The finish extends into the holes.

Made in Italy.

No lug caps needed - the ones supplied are semi-gloss chrome, not unalike OEM, but with marginally inferior finish, and slightly shorter. Same 17mm socket size to remove.

Yes - I am happy with them. Also, they needed little in the way of balancing weights, suggesting quality manufacture.

I think the key to keeping these looking good is to wax them from time to time - after all, that is a paint finish in a very hostile environment, probably explaining why you see so many older wheels with peeling clearcoat.

I have heard many horror stories of poor after market chroming which peels; in the event that's not an issue for me as I prefer the painted look.

For me the main reasons for purchase were that the originals were horribly curb-rashed by the PO, the clearcoat was shot, the 15 slots had seemingly never been cleaned properly and were caked with hard brake dust deposits. While the 15 hole wheels look superficially easy to keep clean, they are anything but, owing to the 15 small, deep, dirt retaining slots. By contrast, the 8 holes are a dream to clean. Finally, FRH offers the correct 25mm offset (ET25) so that you have no clearance problems and, yes, they take the same tires (195 65 15" if I recall) as OEM. I called Capitol West who advertise these in The Star ($135 each, or so), at the time of my purchase, but they did not stock the correct offset. Plus, FRH is out of state (OR, I am in CA) so I get the great pleasure of knowing that I have done my fiscal duty of reducing government waste by not paying CA sales tax.

I bought five, to make sure the spare matched. Amazingly, I sold the old rims on eBay for ~$300 (someone in Chicago who needed junk rims for winter use), so my net investment was ~$200!

I run Continental Touring tires - an inexpensive tire which is fine for my conservative driving style, though it handles less well than, say, a Michelin MXV4 which costs much more. The Contis tend to need small steering corrections at speed, in contrast to the Michelins. Tire wear on new tires 10,000 miles ago suggests a 25-30,000 mile life. My use is 50/50 freeway/city. I run the tire pressures recommended by the factory on the inside of the fuel filler lid.

I had the balancing weights placed inside the rims to preserve cosmetic apperance. Once mounted on the outside, these tend to take the clearcoat with them when removed, in my experience. Many aver that that's not optimal balancing, but as I do not drive over 80 mph, the difference, if any, is not noticeable to me.

After many years of experimentation with after market brake pads, I have reverted to the relatively soft OEM ones. The Repco Metalmasters I used for many years on my 300SD wore slowly, reduced brake disk life, put out a rusty, easy to remove, light deposit on the wheels (in contrast to the OEM greasy, black, hard to remove deposit) and needed more brake pedal pressure compared to OEM. I fitted Kleen Wheels in the front rims and now enjoy similar front and rear brake dust deposit rates, so you don't get the 'black front, grey rear' look common to many MBs on the road. If you drive hard and brake hard, some experts maintain that Kleen Wheels overheat the brakes, but I have not seen any objective, controlled tests supporting this, so cannot comment. They work fine for me. I do not consider the dignified, refined W126 chassis fit for boy racer driving.

Hope that helps.