2021 Prius Prime Limited pictured next to Gen 1 Prius

Gen 1 was a nice looking car, and the last Prius ever to have nice-looking wheels.

 

Naw, mine was black and had 270,000 miles when the unrepairable, brake booster failed.

Bob Wilson

 

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

 

There were reports of the (chrome) finish pealing on those, prematurely.

 

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.)

 

I searched and found the thread on it, good to know.