I am looking to buy 1 rim in excellent condition. If you have one or know of one that is available please let me know. I live in Los Angeles, CA. Thank you.
Pretty much every one of our rims has kissed a curb, after 3 years. The first few times I saw the carnage I got a bit misty, but got used to it. Is the rim polished aluminum, with clear coat? Or silver painted? Our are the latter, the 17" exposed rims, similar to US Prius 5. Our car is silver, and I've found the silver touch-up paint is PERFECT match. I just clean the chewed up area with isopropyl alcohol, then go over it liberally with silver touch-up stick. Just the paint end, never the clear-coat end of the stick (the clear coat seems to re-melt the color coat, it's a disaster). Then stand up, step back 3', problem gone. I guess what I'm saying, in a nutshell: if you go looking for replacement rims every time you encounter a curb, it's going to get expensive. And then there's the remounting charges. And the chance of the TPMS sensors getting damaged, and/or needing re-initializing (by the dealer, for a charge). And it's a lot of aluminum to be recycled. Just live with it, touch it up, for the short term? Maybe at trade-in time get new rims, but even then, what's the point?
Suggestion for the OP- if it is indeed one of the special rims for the PiP, and still serviceable, save it for a spare. I was able to do that with mine after an accident destroyed the tire and damaged the rim cosmetically. Now I have a full size spare if/when I need one. It won't look any worse than a donut spare and won't have the speed/distance limitations.
I finally decided the damage to the rim was really not that bad. My friend who is the general manager of a Nissan dealer gave me the name of person who repairs wheels. Yesterday he came over and repaired the Wheel for $95.00. It looks absolutely perfect. You would not know where it was repaired. He told me as long as he is repairing wheels, the wheel will be under warranty.
