All About Decorative Wheel Covers
Decorative wheel covers aren’t just pretty and cute to look at. More than the aesthetics, they also hide those ugly marks, keep your wheel protected, and let you show your true personality based on your chosen cover.
Continue reading below to learn more about these ornamental wheel covers and how to choose the right one for you and your car.
Table of Contents
What are Decorative Wheel Covers?
Decorative steering wheel covers are accessories to protect the factory-issued steering wheel, cover up rips, tears, and blemishes, and make your driving more comfortable.
These covers often come in a wide range of prices, which means they can be an affordable accessory or an investment you can make. Steering wheel covers offer great value for money for all types of drivers, not to mention that they can also work with almost all vehicles hitting the road right now.
Steering wheel covers are perfect for making a unique style statement, ensuring comfortable grips while driving, or enhancing your wheel’s overall look and appeal. With these covers, you can also spare your existing wheel from unwanted wear and tear, making them functional and reasonably priced car accessories you can install and remove easily when possible.
Types of Wheel Covers
Covers for the steering wheel can conform to your wheel and come in two major types:
Function and Performance
- Performing wheel covers often boast of an anti-slip design and an excellent grip.
- They are also known to last thanks to their long-term durability.
- It’s also common for some of these covers to feature hand pad cushions or formed finger grips as ergonomic contouring to ensure utmost comfort.
Fashion and Style
Fashion and decorative steering wheel covers can protect your steering wheel. However, many owners love the stylish and fun vibe they can give to their ride without spending lots of money.
There are hundreds of designs or options; you can order custom-made ones from online retailers. Ensure you avoid accessory fads when shopping for a decorative wheel cover.
Factors to Consider When Shopping for Decorative Steering Wheel Covers
Different brands offer different sizes of wheel covers. Thus, checking the grip circumference and diameter when buying one is important to ensure it fits perfectly. After that, be sure to consider the following factors.
Color
You can often match your steering wheel’s cover with traditional black, gray, or brown options. You can also stick with more vibrant and unique hues including iridescent metallics, jewel tones, or neons.
Comfort
Using the wrong type of decorative wheel covers will only leave you fatigued if you drive for a long time. Since these are available in various designs, make sure you pick a model that you can work with comfortably whatever the situation is.
A wheel cover with the wrong texture will only leave you prone to painful and ugly blisters, which might prevent you from driving until fully healed.
Many people drive around during warmer months, and finding an available parking shade is tricky. This leaves you with no choice but to park under the sun’s heat. Covers with poor-quality designs will absorb heat and get extremely hot to the touch.
The temperature might rise so you can’t even touch it, making it more inconvenient since you have to wait until it cools down so you can go on with your drive. While many designs exist, you might want to settle for a type with pads and other helpful features.
Design
Decorative steering wheel covers come in a plethora of colors and designs. Some of these covers also have textures, and others feature decorative patches. The latest technological advancements have also resulted in the development of models with knobs that control the indicator, unfolding, and folding of the side mirrors and light signals as well.
Although these special covers come with exorbitant price tags, there’s no denying that they tend to be more convenient. Some designs also combine two materials such as leather and rubber. The wheel cover you choose must keep you comfortable during your drive no matter the distance.
If you don’t find one that suits your driving needs, you can contact manufacturers and let them know your requirements. They might be able to customize a cover for you. More sophisticated cover designs can also heat up when temperatures are low to keep you always cozy.
Durability
With the steering wheel being the part of your vehicle that works a lot, the specific type of cover you buy must be durable and long-lasting. Some of the fibers in wheel covers include leather, rubber, plastic, and cotton with fur coating.
But before you settle for one, you might want to evaluate first to identify the one that best suits you. For example, if you have sweaty hands, it’s more convenient to choose cotton, a material that won’t make an ugly mess.
While it’s cheaper to go for plastic covers, these tend to incur damages compared to other types. When it’s too hot, the materials of your chosen cover must endure the situation without posing any risks to you.
Rubber covers are expensive, but many experts recommend the material compared to other types. Just make sure you choose a flexible cover that can adapt to different weather conditions or changes in the driver without making tweaks that might lead you to spend more money on replacements.
Grip
Finally, the grip is the most critical factor when shopping for decorative wheel covers. Slippery covers will make your driving uncomfortable because the problem will only make you lose focus on driving and the road. The worst that can happen is getting into an accident.
