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I Hate Black Wheels on Cars

October 10, 2016 by Matt

ford-mustang-black-wheels

It’s over. Done. Played. The party’s over. The fad has reached its tipping point, its 15 minute of fame are up, etc etc.

Black wheels, I mean. Cannot stand them. I maintain that they were never attractive to begin with, but even allowing for the ebb and flow of popular taste, the trend is decidedly far past its expiration date.

Why the hate? Simple: When the wheels are painted black, the wheel design does not stand out and does not complement the car’s lines. Might as well be running steelies with no hubcaps. Especially complicated wheel shapes, which otherwise would harmonize with the styling of the vehicle to which they’re fitted simply disappear in a mass of black nothingness.

jag-f-pace-black-wheels

This epidemic is present everywhere, from expected places like wheel-and-tire ads in magazines to muscle cars even to factory fitment on $100K luxury SUVs like Jaguar’s new F-Pace (above). Visually, it does not work and has never worked. The design intent may be to make the car seem more badass and muscular, but the effect is to erase any visual gains by making the car seem like it has an egregious brake dust problem on all 4 wheels.

It’s time for a de-escalation of the wheel size arms race anyway, and a side effect of black wheels is to camouflage its true diameter. Perhaps if a car’s wheels flaunted a brighter finish, people would recoil in horror at their vehicle’s stonking rollers and demand a bit more tire sidewall. One can only hope…

Image credits: autocar.co.uk, bauercdn.com

Filed under: Aesthetics, Car Culture, Wheels

13 Comments

  1. Stewie says:

    They probably hate you too.

  2. John Fish says:

    Yes, they look terrible on most cars and most car colours.

  3. Alan says:

    They look horrible on ALL cars, period! They just scream subculture.

  4. Nancy Smith says:

    I looked at a 2019 ZL1 and SS Camaro and the only choice was the black wheels, no other wheels available.It reminds me of hoodrides that lost their, I mean someone stole their hubcaps and just drive like that forever. Hate the dumb trend!

  5. June Buggy says:

    They look like stupid snow tires/wheel combos….no difference in them than on a gravel spreader with the Highway Dept. Pure ugly.

  6. Rod Ferguson says:

    I just can’t agree more with the other commitments . I think that this whole “Black out rim praise started with rice cars and drifting also with the shameless copying a more expensive cars like Ferraris , Lamborghinis and Audi a TENS for example now every place you go ( including new car dealerships) you see these gaudy tasteless ugly rims on brand new cars trucks SUVs crossovers etc

  7. Rod Ferguson says:

    I just can’t agree more with the other commitments . I think that this whole “Black out rim praise started with rice cars and drifting also with the shameless copying a more expensive cars like Ferraris , Lamborghinis and Audi a TENS for example now every place you go ( including new car dealerships) you see these gaudy tasteless ugly rims on brand new cars trucks SUVs crossovers etc. I also think that it’s a generational thing I’m 55 years old but anyone under 30 seems to like this look. The problem is that you cannot see the tires or the rims themselves especially from a distance and Rams are supposed to extenuate looks and beauty in a vehicle; black out rims simply do not do that they don’t make your car look cool or bad ass makes your car look tasteless and cheap. In my opinion basically black out rims are people who have no taste at all in cars that’s just my opinion

  8. Mike says:

    I also agree with the OP – they looks crap, no matter what the size/design/etc.

    I’m looking at getting a new Mustang GT, but the standard 19″ wheels are black and the alternatives (cost+ options, naturally) cost a bloody fortune.

    I reckon it’s a scam by Ford to make some extra coin: make the standard wheels look crap, so the punter will shell-out a couple of grand more for better-looking ones!

  9. Donna says:

    I don’t understand why some people choose to ruin a nice looking car by putting black wheels on it. I’m also not sure why these ugly wheels make me think of famous real-life mafia gangsters. Glad to know I’m not the only one who hopes they stop being marketed.

  10. franesty says:

    Black rims look like the drunks car who has the baha buggy , not classy just cheap looking that make the car look well like a drunks car.

  11. Wooo says:

    they look alright on some cars, but the design of the rims doesnt have to stand out. Black rims can make the design of the car stand out more since you focus on the parts that arent black

  12. LaurDisco says:

    They look so bad, it seems like half of the population is emo

  13. Scott says:

    I agree with you… about 99% of the time. Occasionally I’ll see some that actually look pretty nice, but that’s pretty darn rare.

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