I am in the process of negotiating to lease a 2010 XK. The car comes with the standard 19" Caravela wheels. Although nice I always loved the older 20" Senta alloy wheels that were an option with the 2007-2009 XK/XKR models. The dealer is not willing to upgrade the wheels for me since "he does not have those specific wheels on hand". According to the dealer my only option is to buy the wheels myself and he would install them however he strongly recommends against this because "it is a gamble putting on wheels that do not come directly from Jaguar because there is a high risk of them having a defect (i.e. they could be bent, etc.)". I asked if he could get them from Jaguar directly to avoid this risk and he said he could not.

I have tried to locate the 20" Sentas online and I have seen a huge range of prices ($767 to $1300 for a set of 4). Is it too much of a risk buying these wheels on my own as the dealer warns and should I suck it up and just stick with the Caravelas? Does anyone know of a good place to get these Senta wheels? What is a fair price for these wheels (set of 4)?

I also noticed that on some sites the Sentas are listed as 19" and others as 20". The dealer told me that they were never 19" and that the website is wrong but I have seem them listed at 19" on more then one website. Who is correct, the dealer of the shop?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Basically, if you are going to buy a set of Setanta 20" straight off the internet, then clearly you are taking a risk that they might have serious defects. Having said that, once you have them, you should get them checked out by a wheel refurbisher. I expect you will have to have them refurbished anyway, as large wheels like this tend to get kerbed a lot.

However, first off I would see whether I can live with the wheels the car comes with. A 20" wheel will make the ride harsher, although I don't suppose there is much in it between 19" and 20".

 

Thanks for your input Frasier. I really appreciate it. I was planning on buying the wheels from a supplier like usarim.com. I assumed they are new however I will need to call and check before buying them. According the their website they come with a "lifetime structural, one year finish warranty" which make me feel a little better. The Caravelas are nice but I really love the look of the Sentas. So much so that I would go though the hassle of buying them for a leased car. I just get the vibe from the dealer that he is pushing me on the Caravelas so he can close the deal since he does not have the Sentas to swap out and is planting the seed that trying to buy Sentas is more risky than it truly is. Then again I could be wrong.

 

Thanks for everyone's help and advice. In the end I was able to track down a 2010 from another dealer that had the 20" wheels and went with that car. I tried one last time with the original dealer but they were not willing to swap out the 19" wheels for the 20" wheels on the XK that I wanted because they said that if they did "the window sticker would no longer match the car that they took the 20" wheels from". I still don't quite get why the dealer would lose out on the sale over something that seems rather minor however not being a dealer myself I don't know how these things work. Regardless I am thrilled with my new XK so far. Thanks again everyone.