I have a 2001 model. Last year I finally decided to take the ugly bumper sticker sized decals off. When I did it left a very noticable outline where the stickers have been. There was simply no cleaning it off, I'm sure it was because the color had faded a bit. It looked worse than it did with the obnoxious stickers.

I ended up painting the entire wheel so it wouldn't look so bad.

I would be careful doing that. If you pull them off try and pull them off in one piece just in case you have to put them back on because of an ugly outline.