Kerbside smarts for UK drivers
A car that starts but refuses to move on a frosty morning is not always a serious fault — but forcing it can turn a ten-minute thaw into a repair bill. Here is how to work out what is holding you, free it gently, and know when to stop.
A locking wheel nut key is the least glamorous thing in your car until it is missing. Here is the kerbside check that stops a puncture turning into a recovery truck.
Kerb weight sounds like something you'd worry about at the pavement edge, but it's really the starting point for payload, tyre pressure and how your car behaves with a full boot. Here's how to read the plate in the door shut, work out what you're actually carrying, and set the right pressures before a winter trip.
The 20p tread test is a handy conversation starter, but it is not a legal verdict on your tyres. Here is why a coin can miss worn inner edges and borderline rubber, and how to do a more reliable five-minute kerbside check with a gauge, a torch and a cool head.
A space saver is a get-you-home device, not a tyre. It has a speed limit, a distance limit, a pressure figure most drivers never check, and a set of fitting rules that catch people out on hard shoulders. Here's how to check yours now, while it's still in the boot and the weather is merely unpleasant rather than awful.
Not every kerbside hazard is a pothole. Sunken, tilted and occasionally absent gully gratings sit exactly where you park, turn and pull away — and they can wreck a wheel at walking pace. Here's how to spot the dodgy ones, what to do after a strike, and how to put a complaint together without guesswork.
A kerbside scrape, a sudden hiss or a rhythmic thump is not just characterful old-car behaviour. This practical stop-or-go guide helps UK drivers work out which noises deserve a slow drive to a garage and which ones mean pulling over now.
A tyre pressure warning on a cold November morning is not automatically a disaster, but it is not background decoration either. Here is how UK drivers can tell normal cold-weather pressure loss from a slow puncture, a tired sensor or kerb damage, and what to do at the kerbside before driving on.
Anyone can polish a bonnet. Hardly anyone buys four fresh tyres to shift a cheap hatchback, which makes the rubber one of the most honest documents on a privately sold car. Here is how to read it at the kerb before you hand over a penny.
Most new cars now arrive with a compressor and a bottle of milky liquid instead of a spare wheel. It works brilliantly for one narrow problem and not at all for the damage a British kerb or pothole tends to cause — especially once the temperature drops.
That sickening graunch as your front splitter meets the dropped kerb is entirely avoidable, and it doesn't require diggers or planning permission. A few degrees of approach angle, one honest measurement and a bit of self-discipline will save you a four-figure respray.
Every graze, bulge and faded date code on a tyre sidewall is a record of where your car has been and how hard it landed. Here's how to read that record at the kerb, work out which marks are harmless, and spot the ones that will fail an MOT or let go at 70mph.
Pavement parking is not a harmless compromise, and the rules are far from uniform across the UK. From kerb height to tyre sidewalls, here is why half-on parking is a false economy in 2026.
Potholes, broken drain covers and raised ironwork can turn a routine kerbside pass into a wheel repair. Here is the five-minute evidence routine to use before you call the council, plus the warning signs that mean you should stop driving.
Potholes get the headlines, but low-speed kerb strikes are quietly damaging alloys, sidewalls and alignment on UK streets. Here is what to check at the kerbside, and when a scuff stops being cosmetic.
Before the gritters arrive, spend 15 minutes at the kerb checking the bits that cold, wet and salty roads punish most. Here are 12 winter checks, with the DIY jobs and the ones that need a garage.