Prius wheel cover vs. Civic wheel cover

[The Critic]

The one on the left is for a 2012 Civic and I paid about $19 for it from a large volume Honda parts dealer.

The one on the right is for my Prius, and online dealers sell them for about $70 shipped. My local dealer wants $110 for one. Also, the one on the right cracks if you look at it wrong; I have gone through three of these in the last 4 months and I have NEVER broken a wheel cover before on my previous car.

Can anyone explain why there is such a large price difference between the two? They both feel equally flimsy.

 

[Smoky14]

It's a Prius, you should be happy to pay that because you are green!

 

[Shaman]

Good for the enviroment equals bad for your wallet. People pay to be smug, and if you watch South Park, priI are as smug as they come.

 

[MoparDak05]

You get the shiny chrome emblem on the Toyota one.

 

[NEOhio_Bob]

Anyone who buys a lot of parts for different vehicles will tell you that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to parts pricing between manufacturers, and even within the same manufacturer. Sometimes you buy something and think, "Wow, this seems cheap..." and other times it's the opposite. This is a great example of both sides, in my opinion.

 

[Mark_Walk]

Why did you buy the Honda wheel cover?

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: Mark_Walk
Why did you buy the Honda wheel cover?


To show how much cheaper it is than the Toyota version, of course.

 

[doitmyself]

NEOhio Bob is spot on with his comment. The price variations sometimes astound me. And, sometimes you have no choice but to go with OEM. I deal with this on ag. equipment at work all the time.

Critic, I'm curious how and where does the Prius cover crack? Couldn't this be replaced under warranty? Maybe let the dealer do a tire rotation....if they break it, make them replace it. Or, maybe super glue it lightly, let them re-break it, then make them replace it. Yea, it's deceitful and lacks integrity, but this shouldn't be happening.

I would be thoroughly P.O'od if I had this many problems on a brand new car.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: The Critic


The one on the right is for my Prius, and online dealers sell them for about $70 shipped. My local dealer wants $110 for one. Also, the one on the right cracks if you look at it wrong; I have gone through three of these in the last 4 months and I have NEVER broken a wheel cover before on my previous car.


You're driving down the road and parts are breaking? Isn't that covered under the warranty? Or is this like the "bra" saga where, for some unexplainable reason, you doled out buckets of cash for no good reason?

 

[Chris142]

Who has "hub caps" in 2011 anyway?

 

[PF52]

Could you get something like this on Ebay?

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Who has "hub caps" in 2011 anyway?


I'm really surprised to see them on a hybrid. It seems like lighter aluminum wheels would help with efficiency. I'm sure that Toyota ran the numbers though and decided any efficiency gains were not worth the added cost.

As for the price difference, in the outdoor power equipment world I've found that OEM Honda parts usually are not expensive at all. Some complete carburetors are only $10 or so. Maybe they tend to have very low prices for their simpler car parts too?

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: cchase
Originally Posted By: Mark_Walk
Why did you buy the Honda wheel cover?


To show how much cheaper it is than the Toyota version, of course.

, good one.

No, one of my friends broke a wheel cover on her '12 Civic so I ordered one to replace it for her.


Originally Posted By: doitmyself
NEOhio Bob is spot on with his comment. The price variations sometimes astound me. And, sometimes you have no choice but to go with OEM. I deal with this on ag. equipment at work all the time.

Critic, I'm curious how and where does the Prius cover crack? Couldn't this be replaced under warranty? Maybe let the dealer do a tire rotation....if they break it, make them replace it. Or, maybe super glue it lightly, let them re-break it, then make them replace it. Yea, it's deceitful and lacks integrity, but this shouldn't be happening.

I would be thoroughly P.O'od if I had this many problems on a brand new car.

One of them was my fault, but it's a mystery for the other two. I do not consider body damage to ever be a fault of the manufacturer's-- it's just an indication that one must be more careful. However, this does seem a bit ridiculous.

I have not had any true issues with this car. Minor rattles, this and light rear brake squeak (that most people would not notice) are the only problems in almost 14k. My biggest problem has been with the dealer, not the car itself.

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Who has "hub caps" in 2011 anyway?

It uses aerodynamic hub caps OVER the alloy wheels.

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit

You're driving down the road and parts are breaking? Isn't that covered under the warranty? Or is this like the "bra" saga where, for some unexplainable reason, you doled out buckets of cash for no good reason?

Well I know why one them broke, that one was my fault. But the other two-- I have absolutely no idea.

As for the clean bra, I've said this before, and I will say it again: I paid to have it done a second time because the first installer did a poor job.

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted By: css9450
Could you get something like this on Ebay?

I once needed to get a new hubcap for my girlfriend's 06 PT Cruiser. The dealer wanted over $70 for a new one.

I got a used one on eBay for about $20.

 

[lenjack]

Many available on ebay.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: lenjack
Many available on ebay.


All the ones on ebay are in worse shape than the "good" ones in my car. The ones that I have seen on ebay either broken clips or lots of scuffing.

 

[rpn453]

Wheel covers over aluminum wheels?!!! Do the aluminum wheels really look that bad?

GM did that with their "Chrome-Tech" wheels on Grand Ams at one point. It must have been cheaper to throw some plastic on there than to finish the wheel properly. Or they just really wanted to go chrome and didn't want to risk having to pay for a bunch of wheels if the chrome started chipping off before warranty was up. I read that Lutz stopped the practice of saving a few dollars by cheaping out on finishing their wheels properly. The current models supposedly have a nicely polished finish on the aluminum wheels. He figured that people would rather pay a couple hundred bucks on the details than to drive a car that screams "CHEAP" from a hundred yard glance.

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Well I know why one them broke, that one was my fault. But the other two-- I have absolutely no idea.


Maybe someone traded with you. In high school, I'm pretty sure I had the only Chevette in the city with four center caps and four mint chrome trim rings!

 

[stephen9666]

I don't know about the new Priuses, but I think the older ones had aluminum wheels, even under the hubcaps.

Here's a pic of a Prius owned by a friend of mine. These are the factory aluminum wheels that were under the hubcaps. He got center caps and ditched the original hub caps. I can't remember if he got the center caps from Toyota or and aftermarket company.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Here's a pic of a Prius owned by a friend of mine . . .


Wow, those are nice wheels!

 

[The Critic]

I removed the mangled and warped wheel cover (that's how it appeared when it was installed) from the 2012 Civic today and the wheel cover straightened itself out once I took it off. So, I just reinstalled the old one and it looks perfect. Go figure.

Now, I'm stuck with a new wheel cover that I can't return without getting hosed. And my friend doesn't want to buy the new one from me as a spare; I would've never thought that a badly warped wheel cover could actually be undamaged. So I'm screwed, lol.