damage

Some councils would rather pay you than actually repair the holes..Its cheaper for them apparantly

Get your claim in!!

Ive tried twice for 2 different wheels and both times basically they have said that they wont pay and only way would be court :(

ring GPC ask for charlie give him the part number

tel..01582 728892

worth a call