Talk:Hubcap
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--Umm...How exactly is the Chrysler Building responsible for immortalizing hub caps? This article doesn't explain it and niether does the Chrysler Building article.
Uh, aren't these more properly wheelcovers, whereas the hubcap is a dust-cover for the axle bearing? I'd recommend this be moved to Wheelcover and a redirect to it created under Hubcap. Blair P. Houghton 21:00, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- I've never heard of wheelcover. Is it an americanism? Arcturus 21:15, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- I've never heard of wheelcover either, and I'm American. My dictionary, Webster's NewWorld Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1982, doesn't have "wheelcover". Under "hubcap" it says
- "a tightfitting metal cap for the hub of a wheel, esp. of an automobile"
- Dbenbenn 21:23, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- Apparently a wheelcover is something that covers a spare tire [3] or a steering wheel [4] Dbenbenn 21:59, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- Okay. Make it Wheel cover instead of "Wheelcover". Wheel covers [5] are often mistaken for hub caps. A hub cap is the dust-cap for the axle bearing. Many cars have a small hub cap that's hidden under the wheel cover along with the lugnuts and the rim. It's usually a dirty little cup-shaped thing. Some cars without wheel covers have large hub caps with chrome and logos and whatnot. In some cases the hub cap and wheel cover are combined into one unit [6] (that site also shows "wheel discs", probably a precursor to the wheel cover; huh...you learn something new every day researching for the wikipedia). At any rate, the entire online auto parts industry now uses them synonymously, because they're trying to make a sale to a guy who works on his own car, not improve his diction. So now we need one article (Wheel cover) and two or three redirects and/or articles with See-also sections pointing to it (Hub cap/Hubcap, Wheel disc). Blair P. Houghton 23:19, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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- "Wheel cover" − "steering wheel cover" gets 162000 Google hits [7], and some of those are for things other than hubcaps, such as spare tire covers. Hence, I think the article should remain at "Hubcap". Certainly I'd have nothing against redirects from the pages you mentioned, Hub cap, Wheel disc, and Wheel cover. Dbenbenn 02:19, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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- I shoulda thought of this sooner: go over to NapaOnline.Com and put "hub cap" and "wheel cover" into the search box. Google can't tell you the truth; it can only tell you what the people on the internet think is the truth; and the truth about the word "hub cap" is that it has become confused with "wheel cover". If the Hub cap link has text in it at all, it should be about hub caps and not wheel covers; and anything about wheel covers should be over under Wheel cover Blair P. Houghton 06:14, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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- Okay, you have a point, napaonline.com appears to use "wheel cover" and not "hubcap" [8]. But the truth is that most people use the word "hubcap" to refer to the thing pictured in the article. Consider what dictionary.com has to say about it: wheel cover versus hubcap. Wikipedia is supposed to be descriptivist, not prescriptivist. Hence, I still think the article should remain at hubcap, with a redirect from wheel cover.
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- But you can certainly edit the article to say something like "what most people call a hubcap is more properly termed a wheel cover. A proper hubcap is the following...". You could write about how the meanings of "hubcap" and "wheel cover" have changed over time; how they've gotten confused, or whatever. Do you have a source for this point of view? Dbenbenn 07:33, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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- They are known as hub caps or wheel trims in the UK, so I've added in wheel trim into the article. --Happynoodleboy 14:48, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
- Here is a great article on the history of the American hubcap. It might help. History of American Hubcaps--Needferspeed 17:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
