Bad day for the G part:
I was approaching a bridge toll plaza when the car in front of me ran over and kicked up a big-a$$ wooden board. The lanes were packed on both sides of me, so all I could do was slow down...but not enough before the board hit. What a horrible noise. It cracked the front bumper on the driver's side, and caused the black plastic rock guard underneath to come loose on that side. By the time I could pull over, that black plastic piece had been scraping on the ground and got eaten up enough so it can't just be re-attached, so I'll have to get a new one. I can generally cram it back up behind the bumper, but at highway speeds the airflow pushes it down again.

I'm trying to decide now if I should get a new stock bumper, or get one of the aftermarket kits...I've never really been in love with the G's front bumper, but all the aftermarkets I've seen look kinda ricey to me. Any suggestions of a clean, smooth, non-ricey bumper that's a touch sportier than the stock?

Check your tires part:
Maybe related to the board smacking, maybe not...one of my front tires decided to no longer hold air. Luckily, I was just going 30 when it happened. I've had this car for 4 months now, and the wear on the fronts looked great, but only because I was being lazy and just looking at the tread I could see without cranking the wheels sideways. As it turns out, the tread on the outside was in such good shape because the car was riding on the inside shoulders!

I found the receipt for when the previous owner put new fronts on...these things only have 11,000 miles on them. They're Nexen N-3000's.

So, what do you guys think? Is that level of outside-to-inside-wear-differential "Normal" for our cars with their aggressive camber, or am I way out of spec? (Or are these just really crappy tires?) If you don't already, you should probably check the inside shoulder of your tires when you're looking at tread wear. Don't rely on the "glance at the tires while you're walking up to the car" method that I did.

Off to the tire store tomorrow, on my supah sexay spare tire...

 

they look ricey to you probably b/c they are ricey. on top of all that it's difficult to find good enough paintwork that doesn't show wear after afew years unlike the stock bumpers. I always see these body kits that look great the day they get out of the shop but look like shiet about 2 years later.

get the stock bumper and snag you a nice front chin spoiler. I think that looks plenty nice.

as for the tire wear, you're out of spec. once uneven wear begins it will continue to happen on that tire more likely b/c of it already has a curve on the surface that tends to push the tire on that side.

at the speed in which your tires are turning and how mcuh weight from the car pushes down on them the slightest uneven wear that begins from having the car out of spec will cause future uneven wear even if you were to correct the camber/toe. (though correcting the camber/toe on unevenly worn tires will decrease that uneven wear rate but won't get rid of it completely)

you need to get a realignment as soon as you get new tires on your car.

 

you might be able to repair your stock bumper or add a front chin spoiler just to cover that small blemish? (just looked at the photo so...)

 

Yeah, I thought about that too...Was leaning towards replacing the bumper because it also has a big curb/driveway grinding on the passenger side, and the dreaded dealer-drilled license plate holes. Seems a shame for the bumper to be that beat up when the rest of the car is so clean.

A sturdy carbon fiber chin spoiler may be in order anyway...