Discussion
It is possible that quite a few people here, care more about their cars, than the `average' driver, and this brings me to the issue of avoiding door dings.
I have seen quite a few really nice cars even Astons and other exotics, spoiled with tell tale vertical dents in their sides, caused by some clot who has opened their door without thinking, taking care, or taking no steps to prevent their car door from striking the vehicle parked next to them.(In some cases it may even be deliberately caused by individuals, jealous that some one else has a better car than they do?)
It seems as though the only protection against this, is to park as far away as possible from other cars in a car park (and even this does not seem to work, as one can park as far away from other cars as possible, only to come back to find an isolated cluster of cars parked around your vehicle, even in a largely empty car park)
Another option is to try to park next to nice / well kept vehicles, as then there is a reasonable chance that their owners will be equally as careful with their car, as you will be about yours, but these are not always in evidence.
I wondered if it would be possible to have a quickly inflatable fender that could be inflated and then hung from the tops of the door windows used when forced to park in less than ideal situations, But even this may be counter productive, encouraging adjacent drivers to take even less care when parking/getting outing out of their cars?
Anyone got any suggestions on how they deal with this?
I have seen quite a few really nice cars even Astons and other exotics, spoiled with tell tale vertical dents in their sides, caused by some clot who has opened their door without thinking, taking care, or taking no steps to prevent their car door from striking the vehicle parked next to them.(In some cases it may even be deliberately caused by individuals, jealous that some one else has a better car than they do?)
It seems as though the only protection against this, is to park as far away as possible from other cars in a car park (and even this does not seem to work, as one can park as far away from other cars as possible, only to come back to find an isolated cluster of cars parked around your vehicle, even in a largely empty car park)
Another option is to try to park next to nice / well kept vehicles, as then there is a reasonable chance that their owners will be equally as careful with their car, as you will be about yours, but these are not always in evidence.
I wondered if it would be possible to have a quickly inflatable fender that could be inflated and then hung from the tops of the door windows used when forced to park in less than ideal situations, But even this may be counter productive, encouraging adjacent drivers to take even less care when parking/getting outing out of their cars?
Anyone got any suggestions on how they deal with this?
Well supermarkets and other tight car parks are where they are mostly inflicted.
I'd rather walk the extra 50 yards to get as far away as possible from the types who would actually park IN the supermarket if they could.
Or, drive something fibreglass. Can't dent it and to crack it would be no accident.
I'd rather walk the extra 50 yards to get as far away as possible from the types who would actually park IN the supermarket if they could.
Or, drive something fibreglass. Can't dent it and to crack it would be no accident.
Edited by swisstoni on Monday 20th March 10:35
swisstoni said:
Well supermarkets and other tight car parks are where they are mostly inflicted.
I'd rather walk the extra 50 yards to get as far away as possible from the types who would actually park IN the supermarket if they could.
Me too, but that is not always possible. Some cars I have had have just been old clunkers where another dent, did not make any difference (even when using that I took care not to damage the vehicles next to me when getting out/in). but if like many here on pistonheads, one has been able to get a decent car, it is a bit of a p*ss boiler to come back to your `nice' car and find that the brainless clod who parked next to it, has put a dent in it, which could so easily have been avoided, with just a little bit of care and respect for other peoples property. It is just sad that people cannot have anything nice without some a*sehole damaging it, either inadvertently or deliberately.I'd rather walk the extra 50 yards to get as far away as possible from the types who would actually park IN the supermarket if they could.
Bayerischer said:
I try to avoid car parks, and park on the street if possible. Or take the wife's car.
+1We've an old Volvo T5 as a second car so it ends up doing the supermarket / shopping centre runs when they cant be avoided.
We generally get our groceries delivered, thus minimising having to be anywhere near scrotes or their cars.
The more you try to take preventative measures the more likely you are to attract a scrote. We'd our lovely new z4 keyed some years ago presumably because some scrote was "outraged" that we parked our car at the far side of the car park on its own, no doubt to "teach us a lesson" in some way.
Edited by daemon on Monday 20th March 11:04
lufbramatt said:
Pan Pan Pan said:
Anyone got any suggestions on how they deal with this?
Pay Sainsburys an extra 2 quid and get them to pick everything off the shelves for me and bring it to my front door in a vanAmazon also pretty good now too for household stuff.
A couple of years ago, I was thinking to myself that surely it couldn't be that hard to design a car door with a retractable door edge protector, mounted on a mechanism that extends it automatically when the doors opens. Then when it closes, it retracts out of sight inside the edge of the door, rather than keeping unsightly rubber bumpers on display.
Was pretty surprised to find out later that Ford had actually invented this and fitted it to some of their range. A simple idea, would be great if all new cars could come fitted with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iib8F0XSg18
In the meantime, I just park defensively - back of car parks, on the end of rows, etc.
Was pretty surprised to find out later that Ford had actually invented this and fitted it to some of their range. A simple idea, would be great if all new cars could come fitted with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iib8F0XSg18
In the meantime, I just park defensively - back of car parks, on the end of rows, etc.
It's a game of luck unfortunately. I always park defensively, so far it's worked well for me (touch wood).
Good spaces:
- end spaces, one side of the car is protected by an inanimate object, chance of door dings just dropped 50%
- extra wide spaces (not disabled/P+C), if the people painting the bay markings got their maths wrong, often you'll end up with one bay on the end which is extra wide
- bays on a curve, a curved edge to a carpark means that the lines cannot be parallel to each other, again wider spaces
- highest level of a multistorey, most people go for the lowest/closest to the entrace/exit spaces, often on the roof not only will it be quiet, but you'll have a choice of the aforementioned spaces
- parallel parking, 0% chance of door dings but a greater chance of the bumper corners being swiped
- gold spaces, these are the easter eggs of car parks. A bay, all by itself, tucked away from everyone else. Best protection from 3/4 sides.
Good spaces:
- end spaces, one side of the car is protected by an inanimate object, chance of door dings just dropped 50%
- extra wide spaces (not disabled/P+C), if the people painting the bay markings got their maths wrong, often you'll end up with one bay on the end which is extra wide
- bays on a curve, a curved edge to a carpark means that the lines cannot be parallel to each other, again wider spaces
- highest level of a multistorey, most people go for the lowest/closest to the entrace/exit spaces, often on the roof not only will it be quiet, but you'll have a choice of the aforementioned spaces
- parallel parking, 0% chance of door dings but a greater chance of the bumper corners being swiped
- gold spaces, these are the easter eggs of car parks. A bay, all by itself, tucked away from everyone else. Best protection from 3/4 sides.
I normally try and park miles away from the entrance, where no one else can usually be bothered to park. To add to the above, where possible, I'll park over hatched areas that don't inconvenience anyone. Even doing that I've got moaned about online so.. you can't win really.
I never park across two spaces though - that's inviting damage.
I never park across two spaces though - that's inviting damage.
Durzel said:
I normally try and park miles away from the entrance, where no one else can usually be bothered to park. To add to the above, where possible, I'll park over hatched areas that don't inconvenience anyone. Even doing that I've got moaned about online so.. you can't win really.
I never park across two spaces though - that's inviting damage.
I got given a ticket for doing that onceI never park across two spaces though - that's inviting damage.
Got out of it on appeal when I looked at google earth and saw that the parking spaces were painted wrong (one column of spaces was too narrow which made everyone have to park off centre further down the row)
I once parked my XJR in Tesco's Reading at around 06:00. It's a very big car park but I parked in the middle just to be safe.
I was the only one there, not another car in sight. Just as I was about to open my door, a woman pulled up next to me, so close that I couldn't open my door. I started it up and drove across to the opposite row of bays.
Unbelievable. I really do think that some drivers need another car to guide them in.
The look on her face was a picture of puzzlement. Silly mare.
I was the only one there, not another car in sight. Just as I was about to open my door, a woman pulled up next to me, so close that I couldn't open my door. I started it up and drove across to the opposite row of bays.
Unbelievable. I really do think that some drivers need another car to guide them in.
The look on her face was a picture of puzzlement. Silly mare.
Poshbury said:
I once parked my XJR in Tesco's Reading at around 06:00. It's a very big car park but I parked in the middle just to be safe.
I was the only one there, not another car in sight. Just as I was about to open my door, a woman pulled up next to me, so close that I couldn't open my door. I started it up and drove across to the opposite row of bays.
Unbelievable. I really do think that some drivers need another car to guide them in.
The look on her face was a picture of puzzlement. Silly mare.
On another thread, someone's dopey mate was quizzed about why he did just the same thing.I was the only one there, not another car in sight. Just as I was about to open my door, a woman pulled up next to me, so close that I couldn't open my door. I started it up and drove across to the opposite row of bays.
Unbelievable. I really do think that some drivers need another car to guide them in.
The look on her face was a picture of puzzlement. Silly mare.
Apparently the other car was used to 'help him line up' on the parking bay
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