Which wheel to choose:premium trim machined finished or polished?

[Wolfgang427]

I'd go with this as well

These are my favorite too......

[Duntov7]

I'm for the Polished 18" rpo R1Z , especially now that they appear to be off constraint. And, the optional 19" ATS wheels are interesting.

[HoosierDaddy]

Something to consider is value. Cadillac is clearly taking Premium buyers who opt for the polished wheels to the cleaners. To wit: the 18" machined is an $800 upgrade from a 17" wheel in the performance line. The 18" polished is an $850 upgrade from the same 17" (painted instead of polished) in the Luxury line. In other words, Cadillac prices the two 18" wheels within $100 of each other for non premium buyers but makes the polished an $850 upgrade in Premium. And this is born out in the aftermarket. The two 18" wheels (new car take-offs) sell for the same amount. I ordered a Performance line but if I was ordering a Premium and wanted the polished wheels, just on principles, I'd take the "free" machined wheels and sell them for enough to buy the polished in the aftermarket.

[Duntov7]

Polished Wheels are nearly always an 'upgrade' price, because they are more expensive to manufacture. My Corvette has a $2500 charge ($2200 at dealer invoice) for the Chrome Wheel Option. A few years ago, I ordered a Vette with "regular" wheels (i.e. no option upgrade), sent the wheels to Corvette Mike in California on an Exchange basis (from here in Ontario, Canada)....he sends an already chromed set, and keeps your OEM wheels. Nice work too, not too pricey either. There are likely such routes available for the ATS etc also. The decision as to buying the ATS with polished or machined wheels is a very personal choice.

[HoosierDaddy]

Katie from Cadillac Customer Services researched the weights for me.

The machined wheels are substantially lighter than the polished ones. 24.32 lbs vs 28.84 lbs each for the 8" widths; similar ratios for the 9" widths. That's a bit more than 18 extra lbs of unsprung weight and rotational weight.

My ATS on order is a Performance so has the machined wheels. My dealer was going to swap them for the polished wheels if I wanted those. I'm definitely keeping the machined.

[Ralph]

I will go with the Forged aluminum polish, that's what i have in my car and the look much more aggressive than the machined, which I had in a test car. But, definitively DON'T go with run flat tires, they are Suck. I'm changing mine and is going to cost me at least $1K.

[cfrp]

Run flats are usually pretty crap for ride comfort in general. Plus they weight a ton.

[CraigK]

I have the polished 18" on my Raven 2.0T 6a, and they are sharp, much better looking than the machined, IMO. I normally would be too cheap to spend an extra $850 on them, but I bought off the lot at year end and the selection wasn't the greatest (though the price discounts made it worthwhile)!

[UphillDonut]

I have the polished 18"s on my Premium 3.6 ATS and although they do look sharp, not $850 more sharp. They came on the car so I did not have a choice. If I had ordered my car, I would not pay the almost $900 extra.