Kizashi Club

Do all trims levels of the Kizashi have painted wheels (rims). Being aluminum alloy I would think they would be "solid" metal through and though and not need to be painted and therefore subject to flaking. Are the higher trim levels (i.e. GTS, Sport SLS) like this while the lower trim (S/SE) are painted?

They are all painted. The Sport wheels flake easily too. Suzuki did a horrible job with the paint on the Kizashi given how easily everything chips and flakes.

I thought it was the wheel clearcoat that was flaking off, not paint.

I'm planning to Plasti-Dip mine in gunmetal. That should hold up until it's time to change tires again.

I scratched another one, dammit! Just lightly brushed a curb and when I get out of the car, the rim is gashed. What are they made out of butter? Might just get some custom rims in more reasonable size for the car. I've had one refinished and bought one new one already, I think it's the new one that I just gouged on Sunday. What if I just got them all sandblasted down to bare metal and then shot them with clearcoat? At least I could fix minor scratches myself that way.

Speed_Racer wrote:I thought it was the wheel clearcoat that was flaking off, not paint.

It's the paint in most cases. My wheels were perfect until I had the car detailed. Whatever the body shop did during detailing stripped off a lot of my wheel's paint. I had them repainted for free given the damage. The wheels are now much darker but the paint shouldn't be an issue anymore.

This is what my wheel looked like after the detailing. The white parts are what the bare alloy looks like.


Got them repainted and now currently look like this. It came out a lot darker, but I didn't mind.

Most manufacturers paint even aluminum wheels. My Altimas have a very thick clearcoat while my other case have a thinner one. The kizashi's paint on the wheels just isn't that good. But refinishing is always an option or even changing them to another color.