I hate plastic.

The underbelly of my '09 xB2's plastic nose has sustained many scratches. I don't think it's cracked (too badly) yet but - no matter how much I try to remind myself - I still occasionally park too far forward over a curb (and hear that glorious grating sound of plastic against concrete).

I'd toyed with the idea of having a custom stainless mask made to cover the bottom front end of my car - but that simply wouldn't be feasible.

The only other option I see is trying to cut away the most vulnerable parts of the plastic, but an inspection shows that wouldn't work either.

I'm not lowered, of course. May I ask how many others are frustrated by this problem?

Thanks, Marc

 

very frustrated, my O8 actually scraped the underbelly last winter (record-breaking Wisconsin winter) and has scrapes on the edges of the nose from clipping the curb of my narrow urban driveway. No cracks though. The factory height isn't veryy snow-friendly and slush packs into the tight wheel wells...I love the car, but not great for winter

 

Drive better and be more conscious of what you're doing.

I had an older gentleman ask me at the car wash a couple weeks ago: "How do you get in and out of drive ways?" Took a little bit for me to realize he was being serious.

My rebuttal: carefully.

 

Thanks Wushen:

I'm in Milwaukee and last winter was a disaster for me too!

Marc

 

It's kinda tricky with an inclined driveway and 4 inches of ice atop it...granted I shoulda shoveled better. but the girl downstairs from me has a jeep, never shovels and works weird hours, so by the time I get to the driveway it's already trenched and refrozen virtually impossible to shovel. I otherwise have no troubles with the curbs

 

Hey Marc,

I'm in Milwaukee too, I'm wondering if your Scion has gotten a bunch of little white chips on the front edge of your hood. I've thought it was bugs, but seem to be the wrong color and appear to be scratches and mostly polish out...When I see an XB in a lot, I'll look for this but haven't found it on others. I'm a second owner, but it seems odd, because it's otherwise in very good shape. It's probably little dings in the clearcoat (the AeroDynamics dont help) It seems odd and I thought it might
be a local environmental thing, I'm debating putting some kind of clear laminate over it... My Scion is Smurf Blue (I think the factory calls it teal, but it's not) I haven't gotten a chance to see one of my color up close, it may be particular to my color. I'm just curious what you think about that.

Thanks,
Brian-

 

yup, i experience this lovely sound all the time. but, im still gonna go lower

 

I haven't had a problem with my plastic underbody.

 

Straddle the trenches!!! That is annoying. I've been thwarted by snow a few times, but still managed. Surprisingly, Utah isn't all that bad for snow. Park City is, but not the SLC.
I've actually hit a parking curb and had to unbolt a bit of my front end to fix the damage.

Surprisingly, I don't. I'm fairly low with my coilovers, but driving isn't a chore. So I'm kind of bummed. I wanted driving to be a chore.

 

haha, i feel ya. I aspire to make driving as tedious as possible. especially after going to Wekfest recently, my DF210s just wont suffice.

but anyway, im not really sure if there is a way to prevent this

 

Yeah Brian, my classic silver xB has the same little (and well-distributed) white specks/flakes. I considered a bra, but it's be too much hassle. Perhaps there's some substance to other posters' complaints about poor Scion paint durability.

Marc