I try to avoid all the potholes I can if it is safe to do so. The ones I've been forced to hit have not done any damage so far but I've only had mine a short time, a little less than 2 months, and those potholes weren't extremely deep. I have successfully avoided potholes that were very deep and I imagine if you hit them with anything at high speed you'd damage something.

 

Those low profile tires definitely give things a real beating in exchange for looking cool. There’s very little air in there so if you pick up a nail you aren’t going to get far[emoji51] li,e in the old days. Yes they will grind curbs very easily and that belt sticking out of the side of the tire won’t protect it very well from scuffing or otherwise damaging the tire. My 18 SXE has a bubble I’ve been monitoring for the last year undoubtedly caused by just that. Those tires are EXPENSIVE too.
You really do need to park these things CAREFULLY. Pot holes will hammer the undercarriage a lot harder as well just due to the amount of cushion you don’t have under there. When I got snows I bought a set of 65 series tires with rims to match to get it up some and help with those issues. The base itself is easy to drag and get hung up in snow too so you need to watch out for that. You don’t need sport tires in winter anyways and they are a lot cheaper .
There’s my gripe with those ultra low profile tires and rims. The other gripe is that The US made Camrays don’t come with a retrieval Points in the bumper mounts, at least the 18-19 models . The newer ones I don’t know. Anyways it makes them a nasty thing to retrieve if stuck. An old wrecker driver told me that you’ve got to hook to the control arms to winch one so it’s hard not to damage the suspension so beware of inexperienced tow truck drivers.
That’s the suspension stuff I see to watch out for. Beyond those we really like the car. I think also that the low slung thin tire thing is getting common across the industry and these traits are hard to avoid no matter what you get. A sign of the times I’m afraid. It makes me wonder if that’s why so many here in snow country are now buying the smaller sport utes and crossovers.
That’s my nickels worth from snow country for better and for worse.

 

A nail will deflate a low profile tire just like it will any other tire. Pot holes could bend the rim. That would be my only concern. Just pay attention to the road and you will be fine.

 

A nail will deflate a low profile tire just like it will any other tire. Pot holes could bend the rim. That would be my only concern. Just pay attention to the road and you will be fine.

Those concerns are multiplied many times over with low profile. That nail you pick up the one that almost seals the hole so you drive it home and fix it later Will only let you get a couple miles on these. Been there done that. Scotty Kilmer even just made a video about how problematic those things are and he’s right.


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I've hit a couple pot holes here and I thought OMG I must have damaged the wheel but all good so far. This video shows that he had to pay over $600 for a new OEM wheel from Toyota.

 

Driving a car with large wheels and low-profile tires does require that you really keep an eye on the road conditions as you drive. Large potholes can be a disaster if you aren't careful- and it can be expensive to replace OEM wheels.

I had 19" wheels/tires on my 2019 Accord- and I have 19" wheels and tires on my 2021 Accord. I am constantly scanning the road for possible potholes as a way to ensure that I don't have an unexpected $800 repair (wheel+tire). It's not really an issue in most weather conditions- but when it's raining those potholes can often be really hard to spot.

I always relax a bit when I put my winter wheels/tires on. Those are 17" wheels and tires that have A LOT more sidewall. Those still could be damaged by large potholes- but the risk isn't as great as with larger 19" wheels.

To the OP- you really have to decide what works best for you and you and your driving style. The larger the wheels- the larger the risk of doing damage when hitting potholes and other things.

I'm sure that you could swap out the 18" wheels and tires for a smaller size if you really wanted to.