Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition

Armenius

Armenius

Extremely [H]
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
42,101
Hi all.

So I recently bit and purchased an Xbox ONE, mainly for Forza. And I think the game is great, the new physics model giving a unique feel to every car even with a controller. But I can't stop thinking about how much better the experience would be with a wheel. With no announcements from Fanatec on the horizon about XBONE support, I was looking at the only option available: the Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition.

Now, first thing's first... OMG, the price! It retails for $399.99. Now I would not have a problem with this if the quality was there to reflect the price of the product, as I have at least this much invested in my Fanatec gear from the previous generation. However, I have been reading a lot about how this wheel will fail very quickly, sometimes literally going up in smoke. Has anyone here had the same kind of experience? I'm hoping that it has been out long enough that the issue was fixed and the products on the market have replaced with working ones. This is a serious issue and I would definitely not invest so much money in a product with these kinds of quality issues.

Continuing with quality issues, I have also read about connection/recognition issues via USB with the console itself, especially after updates. Other issues with buttons that stop working and so on.

Now I also have read that the pedals are all kinds of terrible, but I saw the CPX adapter from BasherBoards that allows you to connect the CSR Elite and Clubsport pedals to the base. I would have no problem spending the extra $45 for the adapter if the wheel was worth it.

My question is, is it worth it? I think this wheel would only be for XBONE duty, while the Fanatec will take care of everything else. I have heard some unsubstantiated rumours going around that Fanatec is planning some kind of announcement in the future. If that is true, then I would wait to see what they have to say first.
 
Did you even read what you just wrote? You are asking if a $399 steering wheel with a high failure rate, chance of fire, multiple USB failures, recognition issues, and terrible pedals would be a good idea to purchase...

I wouldn't buy shit from a company that put out a bad product at such a high price. Just wait for something else.
 
Is it worth it is a value judgment. I suspect if this were a poll 90% would say no. Why not wait a while for other wheels to be released? Then pick the best wheel among the different choices. Patience.
 
ocellaris said:
Did you even read what you just wrote? You are asking if a $399 steering wheel with a high failure rate, chance of fire, multiple USB failures, recognition issues, and terrible pedals would be a good idea to purchase...

I wouldn't buy shit from a company that put out a bad product at such a high price. Just wait for something else.
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The reason I'm putting it out there is because people on the internet usually only post about something when it is extremely bad. The loudest people on the internet also happen to be the vocal minority. Thrustmaster have been known to put out quality products in the past. The discontinued T500RS is considered to be one of the best wheels out there. So I am trying to take what I read with a grain of salt and gather other opinions. With Thrustmaster's reputation I was thinking that the high failure rate may have just been attributed to a quality control issue in the first production run that has since been fixed.
 
The wheel base is very good, the pedals and wheel rim are just ok. This isn't the best place to ask advice for such things, you would be better served going to an actual racing sim forum where people actually use wheels and pedals.

I'm disappointed that anyone would even give you advice without owning the wheel themselves, and you can't always trust Amazon reviews. In order to keep from retyping everything I've said about this wheel, I will refer you to another forums where its discussed including my own thoughts. My username is the same there.

http://www.racedepartment.com/forum...heel-ferrari-458-italia-edition-review.80000/
 
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Blkout said:
The wheel base is very good, the pedals and wheel rim are just ok. This isn't the best place to ask advice for such things, you would be better served going to an actual racing sim forum where people actually use wheels and pedals.

I'm disappointed that anyone would even give you advice without owning the wheel themselves, and you can't always trust Amazon reviews. In order to keep from retyping everything I've said about this wheel, I will refer you to another forums where its discussed including my own thoughts. My username is Z OH 6 there.

http://www.racedepartment.com/forum...heel-ferrari-458-italia-edition-review.80000/
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Thanks for the link. I lurk over there quite often, but never became I member. I honestly don't sim race nearly as much as I did back in the GPL/NRS2003 days, but I still enjoy it and want to get the best experience possible. That is disheartening about the rim quality, though, but I don't think I'd have a problem with it. Thrustmaster is probably wanting to push their add-on rims.

Reading through that thread it seems that a lot of my suspicions were spot on. I would hope that the stock at retailers has been replaced at this point so I would not have to worry about a return of a faulty base. But it's good to know that Thrustmaster replaced the faulty bases so quickly. I'm probably going to order one once the tax refund comes :).
 
Blkout said:
The wheel base is very good, the pedals and wheel rim are just ok. This isn't the best place to ask advice for such things, you would be better served going to an actual racing sim forum where people actually use wheels and pedals.

I'm disappointed that anyone would even give you advice without owning the wheel themselves, and you can't always trust Amazon reviews. In order to keep from retyping everything I've said about this wheel, I will refer you to another forums where its discussed including my own thoughts. My username is Z OH 6 there.

http://www.racedepartment.com/forum...heel-ferrari-458-italia-edition-review.80000/
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You just linked to a review where the wheel DIED. Should people not trust that either?

I've had 3 wheels btw, I think web reviews on them are generally pretty honest since they are expensive and enthusiasts buy them.
 
And this is one of my biggest criticisms of console gaming. Lack of options.

I would not buy this.
 
TheToE! said:
And this is one of my biggest criticisms of console gaming. Lack of options.

I would not buy this.
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Thanks for coming to the console section of the forum and expressing your dislikes of consoles.

But seriously, this is really only an issue on Xbox consoles and always has been. Microsoft seems to want to lock out anything that doesn't include a licensing fee. The idea of licensing was generally supposed to lock out low-quality products when Nintendo started doing it on the NES to save the console gaming industry, but Microsoft is just using it as a cash grab. There are a lot of peripherals that work PNP over USB on PC and also work on PS3-PS4, so long as the game you're running supports that type of input device.
 
ocellaris said:
You just linked to a review where the wheel DIED. Should people not trust that either?

I've had 3 wheels btw, I think web reviews on them are generally pretty honest since they are expensive and enthusiasts buy them.
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I'm fully aware of what I linked and I also posted in that thread as a TX owner, if you had read it all. I also explained why I think some of them died early-on and why I think some of those reviews might not have been legit. Either way, I haven't seen any recent problems with people that have bought the TX over the last 2-3 months. There's also a much bigger and lengthier thread on the iRacing forums but unless the OP is a member, he can't read it so I didn't link it. The consensus is the same though, those have recently purchased the wheel have had no issues. Amazon lists their TX as shipping with the latest firmware which means newest model which may be corrected or maybe there was never a problem at all. Who knows. All of that is detailed in the thread I posted above if you had taken the time to read it all. I've used my TX wheel non-stop now since I got it, at least 2 good hours per day and its not failed me or done anything unusual.

Forgive me if I don't consider your opinion of this wheel very credible since you failed you mention you owned three of them in your first post which seems more than a little suspicious. I would think if you owned three of them and all of them failed you would have said that right away in the first post and told the OP to stay far far away from this wheel since you had such a bad experience and detailed what happened to each of your wheels but you made no mention of owning a TX wheel until I made the statement that people shouldn't give advice if they haven't owned one, and suddenly now you come forth and mention that you owned three of them. Yea, more than a little coincidental. How about you just admit you haven't owned this wheel, much less three and you were strictly basing your OPINION on what you read at Amazon and not actual real world experience. At least then your OPINION would lend more credibility if not honesty.
 
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TheToE! said:
And this is one of my biggest criticisms of console gaming. Lack of options.

I would not buy this.
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I'm confused. What do you mean by this statement? You know the TX wheel can be used on all PC racing games and sims as well as the Xbox One? I use my TX wheel about 80% of the time on the PC and 20% on the Xbox One. It is not interchangeable among consoles but very few wheels are.
 
Blkout said:
I'm confused. What do you mean by this statement? You know the TX wheel can be used on all PC racing games and sims as well as the Xbox One? I use my TX wheel about 80% of the time on the PC and 20% on the Xbox One. It is not interchangeable among consoles but very few wheels are.
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I was stating how consoles(xbone more than others) suck regarding options of peripherals.
 
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