diff --git a/pip/req.py b/pip/req.py
index e81f5a0c4a9..5742e62ce07 100644
--- a/pip/req.py
+++ b/pip/req.py
@@ -1102,6 +1102,13 @@ def prepare_files(self, finder, force_root_egg_info=False, bundle=False):
                             for subreq in req_to_install.bundle_requirements():
                                 reqs.append(subreq)
                                 self.add_requirement(subreq)
+                        elif self.is_download:
+                            req_to_install.source_dir = location
+                            if not is_wheel:
+                                # FIXME: see https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/1112
+                                req_to_install.run_egg_info()
+                            if url and url.scheme in vcs.all_schemes:
+                                req_to_install.archive(self.download_dir)
                         elif is_wheel:
                             req_to_install.source_dir = location
                             req_to_install.url = url.url
@@ -1117,11 +1124,6 @@ def prepare_files(self, finder, force_root_egg_info=False, bundle=False):
                                                                 req_to_install)
                                     reqs.append(subreq)
                                     self.add_requirement(subreq)
-                        elif self.is_download:
-                            req_to_install.source_dir = location
-                            req_to_install.run_egg_info()
-                            if url and url.scheme in vcs.all_schemes:
-                                req_to_install.archive(self.download_dir)
                         else:
                             req_to_install.source_dir = location
                             req_to_install.run_egg_info()
diff --git a/tests/functional/test_install_download.py b/tests/functional/test_install_download.py
index 9132485aaab..0861a728347 100644
--- a/tests/functional/test_install_download.py
+++ b/tests/functional/test_install_download.py
@@ -15,6 +15,21 @@ def test_download_if_requested():
     assert env.site_packages/ 'initools' not in result.files_created
 
 
+def test_download_wheel():
+    """
+    Test using "pip install --download" to download a *.whl archive.
+    FIXME: this test could use a local --find-links dir, but -d with local
+           --find-links has a bug https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/1111
+    """
+
+    env = reset_env()
+    result = run_pip('install', '--use-wheel',
+                     '-f', 'https://bitbucket.org/pypa/pip-test-package/downloads',
+                     '-d', '.', 'pip-test-package')
+    assert Path('scratch')/ 'pip_test_package-0.1.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl' in result.files_created
+    assert env.site_packages/ 'piptestpackage' not in result.files_created
+
+
 def test_single_download_from_requirements_file():
     """
     It should support download (in the scratch path) from PyPi from a requirements file