So there I was, driving downtown to meet some friends, when what should be revealed by the truck rumbling ahead of me but a GIANT FREAKIN POTHOLE. I couldn't swerve out of the way because I was surrounded on one side by cabbies and the other by parked cars. I tried to swerve a little but it didn't work. I was already slamming on the brakes and only hit it at like 15mph but I knew from the sound it made and the way it felt that it was going to be a bad one.

And it was. My TPMS light came on with its upsetting orange (!) sign and I just knew. The way my car suddenly starting pulling left was my second clue. And when I pulled over at the next open space left by a fire hydrant, my left front tire was completely flat.

I had to sit on the side of the road and wait for a tow truck to come and I got downtown two hours later than I would have if that stupid pothole wasn't there. Now I get to wake up early and go to the dealer for a new tire, I suppose.

God I hate the winter and the way the road just opens up from all the salt. Rar.

 

It is not the salt but the water freezing in cracks that cause the pavement to break up.

Next time don't tailgate and maybe you can stop/avoid pothole.

We get potholes here but we don't grow them to Fit eating dimensions.

 

I wasn't tailgating. I had enough time to get down from 25mph to 15mph before I hit the thing. I just didn't see it till the truck in front of me finished driving over it, that's all. I would have had plenty of time to avoid it if swerving without hitting something else was possible in Manhattan.

 

To post something positive to balance out my pothole hate: I was really glad my Fit came with a spare and not with a patch kit! I wouldn't have known what to do with a patch kit and I'm not sure AAA comes and does roadside patching lol.

 

Ugh, I hate potholes! Sorry to hear about your luck. Was the wheel damaged at all? Time for a new alignment too possibly.

 

Hit a monster pothole last week. Dark road and it had been raining all day so it must have been covered by water - I never saw it coming. I was only going 25, but bent both passenger side wheels. $1300 repair job.

 

Take pictures of the pothole. . I've heard of them reimbursing you.. check into it, good luck =]

 

I saw one in Minneapolis the day and it would have eaten my car if I wasn't paying attention.

 

I bloody hate potholes! They can suck it! I bent one of my wheels the first month I got my GE8. There's was no room for evasive maneuvers. The pothole was so deep, that I couldn't make out where the bottom was. After that, I just called it the "Pothole from hell".

 

Worst pothole I ever saw was on the way to Detroit a few years back. Was going over an overpass in the left lane, swerve real hard to the right because about 10 feet of the lane just wasn't there. The whole lane was missing.

I wasn't driving, but I was in the back seat of a civic when I heard squeeeeeeeal as the driver tried to get over and looked left to see the other interstate through that hole... it was close too, only about a foot away from the tires.

 

yah, every spring after all the snow's melted, i go down the exact roads i take my hobby cars and note off where the huge cracks and pot holes are in my dd (which happens to be my FitS).

 

As far as alignment goes, I think I lucked out. After I put the spare on and drove back home, on the way I was testing to see if it was still driving straight and it really was. The wheel itself looked okay too but I'm going to get it looked at anyway.

Ok that is the scariest thing I've ever heard. O_o Now I'm going to be paranoid that the road is just going to vanish out from under me lol

 

Potholes FTL Cost me two wheels and tires in my Mazda5 $$$ And of course in a lowered Fit one has to be especially careful. I see myself camped at the bottom of one three stories deep with the remains of my car burning next to me to keep me warm LOL

 

Yeah my wheel looked okay sitting in the trunk, with the same side facing up as faces out when it's on the car. However when I just flipped it over for fun to take another look and saw the inside.... BENT.

Sonofab*itch.

 

My Mazda carried me all the way home from Seven Corners VA to WV (roughly 80 miles) with the dinky on the front and the bent rear wheel. It wasn't until I got the rear wheel off that i realized how effed up it was. I pounded the dent out of that one with a dead blow hammer and it was OK for a little while. Ended up using the whole mess as an excuse to get aftermarket wheels and tires....

 

If you slow down enough to allow more room in front of you like in other states (normal), one or two cars will move over in front of you. Stop and you'll be rear-ended. In this area you have to practically draft the vehicle in front of you. There is no way to swerve to miss it if there are cars on your right and left. I was driving my Altima tonight in Bergen County (Paramus NJ) and hit three in less than a minute. With some snow melted water on the road, and glare from headlights, I couldn't even see them. I might have bent my Fit in half if I was driving that instead.

 

at the school i work at there are these old krusty speed bumps, those alone are horrible, but on one of them to the right there's a giant pot hole. i was leaving after the first day and came to it, i figured i would drive half way on the bump and half on what i thought looked like road... i was wrong. i was borrowing my sister's civic at the time and man when i heard the sound of that i was about to die, i was scared as sh!t

 

This, this, a thousand times this!! I hate how when I leave space, at least two people cut in front of me. That's to say nothing of the people that encroach on my lane from the side just waiting for an opening either in front of or behind me.

 

I killed both Driver's side tires a few weeks back on a killer pothole. This hole was in between lanes, hard to see because it blended in with the dark-colored crack sealer/hole filler used there.

I hit hard, going 70mph--popped the front tire instantly, bending the wheel--it cut right through the tire. The rear tire had a huge bubble sticking out of the sidewall-not safe to drive on.
Car only had 1900 miles on it. The first flaw on the first new car I've ever owned
To top it off, the tow truck driver damaged the car too. He used a huge pocketknife to remove the towhook plug, which gouged the bumper. Then he scraped the bumper on the flatbed while pulling it up onto the truck.
I have been going back and forth with the tow company and roadside assist provider for the past 3 weeks about the damage claim. Body shop says $500, they are trying to settle for $100.

I already had to accept the bent wheel as an act of God--but the tow damage was completely avoidable. I had been so careful and got through one of the worst winters in recent memory with zero damage from flying debris, deep snow, falling ice, etc.

I've been wanting to vent about this ever since--but didn't want my own thread about it. Thanks for sharing yours!

 

Wow nothing like that here. We have potholes but no Fit sink holes.