I took the wheel covers off my Prius because they look cheesy and also I wanted my car to look a little different from the millions of others on the road right now. I have noticed that some Prius's have the same style of wheel as my exposed wheels do, but they are painted silver or chrome instead of the black wheels that I have. Anyone know anything about this? By the way, does anyone know the difference between wheels, wheel covers and hubcaps?
My 2012 (3) came with the black 15" wheels. I removed the (agreed) cheezy wheel covers and popped in some Yaris center caps. My buddy has a 2010 (3) and it has the silver 15" wheels under different cheezy wheel covers - which he kept. I have noticed more and more Prii without the plastic on the wheels, and they look pretty cool at speed - the brake calipers are highly visible. A subtle touch of color on the calipers might look very nice. In Seattle, there are abundant Prii, so I added a racing stripe to distinguish mine a bit. Tongue-in-cheek, maybe, but I do love driving it. Merry Merry!
The black wheels are new for 2012. The silver version of the wheels came on the 2010-2011 Prius. Same wheels but a different color. The older wheels also had different wheel covers. The 2012 covers actually look ok on the silver 2010-2011 wheels.
So I'm seeing 2010-11 models when I see those silver wheels? And they've removed their wheel covers? Also, does anyone know the difference (car terminology) between "wheels", "rims" and "hubcaps"?
What do you mean? Stock wheels or wheel covers? In the picture of your car here you don't have covers.
Indeed. Wheels and rims are used interchangeably but if you are talking about the entire unit then the correct term is wheel. The rim is technicially just the outer portion of the wheel where the tire mounts. Think of a cup and its rim. Some cars use hubcaps but the Prius uses wheel covers. They cover the entire wheel instead of just a portion like the hubcaps of old.
Technically, both the 2010-2011 and 2012 wheels are painted. One is painted silver, the other black. IMO the silver looks better without the wheel covers because I'm old school and the black wheels remind me of the old steel wheels that were painted black that lost their hubcaps.
Thanks for the clarification. My wife was also bothered by the black wheels for the same reason, but fortunately black wheels are in style. In my eyes, they look good, and just as importantly, different. This is crucial in an environment where it seems 1 in every 15 cars is a Prius!
In modern terms, "wheel covers" and "hubcaps" are the same. Way back when they were usually metal, now they are all plastic. In the old days "hubcaps" were the main term, whether they covered the entire steel wheel or just the smaller center portion (the "hub"). "Centercaps" can cover a smaller portion of the wheel, encompassing the lugs, or just the very small center hole. On our black 2012 Prius Two, my wife and I both hated the plastic wheelcovers. JMHO but they really cheapen the looks. So First Thing was to remove those. Then I got chrome centercaps off eBay, which combine nicely with the factory chrome lugnuts and the factory chrome lower door moldings. We also had all the windows tinted and finally I painted all 4 calipers red. With just those minor alterations the car actually turns a few heads.
The shiny round part of the brakes that spins along with the wheels are the rotors (the part that gets rusty if it sits for awhile).....the stationary things that "squeeze" the rotors are the calipers. The brake pads are what actually squeeze the rotors, and are mounted inside the calipers. This type of brakes are called Disc Brakes. Newer Priuses have 4 wheel disc brakes, earlier Priuses only had disc brakes on the front (older-style drums on the rear).
