I grew up in the tire business. My dad had a service truck and we would go out on road service calls every weekend. The business grew to have 50 employees at one time and now we are down to about 10. My job certainly has changed over the years. From stocker to driver to sales to installer to manager and now advertising. I can say that I know pretty much every aspect of the retail and wholesale tire business.
I have purchased new aftermarket wheels for all my vehicles. Some were outrageously impractical and some were bought to serve a purpose. I prefer the latter now. My father is the same way, he wouldn't dare own a vehicle with factory wheels. Of course we are in the tire business and those things are easily accessible to us. It's like a family tradition or rule even - all our cars get rims. Period.
It seems very counter-intuitive to speak negative about tire and wheel purchases. Of course we want as many customers as we can handle. However, some people blindly buy nice 24 inch wheels for $3000 and in 6 months after they are scratched they want to sell them for the same price. It doesn't work like that. They usually end up waiting til they need new tires, realize that tires cost $800 alone, then sell the rims on craigslist at a HUGE loss. Then they try and find stock wheels for cheap and at the end the vehicle looks original again while they spent all the time, money and energy to bling it out!!
I admit this does not happen all the time. Some people buy a wheel and tire package that makes practical sense. We always try to steer people in the right direction when making a wheel purchase. A lot of people are clueless as to risks and prices and it is our job to make the consumer aware of everything before they buy anything. We want happy customers!
The customer who owns the above Jeep has money to burn and spent over $15,000 to customize it. This might be a little over the top and if he plans on doing some serious off-roading, it's only somewhat practical. Oh it looks cool as hell! None the less, by purchasing all these aftermarket products he effectively appreciated the value of his Jeep by $0 dollars. There will always be another Jeep on the trail that can out-perform it with only a few thousand in upgrades. Like this Jeep below. He spent about $3500 for wheels, tires and a long-travel suspension kit. I'd put my money on this Jeep for it's ability to climb over just about anything. I fully understand that the 2 owners of these Jeeps might have had different customization goals, come from different economic backgrounds and probably hang with different crowds. What is important to some is not as important to others.
So whether you are looking to be the coolest kid in school or just trying to make your vehicle perform better, there are plenty of options. My recommendation is to research, research, research!! Know what you are getting for the money. Read reviews, talk to as many people as possible about it. But under no circumstances should you just blindly buy wheels just because they look cool! You might be disappointed after just a short while...
Thanks for reading!!