Is this a common thing?

"Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre) 09/27/2017 at 12:54 • Filed to: None

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Ok, we’re all familiar (at least in The USA) with the rent to own furniture/electronics places where over the course of a year you can pay $2500 in installments for a $500 couch.

This was next to the Red Wing where I stopped for new work boots. A rent to own tire and wheel shop.

I know with the furniture places they repossess if you don’t pay. How does that work if you get just tires and not wheels? Do they come to your house take the wheels and tires off your car, remove the tires and return bare rims? Maybe they only have wheel and tire combos to make repossession easier.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 12:58

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probably take the whole car to make up for missed payments......

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 12:58

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They’re all over the Charlotte area. Rim Tyme is a big one.

RutRut > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:01

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Not that uncommon in certain areas that tend to be poor and inner-city. Some have even required a GPS tracker in your car so they can get their wheels back lol. Even the diesel guys have gone the route of financing wheels to buy a $5k set of Forces or Fuels.

Tekamul > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:03

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I saw these places when visiting South Carolina. Usually wedged between a couple title loan places.
I assume when you miss a payment, they take the whole car. Also, I’m guessing the tires they have mounted are 5 years past being garbage.

Textured Soy Protein > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:14

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Back when I worked at a contract staffing agency that placed people in tech-y jobs around the country, I had some kind of a wheel & tire store call me to verify employment for a guy I had placed in a temp sorta-tech-y job. He wanted to buy some rims on credit. I directed them to our employment verification service.

I remember thinking at the time that buying something completely discretionary like some rims on store credit sounded like a pretty dumb thing to do, but I didn’t realize it was like, Rent-a-Center or Aaron’s but for rims. Go figure.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:15

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I did an Autocross in Virginia once and there was once of these across the street from the venue. It gave me a sensible chuckle thinking about renting a set of race wheels and tires and then destroying them on course and returning them.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:24

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I’ve never seen or heard of this around my area - South of Boston

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 13:27

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Not really any different than using a credit card that you don’t pay off monthly, but I’m sure the interest is a touch higher.

Kiltedpadre > Textured Soy Protein 09/27/2017 at 13:41

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My only question there would be if it’s a place like this or was he applying for say a Goodyear credit card to get on a 12month no interest deal. I still wouldn’t buy new wheels on credit personally, but at least with the store card if he made the payments he’d be paying retail price. Somewhere like this you probably pay 400% above normal retail.

Well, I can see paying for wheels on credit if you had one on your car damaged beyond saving. Then it’s a necessity, and if you don’t have the cash credit is better than being out of work due to lack of transportation.

Kiltedpadre > Tekamul 09/27/2017 at 13:42

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This was a couple doors down from one of the rent to own furniture places. There was a title loan place on the same block.

Kiltedpadre > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc 09/27/2017 at 13:44

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The interest rate would be closer to making payments every other month and taking the late payment hit with the furniture places. I don’t know about the wheel place since I didn’t go in.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:01

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These places are around the El Paso/Las Cruces area, and they are generally found in low income areas. It seems that their target customers are about the same folks you’ll find a payday/title loan storefront. If you don’t pay, my understanding is that they’ll repossess the wheels and tires and leave the car sitting on blocks wherever they found it.

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > Tekamul 09/27/2017 at 14:06

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Yep, I interned in SC for a summer and saw a handful of these places.

So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:07

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There was one of these places in Daytona Beach called Rent a Wheel or Rent A Rim, i forget. It was near the shady car dealers and payday load joints. I guess they are more common than i thought.

vondon302 > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:08

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These have been around the Detroit area for awhile now. I did a second glance too the first time I saw one.

ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:08

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The first place I saw these was in Montgomery, AL. I asked some folks about it, and they said the shops there will repossess the wheels+tires and leave the car on blocks.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:09

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for those who want to be ballin on a budget

Textured Soy Protein > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:09

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The store called me directly as if they were the ones doing the credit, and it was definitely some random wheel store, not a chain with a store card. I seem to recall the word “rims” might have been in the name of the store. It was a good 5+ years ago.

This definitely seemed to me like it was an “I’m gonna put some cool rims on my car” type of purchase and not a “keep the car driveable so I can get to work” purchase.

Kiltedpadre > So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky 09/27/2017 at 14:12

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Rent A Rim for when you really need 24s on your 18 year old C-class before the big high school reunion!

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/27/2017 at 14:16

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Those kind of places don’t carry anything you’d want to put on your car for auto-x. It’s all chrome dubs.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > RutRut 09/27/2017 at 14:18

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Are Rockstars no longer the big thing with the bro-truck and diesel guys?

So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:22

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We always joked the added bling was to make your wedding day extra special

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:24

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There are a lot of radio ads for rent-a-wheel places on the local “rhythmic contemporary” (i.e. rap) station. Sad commentary on things, I guess.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 14:24

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South Carolina Oppo here. We do have quite a few of these around. The concept, as explained to me by a co-worker who is currently renting wheels from one of those places:

You can purchase rims, purchase tires, purchase rim/tire packages, or rent rim/tire packages. The rental is a month-to-month deal, and you can opt to pay towards the total cost of the package and own them once you hit that amount, or you can go off of their model that I can only compare to a car lease. You have them for a certain period of time and then swap them out for something else. So, when said the rim cracks, or the super thin tire inevitably blows, you’re not on the hook for and they replace it for free.

I can’t say this is how all places like this operate. This is just one specific company here, which seems to be a somewhat reputable tire shop in general. The overall idea of renting wheels though seems sketchy to me though.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/27/2017 at 14:29

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Well yeah I figured as much haha. Thats why I never bothered looking into it. It was one of those crazy ideas a couple of us had while going out for lunch.

RutRut > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/27/2017 at 14:31

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Oh god no. American Force, Fuel, Hostile, Forged Specialties. Big, wide and with tons of negative offset because stance. 26x16s on 40" tires.

Kiltedpadre > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/27/2017 at 14:41

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Apparently not, I keep an eye on the local Craigslist for OEM wheels for my truck and there are always tons of Rockstars on there. Gotta swap em out to keep up with the Bro fads I guess.

Kiltedpadre > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/27/2017 at 14:43

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Yeah the idea is very sketchy. The free replacement could be a heck of a plan if you had a teenager with a habit of bashing curbs. Of course that all depends on the upcharge versus having just bought them outright.

atrombs > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 15:10

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Yes, if you don’t pay they just come take them.

There are some good wheel repo videos on youtube. This one is pretty exciting.

Kiltedpadre > atrombs 09/27/2017 at 16:07

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A Hummer H2 in front of Kmart. It couldn’t be more perfect if it were staged!

Probenja > atrombs 09/27/2017 at 16:34

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Ok, I’m not from the US but this whole repo thing I thought it was just made up for TruTV shows, I could never imagine such things in real life but I guess they do exist.

RPM esq. > Kiltedpadre 09/27/2017 at 16:40

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I’ll bet someone is securitizing the TERRIBLE loans with which people finance their rims, and I’ll also bet that the clever sods lending the capital for these franchises to purchase the rims they lease to people are also securitizing those loans. I look forward to litigating the whole mess when it all falls apart.