Dealer says steel rims not strong enough?

If you live where you need snow tires, the cold alone will cost you 3 to 5 mpg.

 

Are You Strong Enough to be my Rim?

Sorry, but I don't buy it. If we are talking strength of rims and Prius weight then The Prius is actually one of the lighter vehicles in Toyotas lineup. I think only The Yaris and The Corolla are lighter.

Do not take my opinion as definitive answer, but it sounds more like a dealer trying to upsell you on some rims.

I agree with others that say Toyota wouldn't provide rims that can't support the vehicles to which they are assigned.

 

Agreed. Between winter blend fuels and 30-50deg winter temps I drop about 6mpg and I don't even have snow or snow tires. lol

 

are you so cheap that losing $20+- in gas a winter season is going to make a difference?

 

Actually at the moment I am. Some of us get hit with unexpected situations from time to time smart guy.

 

The Prius' donut spare wheel is steel.

The wheels on the larger and heavier base Camry are steel, as are the wheels of the base models of other larger and heavier cars.

While alloys are stronger than steel pound for pound, I suspect that for most model cars that have steel wheels on their base models, that those steel wheels are stronger than the alloys on their higher line models.

It has been my anecdotal experience driving over the pot holed streets of New York City the past 35 years that as a general matter, steel wheels are stronger and much more resistant to dents than alloys.

 

From a materials viewpoint, steel has higher [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_Toughness]Fracture toughness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] than aluminum alloy. Fracture toughness is a measure of the ability to absorb energy without causing a fracture in the material. So a steel wheel may be able to absorb more energy from a pothole than an aluminum alloy wheel. But, again, it is also a factor of the overall design of the wheel.

 

No kidding. Remember when powerfull sports cars used to run steel SPOKE rims? I'm reminded of a W.C. Fields quote, suddenly.

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Your dealer is either totally incompetent or completely disingenuous. Either way, I’d run for the hills, or at least to another dealer.

-Brad

 

It is totally BS. NASCAR only allow steel rims for the race cars. What does it tell you?

 

They have no fashion sense?

Tom

 

Perhaps the Prius model I has steels rims?

 

Give TireRack a try. You can put together a package for ~$600, although that won't come with sensors. You might also be able to get a decent deal at a local tire dealer. Sensors at TR are $356, and probably won't be much different at a local shop. I don't know if there are better deals out there, but I've always had good luck with TR. Only other option (not the greatest, but cheaper) would be to swap winter tires on your current wheels. hope this helps a bit.

 

Nothing actually, but they dont run Hybrids either.
Nor do I ever remember a Nascar event held in a Blizzard!!!

Or PINK paint schemes!!!

What does that tell you!!!

 

I'm no NASCAR fan, but perhaps this is why? Not potholes, but maybe a cast wheel would be more likely to come apart when they start playing bumper cars?

 

I don't know their reasoning, but it would be true that an aluminum alloy wheel would be more likely to turn to shrapnel while a steel wheel might be bent but less likely to fly apart.

I would also add that fracture toughness is the reason that they don't design wheels out of concrete or glass. :madgrin:

 

I don't know what that one dealership was talking about (maybe he doesn't know as well?).

In the US at least, no generation or model of Prius has ever had steel rims (except the donut spare). Gen I, Gen II, Gen III, base, standard, Touring Edition, option packages, no option packages -- doesn't matter, they all came with alloy wheels.

 

One of the reason is when there is a flat and lost the tire, the steel rim will keep the car running to go back to the pit stop. An aluminum rim will burnt up in no time and starts a fire.

The point here is that the steel rims are strong enough for the cornering stress put on the rims running at 200+mph, so the argument that a steel rim is not strong enough for the Prius to run snow tires at highway speed is pure fiction.

 

Steel wheels can be and are just as strong (or stronger in some instances) than aluminum. they can more easily be banged back into shape, rather than replaced, if you bend them. They are definitley heavier pound for pound to attain the same strength of aluminum rims. Let's go back to the weight issue. A four pound per wheel additional weight is equivalent to approximately forty pounds in the car. This is generally refered to as unsprung weight. That being said, other than a small mileage loss and some extra wear and tear on the brake and suspension components (due the the weight being on the wheel as opposed to in the car) there is little downside or risk to using steel wheels of the correct size and wheel offset.