My (okay, Toyota's) wheelcover story

In news:290120041913182434% snipped-for-privacy@yrmac.com,

That's pretty rediculous. YOU FIND me an *aftermarket* wheel cover with the *Toyota* emblem on the side facing outward. Toyota would have terrific grounds for a BIG lawsuit.

THERE ya go. No TOYOTA logo in the middle. I don't know where you live but around here (SoCal), there are no such "knock-off" wheel covers available thru dealers or otherwise.

- Philip @ Maximum Torque RPM

I'm not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. The story I related actually happened to me and it was carefully explained by the hubcap merchant why my wheelcovers were different. I wound up buying an entire boxed set of 4 of these for $30. Now I'm thinking of going back to buy an entire set of original equipment wheelcovers he bought from a dealer.

I have a feeling that no dealer would own up to such a practice. It's likely not illegal, just sort of deceptive (there's likely something in small print about substitutions in the sales contract). The impression I got was that this is something the dealers don't talk about. And it's not limited to Toyota dealers.

I live in We(t)stern Washington. The car in question was bought at a Seattle area dealership, but I don't know which one. I'm in another city, and so is the wheelcover merchant, so that's at least two dealerships that engage in the practice if the truth is being told.

Perhaps others in this group will take a look out the window at their wheelcovers to see if they have the Toyota logo on them or not. If it turns out that I am the only one who has aftermarket wheelcovers, then I will ask the wheelcover guy about it and tell you his response.

I didn't get the impression that the guy was spinning a yarn on me. After all, he showed me a big stack of brand new original equipment wheelcovers for my year.

I posted a picture of the wheelcovers I have in alt.binaries.pictures.autos.

Best wishes,

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my 96 Camry has supposedly genuine Toyota wheels. the middle part (lug nut covers) has a 'T', but I don't know if it is genuine Toyota. One of the covers recently broke and will not stay on anymore.

Here's something that took me by surprise:

When my dad was in the hospital, I took it upon myself to replace a hubcap... sorry, wheelcover, because he'd lost one somewhere along the way. The dealer quoted me about $75 as I recall. So I visited a guy with a warehouse full of wheelcovers to see what he had. Here's what he told me:

Dealers routinely display cars with factory wheelcovers, but somewhere in the prepping and delivery process, they are removed and replaced with aftermarket wheelcovers. He explained that this is what happened to my dad and that the practice is common.

The dealer then stores away the original equipment wheelcovers and sells sets of them to people who deal in used wheelcovers for more than the cost of the aftermarket wheelcovers that were swapped on when the car was new. Result? Probably a pretty tidy tax-free off-the-books profit on a yearly basis over hundreds of transactions.

The aftermarket wheelcovers look just like the original ones, except they don't have the Toyota logo in the middle. And, of course, they are cheaply constructed where they interface with the wheel.

What a deal, eh?

it sounds like you have allooy rims if it has that lug nut cover....and i highly doubt they would swap out alloys

I Cant buy this story either... The wheelcovers that the dealers sell may be takeoffs when someone decides they want the alloy wheels instead.... I have gotten several of them from the dealer as well as a new steel wheel when I needed one. I think the toyo part number is on the inside of the wheel cover too.