Were we live there are a number of places where perpendicular parking in required. One of the drivers of our Prime Advanced has a tendency to smack the front bumper into the curb. Can the front sonar/parking assist help prevent this? I looked at the manual and it looks like a curb is too low to register on anything.
NO. You need to adjust the driver, not the car. But in most cases, the plastic/rubber parts that hit will NOT be seriously damaged by an occasional scrape.
I worry about that also. Remember back in the 50's (well, probably most of you weren't around then) when you could buy "fender feelers"? Looked like a little antenna on the front of your car to help you park. When they touched the curb they made a noise and you knew you were close enough. Wonder if there is a modern equivalent of those.
I would NOT make any assumptions, get under there and see what's happening. And the best defence: driver ed. On our 3rd gen, albeit a different vehicle, the frontmost underpanel was nearly coming apart, after a few years of curb brushes. It was backing off in particular that tore things up.
The occasional scrape won't really do much damage as long as the impact is slow, but backing out is when the damage happens. Some of those curbs/parking bumpers are on the high side, and if hit hard enough could do some serious damage. Sounds like it's time to train the driver some more. Whenever I get a new car, I park it against a wall/garage door/whatever. I get out and look and move it up to where it's only a few inches from touching. Then I sit in it and memorize the wall position relative to the front end of the car. Picturing where this imaginary plane is in my mind later, I never get closer to parking bumpers etc than that imaginary plane. I do the same with the back end too, although with the cameras these days, that's not as important. In the old days, cars were boxy, and you could see where the edges/corners were. Made driving so much easier. Today, you can't see any edges and it's all your mental picture of where the edges could be.
I've always liked photos. Here's one for you youngin's to save you some data... P.S. You might look up whitewall tires too...
Last time I used those "catfish" feelers was maybe 20 years back, on inside back corner, to help with parallel parking. It was the spring style, was prone to snag-and-drag road debris, string and stuff. Gave up on it, just use caution and practice now.
