My uncle owns a wheel and tire biz here in Ohio. I was going to purchase new wheels through him but he's refusing to sell them to me due to his opinion that non hub-centric aftermarket wheels can cause driving issues such as vibrating at high speeds, etc. His opinion is that, although they can be balanced, non hub-centric wheels aren't guaranteed to ride smoothly.

My other uncle purchased aftermarket wheels for his honda and had this same issue.

Does anyone have any experience with certain 18-19 inch wheels for a 2012 Countryman S that hasn't experienced driving issues?

 

Tell your uncle to find some hubcentric rings to snap into the wheels. CM has a 72.6 center bore.

For example:
http://us.hubcentric-rings.com/sizes/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wheels-Hub-C...-/131630839040

Just ask him to look up the bore of the wheel and order the rings to fit it.

They sell them on amazon too.

 

I have 17" aftermarkets on our 11 Countryman, with $10 plastic rings. Works fine, no issues. Couldn't find any metal ones in stock or I would have gone with those.

 

I ordered my wheels from tirerack. Had tires put on at a reputable tire installer close by. I've had an intermittent shaking over 60 ever since installed. I've had an alignment done as well as had the tires re-balanced and it persists. I did get a wider offset than factory but other than that the wheels are factory spec WITH hub centric rings. The hub is 56mm's and the rings installed in the wheels and they are the correct rings. I'm ready to just return the dam things. SO sick of chasing this shaking issue. I'm bringing the car in this weekend to MINI and see if the problem may be something else. Note: the car drove perfectly smooth prior to installing new wheels and tires.

 

I think my uncle was considering his conclusion based on rings as well. My other uncle had those included to his aftermarket wheels and still had vibration issues.

 

I think this is exactly what I'm trying to avoid! According to my uncle, you can ad rings, balancers, etc and still have issues if the wheels are hub-centric (or essentially factory).

I'm not about to drop 3k on JCW wheels.

 

The thing is, the vibration isn't necessarily that bad but it's a vibration and I want it gone. I'm currently in contact with tirerack who thru out this entire ordeal is less then helpful. They haven't once offered for me to take my car to their shop of choice to have it checked out. They talk to me like I have no idea what I'm talking about and they circle around questions until I flat out say what I'm asking them to tell me. It took me 2 weeks just to get them to tell me which size rings they installed on the wheels. Aftermarket wheels are sweet and I want to keep them, but it's not worth all this. Fresh wheels and tires should not be this much of a hassle. One would think anyways.