Wheel swaps go through phases. When a car’s new, buyers often can’t ditch the stock wheels fast enough for something aftermarket and either performance- or style-oriented. Then, as cars age, folks might swap newer wheels from the same manufacturer onto their older model, as exemplified by the current trend of Accord Sport wheels on first- and second-gen Honda CR-Vs.
Finally, once that has been played out, bold students of bolt patterns and offsets make the leap of fitting wheels from different OEMs in a bid to be unique. Sometimes it works brilliantly—like in the case of this Honda Odyssey on sixth-gen Camaro wheels shared in The Drive‘s Slack this morning, which I can’t stop staring at. What are your favorite cross-OEM wheel swaps?
There are several established classics in this space. Bentley, Audi, and Porsche wheels fit pretty well on 2000s Volkswagens because of their common architecture and 5×112 bolt pattern. Mercedes Alphards on VWs are also fairly common. Corvette wheels on ‘80s and ‘90s BMWs have been popular for a while, but I recently saw someone reverse the trend by throwing E65 7-series rims on a C5 Corvette. Points for creativity!
One I’ve noticed lately is first-generation Mini S-Lites on early-2000s Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics, owing to a common four-lug bolt pattern shared between many Japanese and European economy cars. As a Mini owner, I find this hilarious because the S-Lites are unbelievably heavy and brittle—I’m planning to replace mine as soon as I can get tires for the 16s I bought off a newer model Cooper.
But enough from me—what brand-agnostic wheel choices do you like? What stands out and makes you go “Damn! I wish I’d thought of that.”