Well, it's still a chrome finish, but it's just on a plastic cladding instead of bonded to the aluminum rim. My guess is it wears better on the plastic covering than the rim itself. A few years ago the Ford chrome rims were peeling/corroding fairly badly. I actually had 2 20" rims replaced on my Harley truck, while others had all 4 replaced. This is probably Ford's response to poor wear on the real chrome rims. The new ones still look good IMO.