With or Without Wheel Covers? High Res Comparo Photos

I think it's great that there's the alloy under the wheel trim even if it is an ugly one. It means I have a choice of which wheel to have. I might get some center caps and then I've got different options for my wheels when I fancy a change. Two sets of wheels for the price of one!

 

If those wheel covers are included to improve aerodynamics then why is the aerodynamic design of said wheel covers so poor? A different design might conceivably improve the mileage but I've seen no noticeable difference in mileage with or without the wheel covers.

A better question, though, is "why do they fall off so easily?" I took my remaining wheel covers off permanently when one fell off somewhere. I bought a set of caps instead of replacing the missing wheel cover.

 

Hi Darren G.....

Yes, of course you are right that they never show the bare wheel underneath as the plastic cover is there to tart the wheel up and somehow make it look as good as a magnesium alloy wheel might look. In Britain, at least, we all know that the flimsy plastic wheel cover is there for the look of the thing and for no other reason. ( I am sure by now that you have gathered that I simply HATE those things; maybe I am just a car-buying snob eh ? ).

I am just questioning the Toyota reasoning behind covering an alloy wheel with a flimsy plastic cover. Seems daft to me as as far as I see it they are just "gilding the lily" by this act.

Oh yes and, I can assure you that when I looked through the plastic cover on that "new" 2008 Prius T3 I saw a STEEL wheel. Maybe there was just a few manufactured that year that did not have the hidden alloy one.

Whatever Toyota have done to the Prius by sticking a nasty plastic cover over an alloy wheel, they have definitely chucked the cat amongst the pigeons by this curious act !

 

It is perfectly safe. it may keep some dirt off of the axle where it is bolted to the knuckle, but i really would worry too much about keeping that area clean. you should be able to use any generic wheel cover that fits the size of your wheel. just read your tire to see what your wheel size is.

 

It is obvious that you are too close to Toyota in your stance here and that is a shame as people who are too close to the woods often cannot see the trees !

I don't actually have my T3 Prius yet but when I get it the VERY first think I will do will be to rip those nasty plastic covers off and chuck them in the bin. It is just a shame that I will be forced to do that in order to try to make my T3 Prius wheels look just as good as the rest of the car.

Unlike the person above who owned the Prius that had shed one of it's pugly covers I will shed ALL OF mine by deliberate act.

If there are any really important Toyota people reading this I hope they take note of the very serious discussion that has been going on for and against those simply awful plastic covers.

 

I am NOT saying this to fan the flames, but I prefer the look of the plastic covers to the spoke-y design of the wheels behind them.

Tastes differ.

At least you can rip the covers off and get your way. I would have had no such choice if Toyota had ditched the covers to begin with.

 

Keep the covers on for God's sake!! The wheels look so small without them.

 

Yes but....why is, it tell me, that the owners of the T3 Prius SHOULD have to throw away the wheel covers that come with the alloy wheels when one considers that if many of the Prius-owners do this all of the effort and cost to Toyota and their customers AND the environment in the making of those awful things is simply waste ? ( Remember that that kind of plastic is non-bio-degradable in nature ).

If Toyota was to make a decent - and aerodynamic - 15" mag-wheel of the same design as the 17" wheel all of this discussion would be moot and there would be no need to throw away the plastic covers that add NOTHING - at least in aesthetics - to that exceptionally beautiful car.

 

You're taking this way too seriously. Should've gotten the T-Spirit or something if you actually believe it's something to rot in the wasteland. I don't know about the T3, but here in the U.S. the 15" wheel Prius with covers are basically the same design/spokes as the 17" wheel Prius, just smaller.

 

I cannot afford the T-Spirit at from £22,610.00 Sterling ( $35,515.43 USD ) As the price in Britain - as I mentioned before - is much higher than the equivalent price in the USA.

As far as I can see it , looking at comparative photos, the 15" alloy wheels on the T3 Prius looks nothing like the smoother 17" wheels of the T4 or the T-Spirit and I cannot understand why Toyota could not have just used the same amount of magneseium alloy and made the 15" wheels to the same pattern as the 17" wheels.

Nobody has yet tried to explain this one to me !

Come off it TP you know as well as I do that most car enthusiasts simply HATE plastic wheel covers. If the T3 car was offered with bare but smooth 15" alloys to the same design as the 17" alloys and WITHOUT cheap and nasty plastic covers - as I said before - "this argument would be moot" as then they would not be there to keep "factory" or to chuck in the nearest rubbish bin.

All the areodynamics that I am looking for in the 15" wheels is the same aerodynamics that come with the 17" wheels ! I am sure that Toyota would then find that the DC of that wheel would be the same or similar as the DC on the standard T4 or T-Spirit except it would be made with a little less magnesium alloy. ( Probably the same amount as is used in the "hidden" alloy that we find on the present T3 ).

 

Cripes. This thread was mildly interesting at first but this incessant re-hashing of the same complaint has grown very boring now.

My Gen II T-Spirit has plastic covers over the mag alloys and personally I prefer the look they lend. Why Toyota chose to do this neither I nor anyone else here truly knows, the best we can do is speculate, most of it well informed, some of it laughably not so.

When costs as small as a few pence can have a bearing on whether a part is used and if it is, what it is made of, perhaps Toyota use plastic covers to make the lesser spec models less attractive? If they all looked the same there would be less incentive for some who care more about outward appearance to buy a higher spec!

 

I take it they're different from the U.S. Prius? Any photos of them for us to see what they look like?

 

:focus: The brakes on my Prius work just fine


OOps wrong thread, but read about wheels with coveres or without is getting just as tiring as the whinning about the brakes sh$t
If you like them leave them on, don't like them take them off

If you want different wheels buy them

 

They are NOT identical - as TP says. The uncovered 15" mag-alloys are quite different from the uncovered 17" mag-alloys as these photos will show:



The 15" "alloys" ( first in the photos ) in fact does look like a bare STEEL wheel, while the 17" wheel is much smoother and probably more aerodynamic in design !

I will admit that most manufacturers DO make their bottom of the market cars look less attractive by sticking plastic hub-caps over the steel wheels and this might make some people spend more money on the more "up-market" car.

I honestly still cannot see why Toyota might stick a plastic hub-cap over a " mag-alloy" wheel though ! ( Mind you that particular mag-alloy wheel is an ugly brute ).

While you are correct that we in Britain DO use emission standards to set our Vehicle Excise Duty or ( VED ) and the VED for the Prius, ( ALL MODELS in Britan ) is set at ZERO pounds sterling. ( In other words it costs nothing to road-tax the Prius cars ) This is because all of the prius models are rated at the same emission levels of from 89g/km ( which is under the 100g/km level at which VED tax is charged ), and are therefore free to road-tax.

Find the information to this end here: The New Toyota Prius - The Original Hybrid Car by Toyota

Select the model from the "grades and prices" box and then you will see the attached CO2 emissions from all the models.