I've heard previous mention of the extremely low front of the car, and recently glanced underneath. Naturally, I have some apparent ripped holes in a black area. I'm not sure what part of the vehicle has been damaged, but is anyone here aware of any ill effects -- or even of what I scraped?

I'm not a wreckless driver, but pull interesting stunts like today, making the backwards-turn out of a space. I just happened to be next to the curve and turned the wheel before moving an inch. Right up the curve and back down, with a bit of grinding in between.

 

oo, gotta hate that. i dont know what i would do if my bumper didnt fit over the curb. anyway, if its just scraping the plastic it shouldnt have any ill effects.

 

It wasn't the bumper at all. The entire body is fine -- it's a black plastic-like material on the underside of the engine, towards the very front. There's usually too much shadow to see it in photographs, but if you stand far enough away or low enough, there is a black area that hangs below the front of the car for a couple inches.

 

Looking from the top I tend to believe you just scraped the underneath which is most likely keeps air from getting trapped up under the front while driving. Driving front first out my driveway then turning hard to corner (narrow street one lane) I have not scraped yet but pulling in I must be careful of scraping. My Camry, Avalon, LS400 and mom's Tercel scrape the RX300 don't scrape. Our street has a ten inch drop from center to curb and then go up ten inches in about 2 foot. Let's say we have well scraped sidewalks and somebody hit the power transformer and scraped that too.

 

once the cover underneath the car got stuck on the curb and it fell off while i was driving. (another reason i call my car CRAP)

 

I had as Honda Insight that I damaged from a parking lot bumber. Now I'm paranoid about it and I always give myself plenty of room. I have no further problems.