LA 2010 – Day 2 Wheel Design Trends

Unlike SEMA, International Auto Shows give you a great insight on what manufacturers think will sell.  That is not to disparage events like SEMA, it’s just that they tend to represent a fringe element and not the meat of the market.  In North America somewhere between 10 and 17 million vehicles were sold annually over the past few years, and while the aftermarket is huge, it is not 60 million wheels huge.  So let’s review the vehicles on display at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show and see if any wheel design trends emerge (we will look at wheel finishes tomorrow).

2011 GMC Acadia Denali with two-tone chrome Chromtec® wheels

I knew it was going to be a great show when I arrived and the our new Selective Spinelle™ Metal Finish Chromtec® wheel was right out front.  This new wheel finish is featured on the Acadia Denali from GMC and is being marketed as Two-tone chrome.  The Acadia wheel features a bright chrome finish with a matte chrome finish in the middle of the spokes.  The contrast between the bright and matte chromes is especially nice, and contributes to the wheel looking much more expensive than it really is.

20″ Selective Spinelle™ Chromtec® Wheel

Walking the show I noticed it was not necessarily representative of the North America market as a whole. In particular, full wheel covers which are used to hide the unattractive steel wheels underneath comprise a large percentage of the market but were relatively rare at the show.

2011 Scion xD standard 5 spoke wheel covers

Most vehicles on display were lucky enough to get aluminum wheels, unfortunately many were generic 5-spoke designs with a range of similar looking silver paints.   Occasionally the paint was paired with a machined face, but often the paint color was not different enough from the machining for the typical consumer to notice.  Since I have to work with some of these designers on a daily basis (you know who you are), I am going to skip over a critique of the worst offenders and concentrate on the more exciting wheel designs today, and cover the finishes tomorrow.  I was surprised, however, to see that the new 2011 Hyundai Elantra features standard 17″ aluminum wheels when most of their competitors used wheel covers and a much smaller diameter.

2011 Hyundai Elantra features standard 17" aluminum wheels

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the basic 5-spoke designs, multi-spoked wheels were peppered throughout the show.  While I have no firm data to support it, it does seem like there are many more multi-spoke wheels than I have ever seen before at a show.  Just like what happened on wheel diameter, it seems like the manufacturers are having a spoke war to see who can cram the most spokes in the wheel.  The clear winner? BMW’s Alpina B7 achieves an almost turbine blade appearance with their 21 ultra thin spokes.

2011 BMW Alpina B7 21 spoke 21 inch wheels

Just one spoke short of the BMW Alpina, I found 11 different 20-spoke wheel designs on the floor.  You might expect wheels like this from Audi, Lexus and BMW.  But I was surprised to find them on family haulers like Chrysler’s updated Town & Country and on more basic transportation like the Ford Focus and even the Suzuki Kizashi.

 

2011 Suzuki Kizashi SLS 18" 20-spoke Sport lightweight alloy wheels

There were very few wheels with between 16 and 19 spokes, but 15-spoke wheel designs were the most common (aside from the typical 5-spoke designs).  These designs either had the spokes in groups of 3 (sort of a 5×3 arrangement), had 5 double spokes with another spoke in between each pair.  Only one wheel featured the 15 spokes evenly spaced around the diameter.

2011 Limcoln MKX 20" Chromtec® 15 spoke wheel

There were a few 14-spoke and 12-spoke wheels but I only found one 13-spoke wheel – do you think this will make the Buick Lacrosse unlucky?  The next common wheel design was 10-spoke wheels with 16 versions found around the show floor.  Of all the designs I saw though, the unusual shape of the new Audi R8 Spyder’s 10 spoke wheel was the most intriguing.

 

2011 Audi R8 Spyder 19" wheels

As long as we are talking about wheel spokes, I should probably also talk about the wheels with the fewest spokes.  Not quite as extreme as the companies at SEMA with 2 spoke wheels, there were a couple of 3 spoke wheels at the show.  SAAB has long claimed the 3-spoke title but the new iMiEV from Mitsubishi also showcased

 

Mitsubishi iMiEV

One of the other trends we noticed as we perused the show was wheels with inserts.  Mainly found on concepts cars, the inserts were of various shapes and materials.  Both the Honda Fit EV Concept and the Nissan Ellure Concept utilized clear plastic inserts.  The Honda even had them tinted blue.

 

Nissan Ellure concept

Honda Fit EV

On the Subaru Impreza Concept the inserts were carbon fiber and on the Cadillac Urban Luxury Concept they were bright chrome.

Subaru Impreza Concept

Cadillac Urban Luxury Concept

In general, all of these wheels have one thing in common, there appears to be an increased attention to detail.  This was especially apparent in the twisted shapes and intricate surfaces of the spokes of the BMW 6-Series Concept, my personal favorite concept wheel at the show.

 

BMW 6-Series Concept

And as long as we are talking about favorites, my favorite production wheel has to be the Audi A4.  The design manages to show strength while still giving the impression of delicacy by placing slots in the spoke.

 

Audi A4 production wheel

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see a review of wheel finishes at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show.