Seattle Auto Show: Wheels 'n Rims Edition

I spent the morning tooling around the 2012 Seattle Auto Show with my son checking out the latest models from the major auto makers. As usual, I was more interested in some of the less-expensive small models than the exotic sports cars and luxury brands. Rather than do a broad recap of the show I'm going to do a series of posts that focus on trends or details that I found interesting.

This edition looks at some of the wheels and rim designs that I saw on the show floor.

Complicated black and silver wheel designs were a noticeable trend with auto makers this year and I saw several models sporting these types of rims.

A Subaru Crosstrek wheel. While these were fancy, the interior was bland. 

Mini offers lots of wheel design. This rim was on a Mini Countryman small SUV.

The Chevrolet Spark looked sport with these wheels, and a unique interior design with rubber-vinyl seats.

The high-trim Kia Soul features these intricate wheels.

Honda's 2012 Accord has these machined wheel designs.

Volvo S60 T5 blade-design wheels

Wheels with colors were also a trend across several car brands:

The Hyundai Veloster sported color wheel insets that matched the paint.

While some might say white isn't a color, these on the Fiat 500 Abarth were icy cool. 

These blue wheels were on a customized Kia Forte hatchback.

Anodizing or powder coating isn't new for wheels but there were several high-end sports cars with gray, black and even gold wheels.

Maserati GranTurismo with carbon gray-black wheels

A Scion iQ with gold wheels

Nissan GT-R wheels

 Spider or thin spoke wheels offer a dramatic effect when spinning or at rest:

The Dodge Dart wheel 

Porsche 911S wheel

McLaren MP4-12C wheel

 The classic five-blade or spoke design remains popular:

Bentley Mulsanne wheel

BMW M5 wheel

Audi TTS wheel

Chevrolet Malibu wheel

Lincoln MKX wheel

The Range Rover Evoque wheels were huge and beautiful 

Chrome wheels are not as popular as they once were, but still pop up from time to time, especially on trucks and SUVs.

The Buick Encore got smaller but the wheels remain big and chrome.

Ram pickup with chrome wheels.

These massive Roll Royce Phantom wheels were polished

Infiniti always has cool wheels.

Old-school spokes on the front wheels of this new but classic Morgan 3 Wheeler.

A Studebaker Champion Starlight from the LeMay Museum