My wife drives a 2009 Ford Fiesta 1.6 5-door Titanium with 22,718 miles, bought from Ford Direct through TCH Derby with whom we have a service agreement with TCH in Burton-on-Trent. My wife does about 5000 miles per year locally and drives in a very steady manner. On collecting the car following the service we were recommended to replace the two front wheels and advised to replace the rears due to buckling from potholes and sleeping policemen, the replacement quote was £212 each (plus normal fitting cost of £27). I was shown a skip full of Ford wheels and told this not unusual.

How big is the problem? Have the motor manufacturers ignored fitness for purpose, are some manufacturers wheels better than others, is this now big business and are our councils being unfairly penalised for poor wheel design/specification, not ignoring our poor road surface maintenance?