Had front left tire (or tyre for our friends across the pond) losing like... 3 to 5 pounds of air per day.

Turns out there is a crack in the wheel itself. These are the stock Jag wheels....12 spoke...

The crack is through the bead edge on the inboard side of the wheel.
I've gotten some fairly outrageous quotes to repair it. So.... went looking. I can get a nice looking set of wheels from tire rack on clearance for about $100 each. My question is in regard to hub centric rings. I know the stock wheels don't use them and I understand why they're used on aftermarket wheels. What I don't know is.... basically anything much more about them. Good, bad, indifferent, no big deal, don't do it.....

Questions I should ask before ordering?

Even the wrecking yards around here want a lot of money for Jag wheels if you can even find them. And THEN they may or may not be sure what model Jag they came from

 

Quick net search found this:
Jaguar Factory Wheels | Stock OEM Rims | Up to 50% Off MSRP

From your thumbnail it looks like they have your wheel for $152.35. Have you looked on eBay? I think you can find a decent stock wheel; your decision is whether to stay with OE wheels or not. My car came with aftermarket wheels, so am staying with those.

 

Yeah, I looked there and those are sold out. Unavailable until further notice all over the place. I did look on eBay. And craigslist, and I'm waiting for one more call back from a local yard. I really don't want the wife running around with a cracked wheel for too long. I mean... no idea how long it's BEEN cracked.... but now that I know it is, it bugs me and doesn't seem safe.

I'm looking at these...

(hope that link works) ....as they're pretty close to the stock look.
Painted rather than machine face because around here the machined faces can look like crap in under a year. They get corrosion under the clear coat and get ugly fast.

 

I think those would look sharp. You might lessen the blow by selling the three good stock wheels you have. Changing over to another style Jaguar wheel would be another option, but then there's the issue of finding four in good condition, shipping, mounting etc.

 

eureka!

A local yard called. They have ONE 12-spoke... I'm going to go check it out tomorrow. $150. Used is fine as long as it's not beat up too bad.

 

If the wheels are look good on the car I wouldn't care if it OE or not, unless if you want your car is collector item, some of the OE X-Type wheels are not the best looking ones.

 

Agreed. We have the 12-spoke wheels and they look classy. I woulda been fine with the aftermarket wheels, but fixing a problem for $150 instead of $400 was fine with me. Wife says, "It's not a show car"....heheh..... but I DID just buy a new set of the growler center caps for the wheels... heheh

 

I put factory spares on one side of my ride and was impressed how good they looked, they even came with conti pro rubber on them, now aged to perfection of course. I am going to complete a set and play around with paint colors.