Curb Rash-- it's so humiliating

[onshi]

I had my pregnant sister try driving my Model 3 this past weekend. I could not stress more emphatically to her how easy it was to curb the wheels on this thing. I made it sound like life or death that she not curb them. Poor sis was so paranoid that she was leaving like 6 feet of space between her and the curb whenever she had to make a turn. I almost laughed to allay her stress, but no. I decided not to.

 

[aerodyne]

Previous owner curbed the wheels and replaced all 4 rims. He or the SC on delivery curbed one slightly.

When ever I have to park near a curb I have a visual of what might happen, and act accordingly...

 

[CrayZ1]

Remember when tires were so tall that you could not curb your rims, only scrub your whitewalls?

 

[aerodyne]

Actually, yes, I do. Went to blackwalls, problem solved. Others used curb feelers, an early sonic warning device...

 

[r1200gs4ok]

my wife did the same thing on our M3 the first week......I had a rim guy fix and paint it...looks like brand new.....$165 and then bought the rim edge guards....hahahaha......yea, you guessed it.......same tire, same place and on same curb.....oh well.....the vin guard did help this time.....

 

[SoCal Buzz]

subtitle option: Can we save this almost marriage...

OK ok... so my fiance (he may not marry me now) just bought an S (car of his dreams) that belongs to "us". We had it one week and I was just getting used to viewing the camera images and the dashboard "warnings" about getting too close to objects-- we park it in our very tight garage-- when he asked me to pull the car out of the driveway and park it in the street. I had no idea the warnings would not display for curb height obstacles. Just 1 minute earlier I was watching red and yellow lines as I gently pulled out of the garage-- then I go to park on the nice wide open street and viola' I hit the curb with the wheel (not even the tire-- the wheel) our beautiful perfect one-week old wheels. He was devastated. He's a car guy. He can't drive a car with wheel rash. He might as well put a box of tissues on the dashboard and an AutoClub sticker on the bumper.

I am sad and humiliated. Why... oh why don't the warnings work on curbs and why... oh why... didn't anyone tell me that I can't rely on them? And.. imagine my trying to explain that the reason I hit the curb was because I was expecting that when I got close it was going to warn me. Yes, he was livid.

Can this marriage be saved? I have lost all cred with him. How can I ask to drive the car again?

Are you in Ventura, CA area? I recently had my wheel rims expertly repaired by a guy in Westlake Village. Let me know if you need referral. $100, good ad new.

PS-my AP edged a K-rail on freeway, not “me.” Now I pay better attention.

 

[aerodyne]

Mine almost did that too. Now I have both hands on the wheel near a K rail...

 

[random155]

No lie- when my wife drives my Tesla I say to her EVERY TIME... park far away and watch the curbs. It’s an ongoing joke now for the better part of a a year. She finishes my sentence before she walks out of the door.

 

[aerodyne]

[QUOTE="I recently had my wheel rims expertly repaired by a guy in Westlake Village. Let me know if you need referral. $100, good ad new.
[/QUOTE]

I could use the referral...

 

[SoCal Buzz]

[QUOTE="I recently had my wheel rims expertly repaired by a guy in Westlake Village. Let me know if you need referral. $100, good ad new.

I could use the referral...[/QUOTE]

Wheel Wizard, Rob, (661) 373-3232

 

[Galinette]

The Rim Pro Tec are very effective. I hit curbs at least twice, and my rims are like new.

Also, the good news is that Tesla rims are painted. Which makes them much more fixable by shops.

 

[Kandiru]

I always thought it was chicky xxxx, my wife is a prolific corner scraper and rim rasher to the point that I could now find a job at a body shop This until daddy played with the music and curbed a rim on our own cul de sac

If you got him well stuck in the honey trap he will forgive a lot more than this.

 

[Spacep0d]

This was the primary reason I decided not to co-own a Tesla with my girlfriend. She curbed her wheels, smacked a few concrete barriers, and shut the garage door on her own car once. I do not curb rims, and most cars I own the rims are aftermarket anyway. With the way the Model 3 mirrors angle down in reverse, there's no reason to ever curb a wheel. Accidents do happen, but I think my standards for car preservation are quite different from my girlfriend's standards. judging by the way my cars look pristine and hers have at least 5 empty water bottles rattling around inside, lol.

 

[random155]

I

This was the primary reason I decided not to co-own a Tesla with my girlfriend. She curbed her wheels, smacked a few concrete barriers, and shut the garage door on her own car once. I do not curb rims, and most cars I own the rims are aftermarket anyway. With the way the Model 3 mirrors angle down in reverse, there's no reason to ever curb a wheel. Accidents do happen, but I think my standards for car preservation are quite different from my girlfriend's standards. judging by the way my cars look pristine and hers have at least 5 empty water bottles rattling around inside, lol.

I call my wife's car the "trash truck".

 

[Destiny1701]

I was being picked up by my wife in our 1 month old 100D with recently installed gun metal powered coated arachnid 21” wheels and as she pulled in front of the building, I literally saw her turn angle and the world suddenly went into slo mo...’Nnnnnoooooooo....tthhheee cccuuurrrrbbbb.....as the super slow video of me starting to raise my arms like a flapping penguin and point to the curb...and...baaaammm...scccrrrreeeeccchhh’

The car literally hit the curb and sort of bounced off. First thought was the rim and second was suspension.

incredibly and in perfect wifely fashion, she literally just ignored it and said ‘well next time don’t come to this building..they have stupid curbs anyway. Kids have soccer tonite...make sure they eat before’. I was silent the whole way home while internally fuming. Got home, had a vodka on ice and all was good lol.

Flawless execution of argument by denial. Lol.
1 month later, marriage intact...no susp damage and a rim 95% repaired, I still have not returned to that office building lol.

 

[dirkbike1]

My wife won't even consider driving my S!

 

[2101Guy]

may be an option going forward.
Amazon.com: rim protector

 

[Uncle Paul]

Kind of a writ of passage for nice cars. Rims stick out beyond the protective tires. Part of the cost of using cool looking rims. My G/F curbed a rear wheel on my X when she wanted to drive as I was sick one day. Totally saw it coming as she cut too sharply around the corner. Broke my heart...

Simple fact is that it was a much wider car than she was used to driving, and not something done on purpose, so I got out a little sand paper and some touch up paint and did a DIY repair. Not bad. About 2 months later I curbed a front wheel, parallel parking. Things like this happen and it hurts...but you move on.

Reasonable thing to do is get a wheel repair guy to touch it up. Makes if hardly noticible unless you are obsessive.

 

[RV8R]

I went through a major depression after my first rash. I found a great touchup paint online, did a very light emery sanding on the roughness, and put on a few coats of the touchup. Its hard to see even close up, and at 5 feet you can't tell. And that was not the last touchup needed. Curbs are a fact of life.

 

[Jsvette56]

It's so frustrating and you feel so stupid.

I'm pretty anal about repairing curb rash so I bought an extra M3 wheel for my wife's car and an extra MS wheel for mine and when the inevitable occurs I swap out the bashed wheel with the spare and take it down to Wheel Techniques in Santa Clara where they they repair so it looks as good as new ($135 to $190 depending on the damage).