So I just had an incident where my wife scraped the curb in my BRAND NEW car with the front right wheel while parking in front of our house. I'd estimate she was going about 8MPH. I witnessed it happen and it made an audible thump. The damage on the rim looks pretty awful and there is some damage to the tire sidewall, pictures below. I took the car to my local mechanic today. His shop was full and he couldn't get me on a riser so that he could take off the wheel and check all the components, but he looked at the damage by eye and was confident that it was only aesthetic. He took the car for a drive around the block to make sure it felt correct (no pulling, no steering column vibrations, etc.). He said everything felt fine. When looking at the tire, he was confident the tire damage was only aesthetic as well. He also took the tire pressure and he said, "It didn't even lose any air, which is good." My questions:
1) Should I insist on a wheel removal and check of components such as the lower control arm, the wheel bearing, the suspension, etc. just in case? Or do you think him driving it around the block and eyeballing it was fine?
2) I know sidewall damage can really mess with the integrity of the tire, so what do you guys think based on the pictures?
Thanks in advance for the help!
Here's those pictures: