I hope everyone buys a Ford Focus

[Codswallop]

This has to be one of the most useful bits of new car design in recent times;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr7S_fp0xVc

Given how few people appear to be able to modulate their door opening to the available space, this could save so much heart ache for car enthusiasts everywhere.

Anyone else able to think of a more useful new car trinket?

[Raize]

Note to self: Park next to 63-plate Fords whenever possible.

[metbandit1]

Top 2 comments say it all really.

[croyde]

Just appears to protect the door of the Focus. It will still dent the car next to it and numpties will open their doors with even less care "'cos it's protected 'innit bruv!"

[tercelgold]

My only dent is from a large 14ft x 6ft wood garage door which feels as soft as old wood on a garage door. It blew open and made a large dent to the nearside wheel arch.

I can imagine a car door with a rubber protector will just make a large dent to a panel.

[Torquey]

Door protectors or not, I'd be bloody livid if that was my galaxy.

[vrooom]

I was takenback when they showed the door thickness. Door look look WIDE.

[scotty_d]

Raize said:

Note to self: Park next to 63-plate Fords whenever possible.

This

[MagicalTrevor]

vrooom said:

I was takenback when they showed the door thickness. Door look look WIDE.

That's because the door is is wide

[HTP99]

What's wrong with just being careful and as for the kid doing it, well, both my girls have had it drummed into them from an age when they could get themselves out of the car to "watch the car next door!", I still say it now and they are 13 and 19, the response "yes I know!"

[George7]

It'll help, but it's still going to cause dents, and that kid, and the mother especially, need to learn not to open their doors into other cars. There's no excuse, my parents taught me from an early age to respect other people's property. They just swing open their doors like there's nothing there

[Arun_D]

Quite like the new Kuga's hands-free tailgate opening and closing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjC7ZRhC4Uk

[Tectonic80]

I was really impressed with this feature when I looked round a friends 62 plate focus on Saturday.
It looks like there's a 'plunger' near the door hinge which just pushes in when the door closes, connects through the door and pushes out the rubber guard. Apparently all focuses have the connecting rod in the door and it's a £100 to add all 4 as an accessory.

BTW the focus 1.0 ecoboost zetec was an impressive car, seems quiet and solidly built too compared to older focuses

[Animal101]

hmm im not convinced... what was wrong with door strips?

[Checkmate]

Well that's all very well, but if someone opens one of those doors with that much force into the side of my 205, it'll make a huge dent. I imagine it will just cause people to be more blase about how they open their doors, thinking that the technology will help them, as with many other driver aids.

[warmfuzzies]

Whats wrong with common decency, and thinking of those you park near, this just gives a licence to those numpties who will carry on with complete disregard for their fellow drivers....


k

[steviejasp]

Twice now I have returned to my car with dents where the wkers have opened their doors onto it.
Both times their wing mirrors have inexplicably fallen off. Strange.

[Krikkit]

Animal101 said:

hmm im not convinced... what was wrong with door strips?

They look rather gash on the side of your shiny new car...

Good idea, but as above folks will just use gay abandon when opening their doors. Note to self: Don't park next to 63-on plate Focus'.

[Codswallop]

Krikkit said:

Good idea, but as above folks will just use gay abandon when opening their doors. Note to self: Don't park next to 63-on plate Focus'.

But that's just the problem - many people already open their doors without a care in the world, and many have no respect for other people's property (in particular, the "it's only a car" brigade).

People's attitudes are hard to change, so this seems like a decent engineering solution for that particular problem imo.

[philmots]

Just need to design something to stop people running their front corner down the side of our motors when they're swinging into spaces.