From lightweight wheels designed to boost your car's performance to flashy options designed to turn heads, there's no denying that custom wheels are a great way to change the look and functionality of your car. However, it can be hard to tell whether a specific set of wheels will look good with your vehicle. Luckily, a number of websites allow you to view different wheel options on your car, van, truck, or SUV.
Wheel Visualizer from Discounted Wheel Warehouse
It's hard to beat the cool features of Wheel Visualizer, a free tool from Discounted Wheel Warehouse. With hundreds of different vehicles pre-loaded, all you have to do is select your car or truck from those available.
How to Use the Tool
Choose your car's make, year, model, and color, and then wait for the image of your car to appear. When it does, you can "try on" different wheel options to find the one that best matches your car in terms of style. You can also change the wheel and tires sizes, as well as the height of your car's suspension, to customize the look further.
What to Expect
Although the tool states that it only works with Internet Explorer, it does work with other browsers. You can expect this application to be a little buggy and slow, but it's a fun way to see what your car would look like with different wheels. You don't have to purchase the wheels from Discounted Wheel Warehouse, but the options you see are limited to the wheels they have in stock.
Ultra Wheel Company iConfigurator
Another great free wheel customization tool is the iConfigurator from Ultra Wheel Company. This tool also has many different vehicle options, allowing you to select your car or truck and then see how different wheels might change its appearance.
How to Use the Tool
To get started, select the year, make, model, submodel, and wheel size of your vehicle from the drop-down menus on the application. The tool will then bring up an image of your vehicle. Below the image, you'll see the options for custom wheels. To try out the wheels on your car, simply click on the image you want to use.
What to Expect
The Ultra Wheel Company iConfigurator has fewer vehicles loaded into it than the Wheel Visualizer from Discounted Wheel Warehouse. This means that you may not be able to find your car or truck on the site. If your vehicle isn't loaded, you'll see a generic image of a sports car. Otherwise, the tool is less buggy and generally easier to use than many other options. You don't have to buy your wheels from Ultra Wheel, but you will only see the options they have available for purchase.
TSW Wheels Configurator
The TSW Configurator offers another option for seeing how custom wheels might look on your vehicle. This tool features some exotic cars that you won't find on other wheel configurators, and it also has cars that are popular internationally but not domestically.
How to Use the Tool
To find out what a set of new wheels might look like, select your car's year, make, trim level, and model from the drop-down menus. When your vehicle comes up, you can select from standard paint colors to find the one that's closest to your car. You'll see a list of all the wheels that will fit your vehicle, and you can simply click on their images to see how they look.
What to Expect
Although the TSW Wheels Configurators has some uncommon vehicles to choose from, it does not include all the common cars and trucks. This means that if you drive a Toyota Rav 4, Ford Focus, or another regular vehicle, your car may not be listed. For those cars that are listed, this service is useful. A great feature about the tool is that you can actually share the image of your car with the new wheels on your favorite social media site. You don't have to buy anything to use this free tool, but the wheels listed are only those available from the retailer.
More Options for Specific Brands
Several sites offer tools that are designed for specific car brands. If you own one of those brands, it's a good idea to check out their application to find out how the custom wheels might look on your vehicle.
- Bayern offers a wheel configurator for BMW cars.
- Mandrus allows you to view custom wheels on your Mercedes.
- Genius Wheels lets you test fit custom wheels on your Smart car.
- Victor Equipment has a "virtual garage" that lets you check out custom wheels for your Porsche.
A New Look for Your Car
Custom wheels are a great way to give your car a brand new look, but they can be an investment. To take some of the mystery out of the shopping experience, view different custom wheels options on your car before you settle on the wheels you want. You'll end up with wheels you know will look great.
