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With the possibility of sounding just a touch arrogant on behalf of myself and most of "us ecomodders"...
The solution is so obvious that most of us missed commenting on it because it is second nature to those who think about every detail all of the time:
Know your vehicle and know it's limitations. Drive, park, etc. accordingly. Know how low your air dam is. Be aware of how much of a dip and what shape of a dip or change of slope causes an issue. ie. Really low air dam= use care whenever you deal with dips, obstacles at front of car such as curbs...
A second obviousness is that the rental cars deal with damaged air dams because when it is not your car, 1. you don't know it as well, 2. many don't care as much about something that is not theirs, 3. There are so many different drivers and it only takes one #2 driver, 4. the rental staff themselves are in a hurry to get the car back out rented-maybe being pushed for speed rather than quality. There are many reasons that a rental may become damaged more quickly than an owner's special friend.
On a side note, my (retired) Saturn L100 had a significant manufacturers air dam along the bottom of the front bumper which most definitely had met several curbs at slow speeds similar to those mentioned above in parking lots, a constant challenge of steep driveway meeting counter-sloping road, etc. The dam had serious rub markings but had the structural strength and endurance to slide back off curbs and slide along pavement when aimed into the driveway poorly whether forwards or in reverse. (However, I have never put it completely over a stand-alone curb piece. That would require excessive speed into a parking spot, ice, or lack of attention.)
And back to the Volt's air dam. I had the opportunity today to talk to an owner of one after I noted that it was in an employee parking spot. The dam looked really low to me for a car being driven in Canada (think 30cm/1 foot of snow last Friday) so I asked about the driving. He said and I quote "Everyone was sliding around and in the ditch. I just kept driving with no problems. That big battery is heavy and gave more traction than anyone else on the road."
I'm not sure I would want to test the Volt air dam backing out of any parking spot in snow because it would act as a shovel. It is a really low air dam and I looked at the rear of the car. The back bumper sits fairly high (at least 3X as high) compared to the air dam. I would have to redesign our driveway to only enter/exit at an angle in order that my wife would not scrape/break the air dam. There are more people for whom "the car" is simply a tool to be used (or abused) and not thought about or paid attention to than there are those people such as us 'modders for whom all those little details matter and are taken into consideration. That's why there are so many cars sold based on the lowest common denominator-they have to meet all possibilities and all people which unfortunately means they need to plan for high clearance, pot-holes suspension, huge hockey bags, not to mention high speeds (100+km/h=65+mph)=air bags, traction control, anti-lock brakes, power everything, a/c, automatic transmission, ... here endeth the rant.
Interestingly, the underside of the Volt is smoother than my 2005 Civic, but still is not smooth, not by a long shot. Anyone have an explanation, or are they just using the air dam instead of a smooth belly / pan?
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