Your Questions Answered: Can I stop potholes wrecking my tyres?

I have a 2012 Volkswagen Passat V6 wagon and have had to replace three tyres and a wheel due to hitting potholes. I have been really careful since the first tyre blew but it has been hard to avoid the potholes, especially at night or in the rain. The tyre shop says it’s because the car has low-profile tyres. I don’t want to buy a 4WD, I like my Passat, but what can I do to stop wrecking tyres? – Alice

Answer: Hi Alice, with shrinking government budgets, increased costs and frequent weather events (in other words, ‘lots of rain’) in recent years, pothole damage has become a real problem, especially for those of us who have cars with low-profile tyres like yours. Low-profile wheels and tyres can help improve dynamics, and they have also become fashionable.

The downside of rubber-band-thin tyres is poorer ride quality and, as you have discovered, a greater likelihood of tyre and wheel damage if you hit a big enough pothole. If you want to keep the car but avoid the continued risk of tyre damage, for some cars a workable option is to replace the wheels and tyres with smaller-diameter wheels and higher-profile tyres.

However, for your Passat it’s not likely to work. Assuming you have the 18-inch wheels and 235/40R18 tyres fitted to the V6 Highline, you can’t fit the smaller 17-inch wheels and 235/45R17 tyres fitted to the Passat 118 TSI, as the front brakes are too large on the V6 model for the factory 17-inch wheels to fit. You could try to source some aftermarket 17-inch wheels that may have a different shape and thus fit over the brakes. That’s a gamble, though.

The only real option is an extra-load (XL) tyre in the factory 18-inch size, which might help reduce the risk of damage. XL tyres have a stronger sidewall construction and a higher load rating than non-XL tyres, so it should work. Just make sure to check what tyres you can legally fit (as found on the tyre placard on your car or in the owner’s manual) and confirm with a tyre shop that XL-construction tyres will work before you do anything.

I have a 2016 Ford Falcon, which is running like a Swiss watch. The only annoying problem is that the material on the ceiling is starting to come down. What’s the best way to deal with this? Can I glue it back or does it have to be replaced? – Charlie

Answer: Hey Charlie, there’s the best way and the cheapest way, and they are not the same. It’s really common for car headlining to come away after a few years, as most are a foam-backed material glued onto a cardboard backing.

Over time, the original foam and glue start to degrade into an ugly, sticky (but not sticky enough) Violet Crumble mix, and then gravity wants to have its way with the now-loose material.

Cheap fixes include screw-in headliner repair kits, but use enough of them (eventually you’ll need lots as the whole headliner degrades) and you’ll turn the cardboard backing into Swiss cheese – not great if you eventually replace the headliner properly.

The only proper way to fix this is to replace the whole headliner with new foam-backed headliner material, after all the old foam and glue has been removed. You can do this yourself for about $100–$200 in materials or pay someone to do it for $300–$600 (depending on things like whether it has a sunroof, which adds to the cost).

Having done a couple of headliners myself now, honestly, it’s just easier to pay the man. That glue and foam stuff is messy to scrape off and gets everywhere.

I am looking at buying a new 3.5-tonne-capacity dual-cab ute or large SUV to tow my 3200kg off-road van for less than $100K. I don’t want a diesel, as the fuel costs are too high. Maybe a petrol, but that’s not a lot better for fuel costs when towing. I don’t think a plug-in hybrid is the go, I hear they chew a lot of petrol when towing long distance. What about an EV? Is there anything coming in the future that’s battery-electric that realistically will do the job? – Angus

Answer: Hey Angus, a great question with, unfortunately, not too many great answers as far as EVs go at the minute. There are two battery-electric dual-cabs on sale now (KGM Musso EV and Toyota HiLux BEV), but neither has anything like the towing capacity you need (up to 2300kg and 2000kg respectively).

There is one EV dual-cab ute incoming that might work – the MGU9 EV, due in showrooms this quarter for $78,990 plus on-road costs. The MG electric ute has already been previewed at the Everything Electric show in Sydney last month, and MG has announced not only the price but also the headline specs of 3500kg towing capacity, 685kg payload and 430km WLTP range.

However, there are plenty of unknowns with this ute. We don’t know what its Gross Combined Mass is yet (the maximum allowed weight of vehicle and trailer, loaded up), which can be seriously compromised with some dual-cab utes, or the maximum towball download. That 430km WLTP range could well drop to something like 200km or less if towing 3500kg on the highway, especially if towing in the hills or into a headwind.

We are driving the new MGU9 EV locally for the first time in the coming days, so hopefully we can tell you more about how it consumes energy and how it might stack up as a tow vehicle. Keep an eye out for a launch review on carsales, coming soon.

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