Hi, and thanks for joining us. Most drivers treat parking as a formality, a slow roll into a space followed by a quick stop.

But the damage that shows up on wheels and bumpers rarely comes from bad driving on the road. It comes from the final two feet of a parking job, where a curb, a pole, or a low wall sits just outside your mirror's view.

Tilt the passenger mirror down before you pull in. On most cars the mirror has a small actuator that drops the glass with a button press, and that angle lets you see the rear wheel and the curb in the same frame. If your car lacks that feature, set the mirror manually before you start moving. Drivers who skip this step are the ones who hear the scrape, because the mirror at its default height shows sky and door handles, not the ground.

Parallel parking is where most wheel damage happens. The trick is to watch the curb line in your side mirror and stop when the rear wheel is roughly 6 to 8 inches from it. That gap clears a standard 6-inch curb without leaving you hanging into traffic. Reverse slowly, no more than walking pace, and pause the moment the gap looks right. A quick pause costs you two seconds. A scraped alloy wheel costs $150 or more to refinish.

Reversing into a spot feels awkward at first, but it puts your steering wheels at the rear, which is exactly where you need the control. Pull past the space, angle the car, and swing in backward. The rear camera on most cars built after 2018 shows a guide line that tracks your path, and you can watch the curb approach in the side mirror while the camera covers what's behind. Front-in parking is fine in wide lots, but in a tight garage or a narrow street, backing in gives you a clearer view of the obstacle you're trying to miss.

Cameras and sensors are good at catching a bollard or a wall, but they routinely miss parking blocks, low planters, and the concrete lip at the end of a space. Those sit below the sensor's field and behind the camera's wide-angle lens. Get out and look if you're unsure. It sounds obvious, but a 10-second walk around the car beats a cracked bumper cover, which on a mid-size sedan runs $400 to $800 to replace and paint.

When you park along a street, leave a little more room than you think you need. A 10-inch gap instead of 6 inches keeps you clear of uneven curbs, and it protects your wheels if the car settles or a passenger opens a door. On hills, turn your wheels toward the curb so the car rolls into it rather than into traffic if the brake fails. That's a legal requirement in many cities, and it's a practical habit everywhere.

Speed is the enemy here. Creep into every space at a pace slower than a person walks, and use the brake, not the gas, to control the last few feet. The drivers who scrape are usually the ones who rush the final approach, and the fix is simple: slow down, check the mirror, and stop before you think you need to.

Next time you pull into a tight space, drop that passenger mirror first and give yourself the extra inch. Your wheels will thank you, and you'll stop flinching at the sound of concrete.