@W5VO - Angle of approach has something to do with it as well ... Lots of times, if you have room to do so, hitting something like what you're taking about at an angle where one tire gets there first, will provide enough of a difference to get your vehicle up onto the drive without dragging anything ... just thinking outloud.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Right, I'm familiar with the tricks you need to do to reduce scraping. My problem is that if I'm buying a new car, can I figure out how hard it will be to get it into the driveway without actually taking it home on a test drive

If I have to do an inch-perfect approach at a sharp angle, and need the entire width of the driveway, that's going to suck for a daily drive. On the other side, I'm trying to avoid a SUV/truck, which is what I end up with if I need to go straight in to the driveway.

You might try posting a picture of the angle in question: ground level, looking at the angle from the side with something for scale (preferably a ruler).

I forgot to post some pictures of the water pump job

That's after removing the alternator belt, harmonic damper, timing belt + tensor, camshaft pulley and the thermostatic valve (also replaced). It was relatively trouble free until there. After that point some issues showed up, i.e. the damaged bolt, stuck water pump

New water pump and thermostatic valve in place, radiator was also replaced at that point

I didn't use the 5th gear + brake trick (I was alone during most of the time), so I had to lock the flywheel like that everytime I'd remove or install the harmonic damper. Which was fine, until I had to remove and reinstall it close to 8 times because of the small timing belt cover slightly touching it (and also one time because I installed everything back and forgot one cover that needed to be installed before the damper :p)

Camshaft on position, some marks I did with a permanent marker so I'd reinstall the timing belt in the same position as before

There are more pictures, but I'll hold myself so I don't flood the chat haha

Today I went to the mechanic to replace a hose that I found out to be very damaged during this job. It was the water to air-heater hose, now replaced. Also added the cooling additive to the distilled water I'd already put into the system