Yesterday I picked up four new wheels for my 2008 Lux III.
I was never a complete fan of the wheels that came from the factory, and when I saw a small picture of these RPO QZ6 wheels I became curious.
These are my original RPO N80 wheels:
Here are the new RPO QZ6 ones:
When I first tracked down their part number this summer I learned that there were only ten wheels available in GM's world-wide parts network, and that all ten were in Lansing Michigan. Over time this number dropped first to six and then to four. With only four left I had no choice but to order them.
According to my parts guy, any others will have to come from the OEM or - in GM parlance - supplied directly from source. Now this is where things get a little funny... Believe it or not, but the wheels are marked as Made in India. I find this quite odd, but perhaps since they were a very limited production of perhaps only a few thousand units, no domestic wheel manufacturer was willing to take on the job.
This wheel design has only been available for order since February 25, 2008, on a 2008 or 2009 DTS, Luxury III with the Platinum Package, so I would be surprised if 500 such cars have ever been built. As well, given that they came from India, I wonder if GM will simply delete the wheel from vehicle line production as the supply is exhausted and replace it with another design.
On a personal note I take pleasure in being just a little different than the next person - and having this rare set of wheels is one way that I can do that. As my colour, Cognac Frost, stopped production the week of February 4, 2008, my DTS will be the only one in the world with these wheels.
Anyways I'll get them mounted sometime in May or June after the snow is gone and will post new pictures at that time.
