Dented doors and panels

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Dragon

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How do you guys and lasses avoided your cars being dented? Everytime I park in between two cars, there are dents on the doors or panels of my car. In order it does not happened I parked as far as possible and take the long walk instead but sometimes car parks are so cramed you cannot avoid it and when I came back there the dent again. I tried not to park in between and always park alongside the kerb but you can't avoid that can you?:rolleyes:
 
I avoid using my car - that seems to help. Around town I use one of our little cars - although my wife came back from the supermarket the other day having taken our daughter's year old Colt with a nasty dent/scrap on the upper part of the door panel. Daughter not very happy!

The other solution is only go to Costco - they have US sized parking spaces which must be sized on the biggest SUV available.
 
I spotted a teeny ding in Edna's nearside door while she was on Lord Walker's ramp on Saturday. It's only tiny but there - so that makes two. Luckily they are both very small and can only be seen if you know where to look and really look. I do think I've been very lucky as she is nearly five years old and they're the only dings she has.

I think there is only so much you can do and I do try to park carefully but short of standing guard to make sure no one parks within a door's width then I don't think there is too much you can do - just try to think where you park then hope for the best.:(
 
The parking spaces are impossible to use with the SL as one cant get out. So I just keep driving and never stop.

On a serious note one can do their shopping off peak, or just have a banger as a daily second car
 
I have over thirty years of parking experience my advice is to just to say you're parking all wrong. ;)
 
Hi

One thing i do is to try and park at the end of a row also try finding an end of row and a passenger door of the next car to your side, hoping that only the driver will come back to the car if you know what i mean. Park as far away as possible where lazy people dont park.

230k
 
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Hi

One thing i do is to tey and park at the end of a row also try finding an end of row and a passenger door of the next car to your side, hoping that only the driver will come back to the car if you know what i mean. Park as far away as possible where lazy people dont park.

230k

The advantage of parking at the end of the row is that you only lose the bumper as other drivers cut the corner off, and you do not get any dents in the sides or doors
 
Strangely enough after carefully parking my g wagen amongst all the shiny Beemers and other Mercs, there's normally lots of room either side of me to open doors.;)
 
Hi

One thing i do is to try and park at the end of a row also try finding an end of row and a passenger door of the next car to your side, hoping that only the driver will come back to the car if you know what i mean.

Problem with that approach is that if there is a passenger then they're often careless. I generally try to park nearer to the other cars drivers door, hoping that the driver will be a bit more careful.

The other obvious thing to do is avoid 2dr cars - even smallish cars like my daughter's Ibiza has huge (and heavily sprung) doors.
 
Thank you to all who gave me feedbacks. I began to understand now I am not the only one. What is so bizarre is when I tried to park in a isolated spot someone else parked beside it just to have a look at it. Oh so nice sparkling car, here a dent for you. Ouch! :rolleyes:
 
The other solution is only go to Costco - they have US sized parking spaces which must be sized on the biggest SUV available.


The biggest dent on my car (driver's door) was acquired at Costco. Also, someone kindly reversed into my rear bumper and side panel and didn't leave a note - also at Costco.

Oops! I've just admitted I shop at Costco ... :(
 
How do you guys and lasses avoided your cars being dented? Everytime I park in between two cars, there are dents on the doors or panels of my car. In order it does not happened I parked as far as possible and take the long walk instead but sometimes car parks are so cramed you cannot avoid it and when I came back there the dent again. I tried not to park in between and always park alongside the kerb but you can't avoid that can you?:rolleyes:

W203 are made out of very thin steel (high tensile to save weight) so they do pick up dings quite easily...

W204 made even lighter:

http://www.ae-plus.com/Key topics/kt-vdh-news52.htm
 
The biggest dent on my car (driver's door) was acquired at Costco. Also, someone kindly reversed into my rear bumper and side panel and didn't leave a note - also at Costco.

Oops! I've just admitted I shop at Costco ... :(

Only professionals and business owners are allowed to shop at Costco, but that does not stop them searching everyone on the way out....
 
I avoid parking dings by using my other half's fiesta for shopping whenever possible. If I have to take the merc to tesco, I park as far from the store as possible, (as the lazy careless types won't want to walk that far ;) )and sometimes I 'accidentally' park slightly over the line, taking two spaces up. Seems to work, as (touch wood) there isn't a single dent on either side of my 7 year old car.
 
Only professionals and business owners are allowed to shop at Costco, ....

Sadly not true - they came and did a recruitment drive in our building only last year and they took anyone who was willing to pay £30.:crazy: Including me :D :D
 
The biggest dent on my car (driver's door) was acquired at Costco. Also, someone kindly reversed into my rear bumper and side panel and didn't leave a note - also at Costco.

Oops! I've just admitted I shop at Costco ... :(

Nothing wrong with Costco - if you had said Lidl....
 
Now I got my dents. How do I get rid of it?:confused:

I have seen some of those dent repair companies perform the impossible on panels but not sure how its done, but it can be done -

A while back while buying a car I saw a vehicle awaiting this treatment which was covered in yellow post it notes pointing out the dings -

Admittedly I didnt see it afterwards but the chap said most cars come in this way (which put me right off the car I was buying :) )
 
IIRC Government employees can also join Costco, and charitable organisations too.
 
Thank you to all who gave me feedbacks. I began to understand now I am not the only one. What is so bizarre is when I tried to park in a isolated spot someone else parked beside it just to have a look at it. Oh so nice sparkling car, here a dent for you. Ouch! :rolleyes:

I've heard people say that in a nearly empty car park they'll park their car next to a nice new car because they're hoping that if a tea-leaf comes along he'll nick the nice car and not theirs!

I guess there's a certain logic to that, apart from older cars generally being easier to nick than newer ones of course...

Toby.
 

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