2006 new wheels ?

If you look closely at my Avatar you will see the 2006 with the plastic wheel rim covers romoved. The wheels are the same as the '04 - '05. I have tried both with and without the "plastic". I like them better without.

Allan de

 

Looks to me like the 04/05 wheel without the plastic trim ring.

 

Really??? The wheels look that good with out the plastic rings?! I've seen those wheels on the street, and thought they were aftermarket. That look so much better, I can hardly believe they ship with the plastic rings!

 

Can we have confirmation that those nice wheels are hiding under the goofy plastic? I have yet to see (large enough) pictures of anybody's wheels before and after. I keep *hearing* about taking the rings off, but haven't seen it for sure.

Thanks!

 

Supposedly I've heard they help aerodynamics.. but folks who have removed them cannot confirm a mpg hit.

 

I was told by a salesman that he had heard that the plastic rims were put there to improve the streamlining of the car. I have noticed no reduction in gas mileage since taking them off.

Allan de

 

And who has larger-than-avatar pictures????

Yeah... streamlining. Not.

 

I thought a main purpose of those plastic rings was to avoid damaging the alloy wheels beneath, particularly when parking next to a curb?? (In case someone misjudges tire distance from a curb and grinds the tire/wheel against it) Personally I like the look of the car w/the rings on.

 

Why would Toyota go through the trouble of designing and adding the plastic rings if they have no use?

 

The 15 inch wheels and plastic rings are also used on Japanese model.
(The 16 inch wheels are also used jn Japan.)
http://prius.la/albums/

My understanding that the main purpose of the ring is to achieve the 0.26 Cd.
Toyota did a lot of small efforts to get the good Cd value, such as spats for each wheels and
under covers.
http://privatenrg.com/#Undercovers

I believe you won't see any significant mileage down without the rings, but those are the things what car manufacturerers are doing to achieve good Cd value.

Ken@Japan

 

I like the looks better with the rings off. When I took my rings off after about 500 miles there was a lot of dirt trapped underneath them which I imagine will end up wearing through the paint eventually. There were already some scratches, so if you are thinking about taking them off, the sooner the better.

 

take them off when it's new... then at 50,000 miles when the rims are looking shabby, but the new plastic back on...

 

So Since you speak of cd "Cd - coefficient of drag" that would imply that the covers do help gas mileage to some degree... must be very small since no one seems to notice.