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I am decently competent driver and I made it about 4 years in city driving without a scrape on my 19” shiny rims (not my choice but I took the upgrade). Then at some point at a rushed left turn around a median I absolutely trashed the rear driver side but making the turn a bit too short. Carnage. Oh well, don’t care. Goes with my rear scarred city bumper, I guess it’s something of a badge? Definitely not honor but something.
In some of the older parts of my city the kerbs are made of bluestone, which means they can have a rough, somewhat jagged, non-uniform edge that sticks out. They’re also harder to see compared to a regular concrete kerb because of their dark colour.
I’ve kerbed two cars on bluestone – my old e90 330i with 19 inch M-Sport style wheels and my wife’s brand new (at the the time) Mazda 3 with dark grey painted alloys. Bluestone kerbs are murder to wheels.
I should send this to the asshole at Europcar in Quimper, France, when he found some slight curb rash on the Renault Clio we returned. I hadn’t done it (but would have admitted if I had), and he couldn’t understand that the reasons neither myself nor their office in Rennes had noticed it were because:
1) It was incredibly minor and blended in with the silver wheels.
2) It might have been at the bottom of the wheel when we picked up the car, rendering it invisible to all but snails.
I later found a photo I’d taken of the car which shows it was present at our initial destination; not ideal, but better than nothing. And we haven’t heard from them, so hopefully they rolled their eyes at his note and deleted it. Apparently I need to start taking videos and photos of the top and underside of the car.
Luckily he also didn’t notice the missing antenna. The previous renters weren’t kind to that car.
Oh, come on Jason. Automotive journos have done far worse than just clout a wheel against a curb/kerb. Tell us the really juicy stuff. Like how they totaled a car or at least a quarter panel. You know. Something where airbags went off. Anyway…
“Ed Note: Generally, the strategy hen.” What are these hens you speak of? Can we replace Peter Hegseth with one?
On my second date with now my ex-wife, I curbed (I do like “kerbed”) a back wheel of her BMW X5 with the M package stupid wheels and run-flat tires just getting out of one of those spiraling parking garages at the airport (IAH) in Houston and felt almost vomitingly ill about it.
I had already done it to my own Jetta after nearly 12 years into ownership and hated myself for it. And I loved those unidirectional wheels Jettas had in the A4 generation.
(Adrian, if you’re reading, can we go back to wheels that look like they’re turning the correct or at least neutral direction on either side? I hate the wheels on my Honda.)
And then she and I traded turns doing it to an Acura MDX. Not on purpose or anger of course. Just oopsies! I don’t think the divorce was about wheel assault. And certainly not about domestic violence.
Back when sidewalls were taller, some of them had a ridge that gave you some grace against such incidents. I think it was Continental that did that.
I now drive a ’17 Accord with 215/55 R17 tires (not particularly “sporty”) and I’ve managed to curb a wheel on that as well. I have Conti’s on it now. It came with some spectacularly bad Goodyear “Eagles.” They flew really well over standing water during heavy rains in Texas. Never pausing to take a sip. Or a sipe.
But I digress. I would rather run on steelies with a relatively cheap plastic cover than alloy wheels. Even, maybe especially.
Nobody in an Accord is going to feel the difference in unsprung weight between that and more expensive alloy wheels. The alloy wheels came because I bought a “deluxe” version of that car. I don’t know the difference in weight, but I can tell you the cost of replacing a curbed (still like “kerbed”) wheel isn’t worth it. At least on an Accord.
And my wife’s X5 rode like shit on skinny sidewall little, $600 to replace if you picked up a nail, M Package run-flat tires, that wore out (if not punctured in maybe 15K miles) and part way through followed every imperfection in the road. And because it had run flats, there was no spare when a piece of 1/4″ conduit pierced the right rear tire in BFE Texas, it ruined a weekend trip. We limped to a place off the main road (it wasn’t a freeway or even a highway) and found a bar we could hang out until the flatbed tow could haul it back to our local dealership (and we were originally planning to be heading away from it) who could source the tire because it was so “special” that we couldn’t just go to a local Discount Tire or whatever. Certainly, couldn’t wait for TireRack.com, even if they had them.
If you can’t tell, I hated that set up. After a ruined weekend (and that the rear-leveling suspension would sag during lunch hour and overnight), we traded it on the MDX, which came with a space-saver spare, but the well was big enough for a full-sized wheel and spare. Which I did. 50 mph for 50 miles? Screw that. And ironically, we never had a flat with it ever thereafter. And with its far less stupidly speced tires, was far more pleasant to drive. Weird road camber changes where the pavement was sinking unevenly into the petroleum fields? Eh? It just went where it was pointed and ignored all that. The X5 was trying to toss you into either a ditch or oncoming traffic.
Peter Hegseth can be replaced only by a cock.
I don’t want to make this Autopiansphere political, but I just sometimes can’t resist reacting to a typo, that as an old newspaper reporter, before I became a slightly less old still photographer, then a video guy and ultimately, as a kid, the son of an English major and newspaper editor.
I did have a second career as a software engineer, so typos were often fatal to the program or implementation thereof.
All of that leads to being very pedantic, which turns out to be annoying to a lot of people. I am trying to dial it back.
I am retired and have offered my proofreading skills to this site for free, but so far, they have not taken me up on it. But I could clean up their posts before they become political triggers that I react to.
I spot this stuff in seconds as I read.
But I also don’t want to end up in a cubicle at Galpin Ford or whatever central HQ they have down there. Matt! I’m ok with remote work.
There are things I want to say, but I won’t, adhering to my first sentence.
HO: Thanks for playing along.
I was annoyed that i could not fit the standard 15″ on my V70; the turbo models have bigger brake discs and require minimal 16″ tires. Being a sucker for comfort I want as much rubber as possible
I did this to my 335i, swapped out the staggered 18″ for a square 17″ setup. Cheaper, lighter, comfier, and better protected from damage.
I did this on my Focus RS. Factory 19s with 35 series run flats became 18s with 45 series conventional tires and improved the car 100%
Also, let’s bring back bumpers that actually protect the car from minor impacts as opposed to requiring $1,500 to repaint a bumper every time someone taps your cart when parallel parking.
Yes please
I’m not sure chromed steel is going to be cheaper. It will almost certainly be less forgiving.
But I feel your pain. My car (and I) lived in Texas and I dollied my car to Tacoma, and along the way, somebody put a door ding on my driver-side door so deep that I assume it did damage to the edge of their door too. Unless it was like, an armored truck. My car has been scraped twice and most recently dented at an airport parking lot at SeaTac.
Almost 50 years ago, I had a Peugeot 504 that people would dent and I’d use the money they offered to pay for beer money. I was that poor. (But I did carry insurance, so I guess I wasn’t that poor.) But it was liberating to drive around visiting friends in Berkeley or San Francisco with people thinking “well he has no Fs to give” and not cut me off.
That was then. Now, nobody leaves a note… “Oops, I hit your car. Here’s my phone number.” That doesn’t happen anymore.
Eh. My car is eight years old, paid off, and the scruffier it looks, the less people will challenge you in traffic or try to break into it. Mechanically, it may well outlive me. And I just don’t care that much anymore.
If you’re not supposed to bump them, they should be called something else
Avoidees!
Man, I tried with the new car…but I parallel park in Seattle on a daily to weekly basis, in busy traffic, on hills, in a car with a stupidly high beltline (granted I don’t mind that otherwise), with curbs of varying heights, proportions, and states of repair…and I’ve just given up entirely.
I won’t scrape it on purpose, but I’ve given up feeling badly about it. There’s just no reason for it, and I wish I could size down the wheel for a larger sidewall.
Based on reading the forums, I think I might be able to get away with sizing down an inch, but it has to clear the brakes, which are delightfully huge. The base model rides on smaller wheels and larger sidewalls due to smaller brakes, which has a noticeable difference in ride quality. At this point though, the already scratched up OEM wheels would just become winter wheels, and I’d probably curb them even more lol.
*Edit to add that the wheels are already 20in, and 19in just barely clears the brakes if it’s the right style of wheel…what I wouldn’t give to have a car that was just a tiny bit lighter so it could use slightly smaller brakes ???? the sidewalls that I could have…
My first Saab experience was a rental 9000 non-turbo driving into Stockholm from Arlanda in 1988. It had a stick and I was amused that a car made by a company that prided itself on its jets and ergonomics had a cassette deck mounted so low I couldn’t flip the cassette over without taking it out of 5th gear for a few seconds. I laughed out loud about that.
But I loved it otherwise, and I bought a used ’88 9000 Turbo and I managed not to scrape its (still perfect) wheels. I lived in Shoreline then. I sold it and bought an ’01 Jetta TDI. I miss them both. The 9000 is probably the coolest looking car I’ve ever owned. And the TDI was fun to drive too, but in a different way. And Sweden in the summer. So pretty.
There is a great Saab shop on Greenwod I think. Scanwest! (Brain still works, sort of) I’m happy to have now looked it up on Google Maps and see they’re still there.
They had a fleet of about four old 99s they would let you drive as loaners. And the loaners were SBSD worthy. Inside. They were solid to drive, because those guys were mechanics and not interior redecorators. They used to and may still sponsor some semi-pro rally drivers in Saabs. I think in races on the Olympic Peninsula.
My 9000 was pretty solid. I think I only went to Scanwest to have an interior air temp sensor that was part of the HVAC replaced. Oh. And they could source a headlight switch that I needed to replace. But they just showed me the part and how to replace it and I did it myself, based on their advice. Just a total class act. In a high overhead part of Seattle. I’m so happy they’re still there
And sorry. Now I drive an Accord V6 with 70K and live in Tacoma, so probably won’t see all those guys again.
Viggens were after my Saab time. And wow… what happened to Saab after that made me sad.
The old Saabs certainly had more of the authentic cool vibe going on, and I still think that they are some of the most visually intriguing cars on the road today. The Viggen just so happened to be named after my favorite childhood airplane, the Saab Viggen. I had a book of cutaway drawings that showed off the mechanical bits, and it had delta wings, a canard, and a really cool navigation system – what more could you ask for?
I was like 10 when I first heard about the 9-3 Viggen, a few years after it had come out. I was already sold on Saabs by that point, and the idea that it was a fighter jet for the road got me good. Thoughts of who owned what company didn’t even cross my mind at the time. (Although in practice it was probably for the best when a local Seattle guy decided not to sell me his Viggen with a leaky roof when I was 21.)
Scanwest is still running strong! They are always filled up whenever I pass by – the Saab crew is still running pretty strong in Seattle. I’ve heard nothing but great things from everyone who’s been through there.
Honestly, the idea of being given a vintage Saab as a loaner is amazing. I’d love to be given a vintage Polestar when I go in to the dealer, even if that means they have to fight with the local Volvo mechanics to give them up lol.
Also, the story about the tape deck is hilarious. Perfection is a silly goal.
Ah. You’ve gone from Trollhattan to Goteborg!
The Viggen is a very cool jet!
If you haven’t read this article, you will love it.
Saab 37 Viggen Fighter: The Only Jet To Ever Catch the SR-71 Blackbird – 19FortyFive
I love this part of the Wikipedia article on the 9000:
Fiat had designed the Croma with no consideration of American crash test requirements, which forced Saab to strengthen the body by fitting various reinforcements. Thus, the front of the Saab is radically different from the Italian siblings due to the much improved crash protection.
Too bad SAAB didn’t make a Gripen car.
The Gripen sounds even cooler than the Viggen:
Saab JAS 39 Gripen – Wikipedia
With a Volvo Flygmotor! Who knew?
It’s more surprising seeing a Tesla without curbed rims than with them.
Every single one. Circumferentially curbed, 3 of 4 wheels. Is this a function of Tesla rims or Tesla drivers?
Yes
Having had 2 now, it’s mostly the rims, but maybe both? Even if you leave the aero covers on, the lip protrudes past them, and they stick really far out from the sidewall. Almost like that stretched look that was all over stanceworks in the late 00’s.
But then there’s also a reliance on the parking features which are great at seeing big obstacles/small children but not great at judging distances from abnormal shapes and sizes. My wife and I have both curbed mine backing out of our driveway. Pretty narrow and a reall shallow angle as it reaches the road, so easy to get up on the curb and then fall off.
Tesla seems especially egregious in having protruding rims. Rented a Tesla from hertz once and every single Tesla on the lot had a bare aluminum strip on the rim from getting curbed.
This is one of the reasons a got a Kia EV6 with 19” wheels- the rims are well recessed behind the rubber.
Yea it’s pretty common and the rims are really soft too. Last time I got tires, the tech said he sees more with bent rims than without.
Curb rash is to Teslas what dented bumpers are to Camrys.
and dented bodypanels are to prius’s.
That time I tore the fascia off a Mercedes coupe press loan, and then surreptitiously repaired it…
Drive thru lanes with tight turns or wonky driveways are the worst. One of our pharmacies had the worst exit lane curb.
Potholes also wreak havoc on modern rims. I have bent a couple of rims over the years.
…Better mileage? Lighter wheels = easier wheel changes after punctures? Fewer punctures? Cars that don’t look like they’re wearing their parents’ shoes? SMTFU, too.
So, less industry behind the scenes stuff and more of a screed about shitty wheel/tire designs.
I can dig it.
Between the booze, drugs and brown bags full of money it’s really not as scandalous as you think it is.
What’s scandalous is the appalling lack of hookers.
Viva la hubcaps! Also agree on the sidewall, even on Trucks now the youths do low profiles, like why? The point of a truck is to have big meaty tires to drive over curbs without a care! Not that I’ve ever done that….
When did hubcaps stop being a thing?
They haven’t, just buy the cheapest trim level of the cheapest cars sold.
Sidewall should be the widest part of the tire, That’s how we designed wheels at Land Rover.
Specific counter point: I am very glad for rentals in the UK to hit rims before tires. I don’t completely understand why, I suspect it’s an MOT thing, but we got very specific instructions to NOT damage the sidewalls of the tires in any way or we’d be on the hook for a full new set. I asked about the rims, and they said they didn’t care at all about the rims and DO NOT DAMAGE THE SIDEWALLS.
Which was great, because peeling out of Heathrow on the wrong side of the road with a 1.2l N.A. wheezer and the worst clutch I’ve ever dealt with of course meant I immediately hit a curb.
Large and bellicose curbs indeed. I was surprised when I moved out here a few decades ago. It’s not like there aren’t curbs where I’m from in New York City… there are. But they’re curb-height. Here, in southern California, they’re 50% higher on average and not only do they increase the chance of curbing your pretty alloy wheel, it’s almost certain that your passenger is going to scrape the muthafrakin’ hell out of the lower edge of the door when they open in to exit or enter the car.
This becomes easier to bear if you’re dailying a ‘survivor’ car that’s a couple decades old (or almost twice that in my case) but it still hurts.
So it’s not by leaving the sunroof open after losing the key fob then? Yeah, that seems less common than curbing the wheels.
(I hope you are at the point where you can laugh at that, Mercedes. If not, then I apologize greatly)
I love how this has just become part of the Autopian canon. 🙂 Yeah, I’ve gotten to the point where it’s pretty funny.
Actually, when Jason talked about writing this, I pointed out that I have somehow avoided curbing the wheels of any press vehicle, but instead, I do worse than curbing wheels. I jumped one Can-Am product so high that the tailgate blew off upon landing, dumped another Can-Am product, and hit a tree with another Can-Am product. I might have also briefly driven yet another Can-Am product somewhat in an ocean. Then, of course, we have the disaster with the F-350 and the U-Haul truck.
One time, a Can-Am PR person joked that I do more hardcore stress tests than their own test drivers.
I mean, I did see you get air in that presser Bronco more than a few times.
Indeed! But it did not break, so I’m not counting that one. 🙂
Man, someone should tell those RV manufacturers they got off easy!
Maybe this is the real reason for the otherwise inexplicably long-lived trend of machine face black wheels.
It’s made worse by the recent trend to paint wheels in non-silver colors, as demonstrated by the last picture in the article. Scrapes on black-painted wheels look even more obvious.
Both my cars right now have black wheels and I hate it.
Yes BUT, if you’re willing to invest in some touch up paint (or a sharpie…) the black ones are much easier to “fix” than silver metal
I agree, Jason. I’d happily take more sidewall. If the wheel can’t be so fancy, then the market would just have to compensate with more raised, colorful letter tire designs!
Which would be nice because none of those exist in 205/60R16 that I’ve found.
I hate it too, but I figured there must be an engineering or fuel economy related reason for the trend of tire to wheel ratio going from fat tire on narrow wheel in the 1980s to narrow tire on fat wheel for the last 15 years or so. IMO it’s not for aesthetics, as I hate the look and the functionality e.g. curbing.
I think it’s to fit bigger brakes and because most people seem to like the aesthetics or at least associate it with looking more expensive (it is, of course, but for the wrong reasons). Narrower helps aero, but the same diameter package with the bigger wheels tend to weigh more. The tires today aren’t narrower from the ’80s, but if you mean the stretched look, I think that’s dubious style. (I have that with my car to a minor extent, but it’s because I thought the stock wheels were 1/2″ wider than they were, so the aftermarket ones are that much wider and the tire ends up looking slightly stretched. I don’t care for it, but I also don’t want wider tires as the car sticks too well as it is even with HPAS.) The other part of bigger wheels is that “cars” have gotten so fat, tall, and blocky that they need large wheels to not look under-tired, which would counteract the intimidating intent of the grrr, I’m tough, angry-face styling.
It’s purely aesthetic once past big enough to clear the brakes – and no normie CUV has brakes anywhere near big enough to need an 18IN+ wheel. Few smaller ones even need 16IN, but 17s and 18s are rampant past the absolute pauper-spec base trims. Large wheels HURT fuel economy, which you can see with EVs where the optional larger wheels always take a noticeable toll on range. Not as obvious with ICE because the energy density of hydrocarbons is so much better that little differences don’t hurt as much, but they certainly cost an mpg or two. Plenty of tests out there that prove that. But a dirty secret of fuel economy testing and certification is that automakers don’t actually have to test/certify EVERY variant since the differences are relatively small.
They help tall, slab-sided vehicles look less tall and slab-sided is why designers love them. And people who don’t know any better think they look “cool”, even as they cost them a lot of money and ruin the ride. Just another dumb fashion thing in modern cars, like GRRRRR front ends, tiny windows and jacked up ride heights.
even with larger diameter wheels, OEMs could spec wider tires that would protrude past the rim just a bit while still clearing suspension components. But, they don’t. And many tire shops (not to mention dealers) look at you funny when you want a non-original size installed.
Eh, my cars are city cars…their wheels are marked up here and there from collective decades of street parking. Sure, I do my best to avoid it, and as needed sand down and touch up, but it’s not something to which I give much thought. Cars were built to be used in their environments – maintain well, but don’t obsess over perfection that can only really be obtained by not using them.
1000 times this. Why any part of the wheel should stick out beyond the tire sidewall is beyond me.
As a wise man once said it is a poor workman that blames his tools. I guess everyone does it once, though to date I haven’t, but if it happens frequently? Do it once shame on the designers do it twice shame on the driver.
I’ve done it twice in 40 years of driving and I don’t want to know how many miles. Happens. But if your wheels look like somebody took a grinder to them, that’s definitely a YOU problem. But the designers are certainly rigging the game with wagon wheels with stretched rubber bands on them. Sooo many cars have the rim of the wheel sticking out past the sidewall – it’s ridiculous. And totally fashion, not necessity.
I think this is the right take regarding when it’s a “you” problem. I’ve yet to curb my wheels, however, knowing I’m one misjudged drive-through lane away from permanent (and needless) damage sucks.
I suspect it’s more challenging to “never” do it when you’re in and out of a new vehicle every week or two. Even with 3 cars in my regular rotation, I’ve built a good mental picture of where the edges are; that’d be tough if I never have one for more than a week.
I curbed the wheel on my Accord the first week at my new house, backing out of the driveway and mis-judging where the curb was. I really want to swap these 19s for some 17s with some sidewall.
Before I bought the 10th gen I was looking at the 11th gen and told the dealer I specifically wanted an EX. Why they said, we have a ton of Sports and look how good they look. Me: 20’s look good, but they’re too easy to curb, or bend, and tires cost more. Seems they can’t keep the EX in stock with the smaller wheels.
I was annoyed that my BMW wagon came with the free that year “Value Package” that included 17IN wheels – I would have been perfectly happy with the 16s, and had those for my snow tires. My 1-series has the base 16s and they look perfectly fine. Tires are cheaper too. Bigger than that is ridiculous.
Agreed. My Miata has 17’s and they’re a bit big for the car, but I’ll allow it. I still feel like its not that long ago I was buying 15″ wheels for my Jeeps. Eventually I went 17″s there because used take-offs were so cheap