Re: "Low" Front Nose - Sebring/Stratus

Yes, but it's not even a Sebring or Status. My Intrepid and Ford Taurus both do the same thing, although on the Taurus, what scrapes isn't the front cowling/valence, but an air dam behind it. They scrape just about the same, maybe worse, than Dodge Strati that I have rented. Between the long front overhang typical of fwd, and the low nose which makes for good aerodynamics, the problem seems to be endemic in many car designs.

It's gotten so I don't worry about it any more; I just try to be a little careful, a little slower when approaching such a ramp or driveway. Perhaps the new rwd Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum, with less front overhang, won't do it.

It's nothing new, my wife's 99 Sebring Convertible does the same thing, the bottom of the nose is all scraped too. Any steep driveway or big dip in the road will cause it to hit the ground unless your very careful and go very slow. The problem doesn't seem to be the suspension letting the car down on a bump so much as just a lack of clearance to begin with. I'm probably the worst culprit, she is careful since she is used to it but I usually drive a 4X4 pickup and can drive over the average curb with impunity, so when I drive her car I forget to watch for anything higher than an anthill in the road Fortunately this doesn't seem to do much real damage, but it makes me cringe to hear that scraping any time it happens.

Been driving FWD vehicles for years and I don't remember ant hills :-) being a problem before.

As others have mentioned, it's a common problem. My '90 Daytona has it too, but mainly because of the ground effects. Stock ES trim, but the ES did hang a little lower than the base model.

If you ask me, the problem isn't so much the cars as the people designing driveways, ramps, etc. I don't know about the laws, but I vaguely recall that auto manufacturers must design the cars bumpers to be within certain heights. I don't think they require the same of airdams etc., but it should be obvious to all "driveway designers" that low overhangs are quite common.

Still, I avoid it in one simple way: Take the ramp at a shallow angle. Instead of coming straight into it like you would a driveway, come in from the side as shallow as you can to get the inside wheel up on it first. I don't know how to describe the geometry of it here, but if you think about it long enough you'll easily see how it keeps the fascia off the ramp. Now, mind you, you may not have much room for this, so it may be impossible to do it without bringing the rear tires up on the grass beside the drive/ramp, but with most business entrances there's plenty of room to do this without hitting a car that's "coming out" as you're going in or vice-versa. Or, just stop and wait until they get out of the way. Irritating to those behind you, but it's legal (I think) and works.

Same trick works coming in or going out. A 45-degree angle should be sufficient. Just take it slow and shallow.

HIH CJ

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 14:24:16 -0400, "Mikey S."

Yeah - it can be especially bad if you like to keep the stereo cranked. A parking space I had when I first got my Sebring sloped downward slightly towards a storm drain, and I didn't even realize I was scraping the curb most of the time when I parked at first.

It would upset me more, but it's not a part of the car anyone is going to notice unless you're on your back with your head right below it.

I can't remember what they call it, but I've seen pickups equipped with cow-catchers (since I can't remember what they're called). Well, I did just remember - skid plates. You know, so when they're driving over those huge boulders all SUV and pickup drivers go over all the time won't scratch their paint.

Anyway, I probably have more of a need for it than most of the people who have one, but it would look very ugly.

After a while, you learn to be careful.

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Just a side note: This may not yet have affected those who design and build driveways, but as those who use ramps to raise their cars to work under them can attest, the older ramps won't work on many new FWD cars for the same reason. Newer ramps are longer and less steep, for the same height.

-GP

If the designs these days call for such a low nose, perhaps the engineers should design a "roller-pin" under there so that when the occasion comes where a driver nose dives one of these cars into the pavement, the roller pin would absorb the shock and simply roll over it instead of scraping the crap out of the cowling!