The Car Wheel or Rim is a circular metal item which your rubber tires are mounted to. Car Wheels or Rims enable your tires to mount perfectly to all four hub assemblies thereby connecting your Car, Truck, or SUV to the road. They’re pretty darn important to make cars go, stop, and ride super smooth. 🙂
Is it a Wheel or a Rim? That is the million dollar question. After 20+ years of serving customers with their OEM Rims/Wheels needs, I say they are the same thing.
Technically most Wheel Nerds consider the “Rim” to be only the “Barrel of the Wheel”, or the Metal that is used directly where the Tire Mounts to the Wheel. The “Wheel” is then considered the whole metal item including the Spokes, Barrel, and the Center area or “Hub” which connects to the vehicle’s hub assembly. To make it even more confusing, a few Wheel Nerds consider the “Wheel” to include the Tire as well. We have run into a few customers over the years who consider the “Wheel” as the Rim/Wheel and Tire altogether.
Here’s the Bottom Line on this for me – Car Wheels and Car Rims are the same thing for 99.99% of the population. It is the Whole Metal (usually Silver) Item in the middle of your tires, which your tires are mounted to, which make the connection to your car’s hub assemblies via Lug Bolts or Lug Nuts.
So Call them Wheels or call them Rims – We know what you are talking about!
Is it a Factory Rim or OEM Wheel or Original or what is it? It’s all of the above and more.
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer which is basically the same as saying “Factory” or “Original” or “Stock” or “Replacement”. No matter which word you use to describe your Car Wheels, you are saying the same thing. If you are reading this now, you more than likely searched on Google using the above keywords along with your car, truck, or suv name. I sure hope so, that’s how we pay the bills here 🙂 And…we have the best prices online.