There’s customization and extras, and then there’s Mercedes-Benz’s ridiculously long and seemingly ever-growing list of options to choose from. Tick some of those accessory boxes and you can easily catapult the price of your car to astronomic levels.
But we’re not here to talk about those obvious and pricier offerings.
What we will bring to your attention is an often overlooked by most automakers decorative feature, the wheel hub cap or insert. Some brands offer the same style regardless of wheel choice while others might go as far as having bespoke caps for each available rim style. Of course, that’s too simplistic for Mercedes-Benz.
Here in the States and at least on a selection of models, the Stuttgart-based brand with the star gives you a dizzying array of choices for its alloy rim inserts. These range from six designs in numerous colors for a total of 11 different caps in the latest S-Class, to 19 offerings (!) for other models like the CLA, GLA and GLC.
There’s Classic Star & Laurel, Titanium or Sterling Silver, low or raised star, regular or matte Himalaya Grey, with or without the laurel, the list of names goes on and on.
With the exception of the aluminum AMG Heritage wheel hub inserts with embossed emblems that will cost you more than a Diamond White Pearl color for a Mitsubishi Outlander ($200) at $215 for a set of four, the other ones are more reasonably priced between $16 and $52.
Yes people, that’s more options for wheels caps than you get for exterior colors on just about every mainstream car out there. You can imagine that for someone like yours truly who has a frustrating problem choosing from just five exterior colors, this can be a truly daunting process. Well, actually, more for the salesperson than myself.
Did we mention that you also have four tire valve stem caps to choose from? First-world problems…
