Got door-dinged yesterday...

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RAMd®d wrote:
I feel your pain.

I park the same way even though my car is much older than yours. Out of the carwash it looks like it rolled off the showroom floor.

Not one ding (and I may have just shot myself in the quarter- or door-panel). I have had some scuffs with a close call or two. But true to the fine print on my Man Card, they buffed right out.

I've see a lot of people just throw the door open. I always open mine carefully and if there's a car next to me, the door never opens even to the first detent. I also have vinyl edge guards on all doors.

Given the age of my car, I sometimes park next to other cars, but still hope not to get dinged. To that end, if the parking lot has a slope, I never park 'downwind' next to a car, lest their door get way from them. I also never, ever park next to a two-door car. Also never, ever next to someone's beater.

I've been lucky and hope to continue, but it's almost always a matter of when, not if.

some good suggestions here... especially the two-door car and also "downwind" in an inclined parking lot.

I also avoid vans, since the front doors are usually larger than for sedans. True, back doors slide so those are not an issue, but still there are usually kids and they could open the front doors too much and ding other cars.

But eventually you have to break some of these rules, you can not always avoid everything. And even when you do follow the rules, someone comes next to you and dings your car, like it happened to Yoyodyne ArtWorks.

I remember the video of Steve Jobs a few months before he died, when he got in the car and paid attention to not ding the car next to him.