What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Shouldering, the blame
There has been a lot of discussion recently about alloy wheels developing cracks that necessitate replacing the wheels at considerable cost. The cracks have been variously attributed to either faulty manufacture in Eastern Europe or to the reduced shock absorption capability of hard-walled run-flat tyres when they hit potholes or traffic-calming strips.
Asked on 6 March 2010 by J.S., via e-mail
Answered by
Honest John
The main problem is the combination of ridiculously low profile tyres with the UK's pot holed and pot-hilled roads. Anyone who specifies 19" wheels on a car deserves the problems this will inevitably bring. But I agree, manufacturers should not sell cars with such unsuitable wheels and tyres. They do so to gain the profit that would otherwise have gone to aftermarket vendors of this sort of bling.
Similar questions
I read with interest your article about road humps and tyres recently. I live in the lovely village of Ickleford and Hertfordshire Highways are about to install 11 road humps over less than a 1-mile stretch...
Something I never thought to see: A busy road in Stevenage that was well-humped for about 1/2 mile has just had them removed and those sections of the road resurfaced. So what was real penance for me to...
Attached are pictures of some incredibly bad speed cushions in Cardiff. I think they exemplify the type of badly maintained humps about which you rightly complain each week. Several cars passed very close...
.jpg)
