[DRSVJ]

BEWARE OF CARISMO DESIGN, Carbon Steering Wheels

Hello fellow owners. New here. The reason i signed up is because i wanted to warn fellow owners about a scam I recently came across. Small backstory, I recently picked up a new to me Performante, and the first mod i wanted to do was a fancy custom carbon fiber steering wheel. After some searching, i came across a company called Carismo Design "Carismo_Design" on instagram. They seemed to be pretty well reputed. Their page showed definite promise of high quality products, backed up with professional looking photos of their various "exclusive" products. After discussing pricing with the owner, Kirill Zaitsev, he sent me pricing for a package deal including one for my SVJ, and offered me a "20% off" deal if I purchased both. Everything seemed to check out, despite the fact of him not even having a website for his business. However after shopping around I found out that his pricing with the "discount" was much higher vs all the other vendors. Yet I was still ok and willing with the pricing initially as it seemed to be a high quality piece made using an OEM Lamborghini CORE steering wheel, fooled by the photos on his page.

One point he was very solid on was that his steering wheels were made IN HOUSE, BY HIM in the USA!!! As someone who is very particular about purchases, i decided to do some more research and found out that this was TOTALLY FALSE!! A quick 5 minute google search resulted in me finding "his" "premium " products all over Aliexpress. MADE IN CHINA. His products are made in CHINA, yet he was charging me a heavy premium while advertising it as an "OEM" Lamborghini steering wheel.

After confronting him about this fact, his persona changed from speaking to me in a professional manner to totally rude and unprofessional. Clearly showing that he was caught. This is horrible business practice. I would have been totally OK with everything, if he was upfront about this fact from the beginning. However he is charging a triple 3x MARKUP for products he is buying in bulk from in China, and assuring customers that they are made locally. BEWARE!!

Just wanted to give other owners a heads up about this company shady business practice!! I will post screenshots if necessary.

Thank you

 

[Blu Bull]

I bought both my Huracan wheels from Huracan – Robson Design Carbon Fiber Car & Accessories Interior. They have been around for a long time with a great reputation for making parts for high end car. They make the stuff in Singapore and Vietnam. They are more expensive than most, mine was $3,200, but I wanted it quick and customized to match my car's matte forged carbon fiber interior. Was told 2-3 weeks to make and they shipped it exactly 3 weeks after I placed order. How much were they charging you for wheels? Also did his price require a core charge? If so I would think his wheels would be made from an OEM core, not sure you can even find aftermarket cores?

 

[SRM Autosports]

99% of all steering wheels are made in Asia. I have sold so many on R8talk and all my customer are informed before hand that they are made in china and the $1100 to $1500 price point reflects that.

 

[wthensler]

No industry is immune from these misleading claims. I buy high end, CF bicycles from Trek. They always used to put a ‘Made in USA’ sticker on them.....until someone discovered their frames were made in Taiwan and shipped to the US for final assembly.

Now the sticker reads ‘Proudly designed in the USA’ , or something to that effect.

Surprises me little that if a company the size of Trek did it, the little guy will as well. Good investigative work on your part to uncover this. Wonder how many others are getting away with this to varying degrees.

 

[Russk]

So I guess it is not at all unusual to have the steering wheel made in China. However that should be disclosed 100%.

 

[Blu Bull]

99% of all steering wheels are made in Asia. I have sold so many on R8talk and all my customer are informed before hand that they are made in china and the $1100 to $1500 price point reflects that.

Can get a Russian one made that is great quality and decent price but will take a long time to get

 

[DRSVJ]

I bought both my Huracan wheels from Huracan – Robson Design Carbon Fiber Car & Accessories Interior. They have been around for a long time with a great reputation for making parts for high end car. They make the stuff in Singapore and Vietnam. They are more expensive than most, mine was $3,200, but I wanted it quick and customized to match my car's matte forged carbon fiber interior. Was told 2-3 weeks to make and they shipped it exactly 3 weeks after I placed order. How much were they charging you for wheels? Also did his price require a core charge? If so I would think his wheels would be made from an OEM core, not sure you can even find aftermarket cores?

View attachment 292688

He was charging about 2600 with a "20% off" coupon haha. No core exchange

That wheel looks very nice i will check them out!

99% of all steering wheels are made in Asia. I have sold so many on R8talk and all my customer are informed before hand that they are made in china and the $1100 to $1500 price point reflects that.

Nothing wrong with being made there, I am sure some are very HQ like the ones you sell. At least you are straight forward about that and price it accordingly. Respect.

No industry is immune from these misleading claims. I buy high end, CF bicycles from Trek. They always used to put a ‘Made in USA’ sticker on them.....until someone discovered their frames were made in Taiwan and shipped to the US for final assembly.

Now the sticker reads ‘Proudly designed in the USA’ , or something to that effect.

Surprises me little that if a company the size of Trek did it, the little guy will as well. Good investigative work on your part to uncover this. Wonder how many others are getting away with this to varying degrees.

No worries, just wanted to post this to help out fellow owners. And agreed 100%!

So I guess it is not at all unusual to have the steering wheel made in China. However that should be disclosed 100%.

Fully agree.

Can get a Russian one made that is great quality and decent price but will take a long time to get

Any recommendations? I dont mind buying one from Asia. I found that I can go directly on aliexpress and order from the manufacturer directly instead of going through middle men like carismodesign. Will pay the "real" price also, for the exact same product.

 

[Blu Bull]

Any recommendations? I dont mind buying one from Asia. I found that I can go directly on aliexpress and order from the manufacturer directly instead of going through middle men like carismodesign. Will pay the "real" price also, for the exact same product.

There is a member here, "Carbon Kingdom, who has wheels made in Russia and quality is excellent and price would be under $2k but whatever he tells you for delivery add a couple months. I just received this wheel yesterday for my Lotus, bought it from a site that sells just Lotus stuff and it's made in California, Price was $699 and $350 core exchange. Quality of carbon fiber and leather is as good as any I have seen.

Also a couple years ago I bought this wheel for my SQ5 and price was $999 +Core, Bought it off Ebay and was told it's made in CA, pretty sure it's same company for both. Need to find out who they are

 

[CFI Designs]

MD interiors based out of New Jersey and Nelson Racing wheel in Denver colorado make steering wheels in the USA.

 

[LHP]

There is a member here, "Carbon Kingdom, who has wheels made in Russia and quality is excellent and price would be under $2k but whatever he tells you for delivery add a couple months. I just received this wheel yesterday for my Lotus, bought it from a site that sells just Lotus stuff and it's made in California, Price was $699 and $350 core exchange. Quality of carbon fiber and leather is as good as any I have seen.



Also a couple years ago I bought this wheel for my SQ5 and price was $999 +Core, Bought it off Ebay and was told it's made in CA, pretty sure it's same company for both. Need to find out who they are

That looks fantastic! If you find out whose selling these for Huracans please let me know. I'm in LA so that would be awesome to go pick it up.

 

[DRSVJ]

MD interiors based out of New Jersey and Nelson Racing wheel in Denver colorado make steering wheels in the USA.

thank you!

 

[tomespo]

I have a carismo wheel and love it. No issues and I would actually highly recommend them as it is one of my favorite mods. I would also suggest staying away from mr carbon kingdom. Took 6+ months for my perf style wing and it wasn’t perfect like he had promised .

 

[DRSVJ]

I have a carismo wheel and love it. No issues and I would actually highly recommend them as it is one of my favorite mods. I would also suggest staying away from mr carbon kingdom. Took 6+ months for my perf style wing and it wasn’t perfect like he had promised .

glad to hear, but the quality was never a question. Just shady business practice of selling overseas made products marketed as being made locally. Then charging 2x the price.

 

[Blown SRT]

I got a CF wheel from a vendor here for $1300 w/ no core charges - made in China. Probably better quality them the OEM wheel, but I get the shady business practices issue totally. I'd be pissed as well.

 

[DRSVJ]

1300 is fair. The company in question is selling them for double that

 

[Blu Bull]

I really don't get how they can sell for $1,300 with no core exchange required? Wouldnt a stock huracan wheel be more than that? Or are they using some cheap knock off as a core?

 

[Russk]

I really don't get how they can sell for $1,300 with no core exchange required? Wouldnt a stock huracan wheel be more than that? Or are they using some cheap knock off as a core?

I agree, that doesn’t make sense. They must not be using OEM core.

 

[Blu Bull]

I would only go with a genuine Lambo core

 

[Johndong888]

1300 is fair. The company in question is selling them for double that

2600 seems in line with no core exchange required. I don’t see how 1300 is feasible as OEM cost around there...


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[Blown SRT]

I never said it was an OEM wheel. I bought it from a reputable Vendor on here and I installed it. It is absolutely gorgeous and quality is on par, if not better than OEM. It does not matter to me that it's perhaps NOT OEM...as all I care about is how it looks, feels and performs.

I have the OEM wheel wrapped up in a package and it will be handed to the new owner, if i ever sell the car.

What I have discovered, is that a number of wheels I have seen at 2+ x the cost are no better and require a core - which makes no sense to me when I can get something as good as or better than OEM - and still keep my OEM wheel.

My bad, it was 1500, not 1300 - I just checked

It was from DCTMS - and I'd buy it again in a heartbeat!