Steering wheels used to be big, thin and very elegant-looking in the early days of the automobile. They were usually came with a wooden rim, metallic spokes or prongs, which were quite narrow in their construction, and ranged in number from one to four.

As time passed and as airbags and other safety constraints began to make their presence felt in the industry, the design of steering wheels took a downward plunge, and it just now seems to be getting back on track with a few stunning examples fitted to production cars.

Before the days of airbags, designers had pretty much complete freedom to design whatever they deemed suitable for a particular style of car. Just take a look at the wheel of the classic Citroen DS, which is both pretty to look at (on the first generation of cars) and it also serves a functional purpose, as the driver is required to put his or her hand through the steering wheel to operate the automatic gear lever – it only has one very thin and long arm.

By the 1980s, plastic had taken over, and the design of the steering wheels got as bland and square as the cars’ exterior appearance, especially when compared to what I think is the golden era of automotive design, the late 50s until the early 70s when it was all curves. In recent years, though, good looking wheels seem to be making a comeback – just look at the one on the VW Golf GTI (opening photo), and it’s not alone…

The subject of this piece is not to rant on about how everything was better back in the day, so we will focus instead on the better examples of steering wheel design we found in modern cars.

We have put together some 70 photos showing a wide array of wheel shapes, from an equally-wide range of styles of vehicles. You will notice that the wheels we have chosen are from modern cars, most of which are less than five years old. Begin to move further into the past, and they start to get considerably less good-looking.

A few oddities are included, of course, like the airbag-less wheel of the Spyker C8, or the square-themed one of the new Fiat Panda, and even one from a Ford Focus ST, which was chosen because it epitomizes the shape of wheels we had been used to for a few decades in a modern way. The Citroen C4 wheel is also worth a mention, with its fixed button-clad center hub.

Comments with additional photos or ideas are always welcome, and you can post your own photos below, if you feel like we’ve missed something.

By Andrei Nedelea

PHOTO GALLERY

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