What's with all of the hubcap-less cars lately?

February 24, 2006 9:35 AM

Is there some new lo-fi wheel style going on that I'm not aware of?

Over the last little while here in Toronto, I've noticed so many cars without hubcaps. Just plain black wheels/rims. The first few times I noticed it, it was on Volkswagens, (Jettas, I believe), and I thought it was a stealing-VW-logo'd-hubcap thing. Then I noticed it was on all different sorts of cars and makes. Not specifically high-end or trendy cars, no pattern whatsoever. Who would want the rusted hubcaps of a Chevy Cavalier?
Maybe I'm naive, but it seems unlikely that there's a big spike in hubcab theft all of the sudden. And lots of the cars have, like mine, the kind of hubcaps that are underneath the lugnuts, so they're not just the snap-off kind...there would be some labour involved in stealing them.

Is Plain Wheel some inexplicable look that drivers are opting for? A trend, like rolling up one pant-leg or wearing a sandwich-sized knapsack?

posted by chococat to Travel & Transportation (24 answers total)

I seem to notice more black wheels amongst the custom car crowd lately. Maybe you're seeing these, or a cheap attempt to approximate the look?
posted by mullacc at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2006

Best answer: Those are snow tire rims. Many people have two sets of rims: one for their all-seasons (or maybe their performance tires if they're really fastidious) and a set for their snow tires. The snow tire rims tend to be functional as an alloy rims corrode in the salty road conditions present in winter.

As to why people don't transfer their wheel covers to their snow tires, i don't know. Maybe they don't fit the snow tire rims.
posted by cardboard at 9:44 AM on February 24, 2006

I don't mean to apply or enforce any stero-types, but I'm fairly car-ignorant and when I asked a mechanic friend the same question about the growing trend of missing hubcaps in Calgary, he told me it was a stylistic preference of asian teenagers, and I have noticed that most of the cars I see with no hubcabs are being driven by teens, and a fair percentage are asian.

Ethnicity issues aside, I'd been lead to believe it was a fashion trend, and although it's winter right now, it's not just the during the winter I've noticed this in Calgary.
posted by chudmonkey at 9:56 AM on February 24, 2006

Also, for those who lose a hubcap, it looks better to have matching bare rims than to drive around with one missing hubcap.
posted by exogenous at 10:06 AM on February 24, 2006

I have read that among the import street racing crowd, factory steel rims are favored because the rims are harder to bend than custom fancy rims. Apparently they're worried about the massive amounts of torque being put out by their 1.x liter engines. I like the idea that they're snow tire rims too. And this may be a case of synchronicity. You suddenly got the idea that there are lots of cars with plain rims, so now you're noticing them.
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:22 AM on February 24, 2006

steelies are also a lightweight alternative to a regular rim. they're also a lot cheaper.

some people do it for weight reasons (lower unsprung weight means you can accelerate faster), some are winter wheels (really, why bother throwing hubcap covers on your winter wheels?), and some people do like the look.

i've never seen the appeal of hubcap covers personally, you know if it's not an alloy/forged rim withing 2 seconds of looking at the wheel, do you think a hubcap cover is really going to fool anyone? :)

now those spinner hubcaps, those are teh new hotness. *grin*
posted by flipp at 10:25 AM on February 24, 2006

And this may be a case of synchronicity. You suddenly got the idea that there are lots of cars with plain rims, so now you're noticing them.

I'm not sure that's synchronicity.
posted by cellphone at 10:59 AM on February 24, 2006

As to why people don't transfer their wheel covers to their snow tires

I suspect people who buy snow tires and a second set of rims for them tend to have aluminum rims for their summer tires, so they just don't bother buying wheel covers for the steel ones. I wouldn't, at least, especially since no-one else does.

And this may be a case of synchronicity. You suddenly got the idea that there are lots of cars with plain rims, so now you're noticing them.

Nothing to do with synchronicity, but that describes selective observation nicely. That said, it is true that there will be a lot of cars with steel rims in winter in Canada.
posted by mendel at 11:18 AM on February 24, 2006

I have noticed that most of the cars I see with no hubcabs are being driven by teens, and a fair percentage are asian.

Oh, that reminds me of another reason: if you're going to eventually buy your own fancy aftermarket rims for your souped-up Civic, then when you buy it from the dealer you don't get the aluminum rim option. In the period between (which can be long, since now you've got a car to pay off) you've got the stock steel rims.
posted by mendel at 11:20 AM on February 24, 2006

Is there a difference between "rims" and "wheels"? The terms sometimes seem to be used interchangeably. Just curious.
posted by SteveInMaine at 11:39 AM on February 24, 2006

Rather than being some new style trend, it sounds like this is very old school hotrod late-40's/early-50's southern California or deep South ridge runner/NASCAR thing. Bias ply tires, with a set of slicks for dragging, a set of treads for the canyons, and set of clean whitewalls for cruisin'... Guys that had several sets of skins used to keep 'em mounted on steel rims, and change 'em as required, for what was going on, a couple of times a week. Baby moons, maybe, to cover the lugs, but the real bad boys, with the hottest rods, didn't waste a lot of time, money or unsprung mass on chrome crap...
posted by paulsc at 11:40 AM on February 24, 2006

"And this may be a case of synchronicity. You suddenly got the idea that there are lots of cars with plain rims, so now you're noticing them.

I'm not sure that's synchronicity."

Not to derail or anything, but maybe someone will find this interesting: it's called confirmation bias.
posted by bcwinters at 11:46 AM on February 24, 2006

The problem is that you want snow tires and you have alloy rims. Your options are:

1. Buy another set of alloy rims and keep the snow tires on them. $$$$
2. Switch the tires on and off the rims at the ends of the winter. Pain in the ass since you need a garage.
3. Buy cheap steel rims and keep the snow tires on them all year. Switching them is just like changing any other tire. Ugly though.

Option 3 is the one you notice as an innocent bystander.
posted by smackfu at 11:52 AM on February 24, 2006

also, driving through snow that has had a chance to melt slightly and refreeze is a good way to lose hubcaps.

Every winter I find several hubcaps in the street near my house.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 12:47 PM on February 24, 2006

Thanks, Mr. Nuts. I always wondered why I saw more stranded hubcaps in the winter.
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:14 PM on February 24, 2006

Is there a difference between "rims" and "wheels"?

No, but for some reason the kids prefer the less accurate term.
posted by Rash at 2:18 PM on February 24, 2006

I thought my hubcaps were ugly, so I pulled them all off. And my car is black, so it looks neat.
posted by zonkout at 2:23 PM on February 24, 2006

Response by poster: I think that snow tires is the most logical explanation.

I just went out for a bit and took my camera, thinking I'd see some examples. Sure enough, there were several, within 2 blocks on the same street. I can't see this as a new asian trend...it would be like leaving your storm windows on in the summer as a style-choice.
This is too basic-looking and kinda ugly.

The reason that snow tires never occurred to me is that I started noticing this in the summer. And one of the cars in those pictures is like that year round (I go by it almost everyday.)

But it's gotta be snow tires. I feel kind of dumb now.
posted by chococat at 2:27 PM on February 24, 2006

cardboard writes "As to why people don't transfer their wheel covers to their snow tires, i don't know. Maybe they don't fit the snow tire rims."

If you have alloy wheels you don't have wheel covers unless you buy them special for your steel wheels.

SteveInMaine writes "Is there a difference between 'rims' and 'wheels'?"

People use them interchangably but there is a difference. On a two piece wheel (like you see on house trailers and some trucks) the rim is the part that attaches to the tire and the hub is attached between the rim and the truck. Wheels are the one piece things you see on modern automobiles.
posted by Mitheral at 2:57 PM on February 24, 2006

As to why people don't transfer their wheel covers to their snow tires, i don't know. Maybe they don't fit the snow tire rims.

That's the reason why one of our cars doesn't have wheel covers at the moment. I've also seen the "ice behind the cover snaps the cover off" thing. For what it's worth, I live in southern Ontario and I haven't noticed a particular epidemic of black wheels lately.
posted by chrominance at 3:11 PM on February 24, 2006

There's only a functional difference between wheel and rim when you're talking about multi-part wheels like the truck wheels Mithereal refers to, or spoked wheels, where the rim is joined to a hub with spokes. In a welded steel wheel, you can't separate the rim from the rest of the wheel, so referring to the thing as a rim is not going to confuse anyone. (And the tire is not actually attached to the rim, in the sense of being fastened; it's the air pressure in the tire that secures it in place.)
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:41 PM on February 24, 2006

referring to the thing as a rim is not going to confuse anyone

I disagree. Lots of things have a rim (like for example the Grand Canyon) but a round, vertical object spinning on an axle is a wheel. IMO calling wheels "rims" is merely contemporary slang, and imprecise -- the rim is just the outer edge.
posted by Rash at 12:07 PM on February 25, 2006

So, you're saying that you are confused by it? Sounds more like you're an annoyed purist, laying down the law for those damned kids and their slang. Haven't heard anyone calling part of the Grand Canyon a wheel yet, either.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:17 PM on February 25, 2006

At some point slang becomes language, I'd venture to say rim = wheel is at that point for most people. Like the difference between a shackle and a clevis. For riggers they are two very different things, the general public uses them interchangeably.
posted by Mitheral at 11:08 AM on February 13, 2007