How not to kerb a wheel: parking a low car in Kuala Lumpur

We have repaired a lot of front lips and a lot of wheel rims. What has never once been damaged is a car being driven enthusiastically on a good road. Every single incident in our records happened below about 10 km/h, in a car park or on a residential street, usually within the first hour of the hire, to somebody who had not yet worked out where the front of the car was.

That is genuinely good news, because it means the risk is almost entirely avoidable and has nothing to do with how fast you drive.

The first fifteen minutes

Before you go anywhere, find an empty corner of a car park and drive badly on purpose. This is the single most useful thing you can do with a hired performance car, and almost nobody does it.

1. Reverse into a bay three times. Learn where the rear corners are and what the camera is not showing you.
2. Do a full-lock turn in both directions so you know the actual turning circle, not the one you assume.
3. Brake hard once, deliberately, from about 40 km/h. Modern performance brakes have far more initial bite than you expect.
4. Get out and look at where the car actually is relative to the lines. Most people park a wide car eight inches from where they think they have.

Ramps, and the front lift button

The cars with the lowest noses in our fleet — the Huracán, both 718s, the GT3, the M4 — will all touch on a steep car park ramp if you take it square and slowly. The fix is geometry, not caution.

• Approach any steep transition at an angle, not head on. One wheel climbs at a time and the nose stays clear.
• If the car has a front lift, use it every time. Not when it looks bad — every time. It is faster to press than to explain.
• Older KL malls are the worst offenders. Newer developments are generally fine.
• The exit ramp is more dangerous than the entrance, because the nose is unloaded and dropping.

Humps, which are the real hazard

Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding residential areas have a great many speed humps, and a meaningful number of them are unpainted, unsigned, and considerably taller than the standard allows. Mont Kiara, Ampang and the older parts of PJ are particularly rich in these.

In a low car, take every hump you have not personally seen before at an angle and at genuinely walking pace. The sound of a front lip on concrete is unmistakable and entirely preventable.

Where to leave it

• Covered and guarded, always. Not on the street overnight, whatever the neighbourhood.
• Choose the level with foot traffic near the entrance over the empty top floor. Company deters interference.
• Park nose-out where you can, so you are not reversing a wide car into a busy aisle at the end of a long day.
• Take the parking ticket with you, not on the dashboard where it is visible through the glass.

If something does happen

Tell us immediately, not at handover. Kerbed wheels and scraped lips are the two most common items and both are quoted at the actual repair cost, with photographs. Nothing is ever deducted from a deposit on the basis of an estimate, and nothing is deducted without you seeing the same pictures we are looking at.

Nobody has ever damaged one of our cars by enjoying a good road. They damage them reversing out of a bay while talking.