I keep scratching my wheels / alloys

[wheelagain]

They're all ruined.

My husband is so angry.

What's the deal ? How can I avoid this ? The streets are so tight everywhere. It happens when I'm trying to avoid being hit by cars when we are going through narrow streets.

Or when I park up next to the road while I am trying to park close to the curb.

Does anyone else have this problem ?

My car is being fixed at the moment because I was actually hit by a lorry passing me to close while I was stationary.. and I have a curtesy car and have managed to scratch the wheel on that now. I'm cursed !

I can't get over excited about scratched alloys, its so easy to do if you have to park against pavements. I just get them refinished when selling the car which cost me £200 last car even with a big ding on one wheel.
Why is your husband angry? No one is hurt, the car is drivable, and its not something that needs fixing. Is he often angry about things?

Don't get as close to the kerb when passing cars. Find the button to flip your wing mirrors in and use that to give yourself a a few extra inches of leeway,

You can buy 'rim protectors' that fit on your wheels. I don't know how effective they are.
Also you can get tyres with rim protection, they have a rubber edge that sticks out a bit. I have these but if you really graze a kerb ( as i have done) your wheel still suffers.

You need to curb your tendency to hit the kerb!

Slow down when you're driving so you don't have to swerve so close to the kerb for oncoming traffic. When parking, adjust your side mirror down so you can see more of the kerb.

Very occasionally I’ve kerbed a wheel when misjudging when parking but never enough to cause damage, sounds like you have poor spatial awareness to be constantly damaging your wheels. Imagine you’re one of those that dives to the kerb in the “narrow streets” when there’s actually plenty of room to pass and I’ll bet the cars in the opposite direction aren’t kerbing their wheels.

I purposefully chose to have a car without low profile tyres because I knew I’d trash the alloys and 7 years in my alloys are spotless while Sunday driver dh’s are trashed despite my car being thrown around farms and country roads every day and his never leaving A roads.

low profile tyres + normal driving over some time = battered alloys.

Tell your DH to piss off.

I'd be annoyed too. It's careless and bad driving. I don't have ANY wheel scuffs. I adore my car and treat it very well. I certainly can't imagine curbing a wheel while actually driving! It's dangerous to hit the kerb when driving.

Perhaps you need top up driving lessons? You'd fail if you hit the kerb driving or parking.

It's easy done when parking etc. Eventually no matter how careful you are a car will pick up the odd scratch and imperfection.

I was about to confidently say no, never scratched them but then realised I actually have no idea. I am not aware of ever causing any damage to them but it's never occurred to me that something as functional and boring as wheels was something I was meant to care about and check.

Why on earth would your dh be angry?

There is zero reason for anyone to be kerbing alloys driving down narrow roads. You’re not being careful enough, give yourself more room! This suggests you don’t know the width of your car? Is it too big for you, do you need a smaller one?

However you have my sympathies with the alloys when parking. If you live in a city and have to do a lot of tight parralel parking, it happens.

I swear best thing which helped me when parallel parking To avoid this was to dip my wing mirrors as low as they’ll go the moment I start reversing so I can see the kerb in my mirrors. It’s a game changer, if you do it blind you’ll never master it

You need to improve your driving skills. Surely you didn't kerb any wheels on your driving test? Kerbing is simply bad driving.

I must not know the width of my car somehow.

I don't know what it is, it just feels like people are bombing past me sometimes and I'm scared they're going to hit me so I move right over and drive slowly or stop sometimes.

To be fair, it happens more when parking.

The road off my house is very very narrow and most cars completely crawl through it.

I think since I was hit by the lorry it's got worse as I just feel like everyone is about to hit me now.

There are two particular stretches of road near my house where this happens.

I also really struggle with those really narrow metal things you need to drive through sometimes. Since moving to london suburbs there aren't as many but when I used to live in central / zone 2 there were lots of them.

Saying all that, it mostly happens when I'm parallel parking.

Haha brilliant.

I need to be more kerbful in future !

He just really cares about our cars.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about the scratch on this curtesy card.

They're going to want lots of money for that, I bet.

I'm convinced this is one of the rasons so many people park on the pavement as a matter of course - they just don't have the skill to park close to the kerb without parking by feel, and bashing the wheels. Lack of driving skills, basically.

brace yourself about the curtesy car if there diamond cut alloys they charge you ballpark between £150/£350 they won’t be looking for cheap option they just bill you

from your husbands point of view your just causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage and you don’t care

@rwalker I do care.

I wonder if I'll be able to just pay for it without him finding out about it. I will try.

When parking, steer into the curb, so the tyre makes contact first, you then know how close it is without grazing the alloys.

This!!! They're WHEELS that live outside in the rain, mud and dirt. Some people are so precious.

Honestly, this is why I can't be doing with beautiful pristine cars. You just spend all your time stressing about tiny scratches and stone marks and the like.

If you are a car nut then I get it, but keep your precious vintage cars or souped up sports car for best and buy something that you care less about as your daily drive.

Make sure they put you as a contact at garage instead of husband

where do u think you go wrong do you bump up the kerb when parking
I’d look at rim protectors

Simple fact is you need to drive and park better.

I'm sorry but your driving sounds dangerous.

If you are parking, then angle your passenger wing mirror slightly downwards so that you can see where your wheels are. It is scary that you are reversing/parking essentially blind. Or get a parking camera installed.

Regarding oncoming traffic on thin roads - go slowly and if necessary stop (not abruptly). You are driving way too fast if you are continually hitting your wheels to avoid other vehicles.