I made use of this opportunity to take a nice picture when I saw that someone parked a light-blue Gen 1 Prius behind my blue-magnetism 2021 Prius Prime Limited—the Turquoise Jewel. It was being driven by an older lady, who looked like a green liberal, carrying her book to read it in the park and perhaps also having a walk. Gen 1 Prius is better-looking than I remember. @bwilson4web, is that your Gen 1 Prius?
I like the Plug-In Prius (2012~2015) 15" rims, so much I snagged a set. Just put them into use as snow tires, on our '10 Touring, which came with the 17" bare rims. I think I like the look of those 15's better than our 17" stock rims, and get the same or better mpg, through winter, with Michelin X-Ice. I’d post a pic but I’m stumped.
I had my Gen 1's wheels refinished around 2015 or so, restoring the clearcoat on the machined surfaces and the gray paint in the pockets, and they looked as nice as on day 1. After getting a Gen 3, for a while I had a daydream about trying to find some cheap PiP wheels in need of refinishing, taking them to the refinisher and asking to have just the highest surfaces of the 'spokes' machined and clearcoated, leaving the gray finish everywhere else. That could have produced some wheels a bit reminiscent of Gen 1's nice ones. But I was warned away from that plan; they said that typically the castings used for all-painted wheels will turn out to be ugly under the paint, not able to be given a good machined/clearcoated finish.
I have seen a couple gen 4 Primes with different oe wheels, no hubcaps. They can be ordered as parts from Toyota. I may do that sometime. They’re in the brochure as an accessory. https://www.auto-brochures.com/makes/Toyota/Prius/Toyota_US%20PriusPrime_2020.pdf
Do these look good? I am not much on sense of fashion. I see them for like $180, they used to be a little less. These are the Toyota oe optional wheels I have seen. https://images.simplepart.com/images/parts/toyotaoemaccessories/fullsize/PT94547160_1.jpg
It's certainly cute, but damn, those 2023s are dead sexy now. I can't believe I managed to get the absolute ugliest year Prius ever produced. (Sorry, fellow Gen 4-ers.)
The problem with the appearance of Gen 4 was the headlights and taillights, and they solved that by designing the Gen 4 Prius Prime with beautiful headlights and taillights a year later. So, that only applies to the non-plug-in Prius.
