What is so cool about riding around in your base model with no wheel covers? I am still seeing a lot of cars riding on black steelies. What is the purpose of it? Why is it cool? They're keeping those black steelies clean as a whistle, too. I was thinking maybe it is a drag racing thing, where the racing tires are mounted on steelies, so maybe it's supposed to make that Cavalier/Focus/Jetta/Cobalt/ION/xB etc look like a RACE CAR.

Can someone enlighten me? And when are the OEMs going to jump on this? Make those plastic wheel covers an option, since so many come off immediately anyway.

You can already buy a base Camaro with steelies and just a center cap

What a horrible 'trend'

In my town, the only people with steelies are people who are too poor to buy rims.

It looks better than plastic wheel covers, IMO. For some reason, I see a lot of Nissan Versas this way.

I did this myself 20+ years ago in college--in the winters I ran my Mustang LX on 4 snow tires on black steelies..looked good w/ the dark gray paint, IMHO. The rest of the year it had the factory wheels which were strange non-alloy alloys.

As far as this look from the factory, I esp. like the black steelies w/ small hubcap look on the Crown Vic PIs and old Impala 9C1s.

Edited September 6, 201015 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

I haven't seen much of this trend.

Sure, years ago I thought steel wheels with a poverty cap where kinda cool. But the old school concave steel wheels looked a lot cooler, IMHO than todays flat or slightly convex steel wheels with a bunch of holes punched into the wheel to lighten it.

I haven't seen much of this trend.

Sure, years ago I thought steel wheels with a poverty cap where kinda cool. But the old school concave steel wheels looked a lot cooler, IMHO than todays flat or slightly convex steel wheels with a bunch of holes punched into the wheel to lighten it.

On '60s-70s musclecar restorations in recent years, the steelies w/ dog dish hubcaps seems to be a very popular trend..esp. w/ Mopies. I see a lot of them in the mags and at car shows.

A lot of the MoPars were marketed that way- beginning with the '68 Road Runner. Hemi wasn't a cheap option.

I have not seen much of this 'trend', but agree that it harkens back to drag racing/ musclecars - it's become mildly synonymous.

I find I have the habit of removing the center caps on my 2 trucks.... bothers everyone else but I like it.

You can already buy a base Camaro with steelies and just a center cap

those rims dont look like the spare though

Edited September 7, 201015 yr by CanadianBacon94

Yeah I'm mostly referring to pedestrian compacts with their plastic wheelcovers removed and the steel wheels beneath shined up.

Yeah I'm mostly referring to pedestrian compacts with their plastic wheelcovers removed and the steel wheels beneath shined up.

Esp. on Nissan Versas for some reason. Looks better than cheap plastic wheelcovers.

I saw a black Prelude yesterday that was slightly lowered and had a set of steelies. It actually looked really good and slightly ratted out.

Black and minimalism IS the new chrome these days, too. At least in the motorcycle department. No doubt that is being carried into automotive circles and I like it. Done tastefully, black wheels like the Camaro LS' have a cool throwback feel and look much better than many of the alloy's out there. It's probably a trend that is accompanying the economic times; flashy alloys and chrome hearken to the blingy 'excesses' of yesteryear. Black is far more staid, and has a dreary, angrier quality.

I saw a black Prelude yesterday that was slightly lowered and had a set of steelies. It actually looked really good and slightly ratted out.

Black and minimalism IS the new chrome these days, too. At least in the motorcycle department. No doubt that is being carried into automotive circles and I like it. Done tastefully, black wheels like the Camaro LS' have a cool throwback feel and look much better than many of the alloy's out there. It's probably a trend that is accompanying the economic times; flashy alloys and chrome hearken to the blingy 'excesses' of yesteryear. Black is far more staid, and has a dreary, angrier quality.

I like the dark gray/titanium wheels and trim look also...even Ford is advertising their V6 Mustang that way...I've seen a great ad w/ a dark gray car w/ darker gray or black wheels. Definitely nicer than chrome wheels, which look out of place on modern cars, IMO.

Edited September 7, 201015 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar

Hmmm...wonder how my Balt would look like if I did that....

Well, I think we're talking about 2 different things here.

If it's a designer look (a.k.a the steelies were meant to show) that's a different story altogether.

I'm talking about the ECO turd cars that run about, minus hubcaps due to neglect or some idiot ripping the caps off on the curb. My best friend used to buy old 80s and 90s Buicks and remove the wheel covers immediately. It looked horrible.