Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Rant: This Wheel Style Needs To Go Away

Two-tone wheelsBy

There's a trend in alloy wheels and it's an ugly one. They're not silver. They're not all black. Instead, they're a particularly nasty combination of both and usually have a super-busy shape. Frankly, I hate them. Nearly every automaker has some heinous form of these round partially painted abominations and none of them look good. Not one of them. None.

A black-and-silver wheel isn't anything new. I remember the Buick Regal from the late 1970s and early 1980s having silver and black wheels. I didn't like them then, and I don't like them now. They always looked like the wheels on a Hot Wheels car, but not nearly as good. In fact, I wish they were only seen on Hot Wheels.


Hot Wheels Car
Perhaps this trend gained steam when the aftermarket wheel manufacturers started offering them. I remember seeing this style in the mid 2000s. I never liked them; I thought they looked junky and dated. Regardless, they seemed to gain popularity. But hey—there's no accounting for taste. I mean, people bought other hideous things such as Snuggies, jeggings, and the MINI Coupe. (OK, no one bought the MINI Coupe.) Then, wouldn't you know it, this alloy wheel style started showing up on vehicles directly from the manufacturers. Just like the aftermarket versions, they look cheap, they look dated, and they look ugly. Much like ebola, terrorism, and Taylor Swift, I hope this trend goes away soon.

In case you still don't get what I'm talking about, here are some examples:

Nissan Juke Nismo
Here, you can see the Nissan Juke Nismo with its partially-painted and offensive wheels. Why not just paint them one color? Because it'd look too good? The style above looks busy and gaudy. If all one color, they might look much classier. Then again, some might say the Nissan Juke looks busy and gaudy, but that's not the point!

MINI Cooper Roaster
MINI Coopers can be great looking cars. By why the two-tone wheels, MINI? These are probably the best of the worst, but still bad. I think they'd look much better in all black or all silver (or gunmetal).

Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid
Does the Suabaru XV Crosstrek get a pass? Nope. Just give me one freaking color! Speaking of color, check out that green hue ...

2015 Honda Civic Si
Honda has some of my least-favorite wheels at the moment. This car would look so much better with less busy all silver or all black wheels. Don't you agree?

2015 Honda Fit
Oh, and ditto goes for the new Fit.

2015 VW Golf
Volkswagen, you can make such clean, classy cars. Why the nasty wheels? I mean, these aren't the worst of the worst, but they're still pretty bad. Remember when you offered great looking BBS wheels?

Kia Soul
 Kia's Soul is a cool ride ... except those wheels.

BMW i3
BMW, say it isn't so? Even your super-futuristic i3 has those gross two-tone wheels? No!!!!

So I have to ask: Do you like this look, or are you in my camp and think the two-tone wheel should be jettisoned into space for no one to ever look at again? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

6 comments:

Steve "SailDesign" Baker said...

With you all the way.

Ducati Scotty said...

Me too. But if they start selling a wheel that looks exactly like a real Hot Wheels wheel, well that I might check out. Of course only if it comes with an embossed zinc plaque with the make and model of my car that I can rivet to the bottom of the floor.

Barry Traylor said...

All these wheels are ghastly looking. But in my opinion it would not matter what kind of wheels are on a Nissan Juke it would still be like putting lipstick on a pig. Nothing can make this car good looking to me.

Glenn said...

I've always referred to the ones that came on my 2012 Soul as my Hot Wheels rims. I like the particular style that came with my car (although it's a lot higher percentage silver than any of these) and it has the added bonus of the grey paint hiding the brake dust longer than I go between infrequent washings.

Doug said...

I'm glad I am not the only one who thinks this -- I hope they become unpopular soon!

Anonymous said...

Thank the Lord for leading me to this blog! I thought I was alone with nightmares of these awful looking stock wheels. What's going through the minds of these automakers? ".... hmmm, let me see?! Let's just put on the most hideous wheels we could find to piss off our customers!"