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I’m one of those people who parks waaay out in parking lots to avoid even the possibility of door dings, and when I went to a doctor’s appointment yesterday I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find a safe spot in the hospital parking garage. So imagine my delight when I found an oversized spot at the very end of the row of parking spaces, right next to the stairwell. I even parked as close as I could to the right side of the space, as there was just a wall there and no danger of anyone parking on that side of me.
I come back from my appointment and see a dark spot on the side of my white Golf. Hmm, had I previously overlooked some bird poop on the car? Nope, some asshat dinged my left passenger door so hard it scraped it down to the bare metal. Note that I had parked at least 2-3 feet away from the left side of my parking space, so it would have been physically impossible for a car on my left to ding me without actually being in my parking space. I checked the car next to me (which was parked in the center of its space), and I could tell by the location of the ding it wasn’t the culprit.
My wife speculates that a truck or SUV (because the ding is quite high) encroached in my space, the passenger flung open their door and obviously dinged my car, and then they took off so their vehicle wouldn’t be there when I got back. No note, no apology, no nothing.
I took the car to a well-respected auto body repair place near my home and it will be $140 for paintless dent repair and touch-up painting, though of course the repair won’t bring it completely back to undamaged condition.
I take some solace in knowing I did everything possible to avoid being dinged...but my flawless 1-year old Golf got nailed anyway.
This experience has not exactly improved my already-low opinion of the human race...  miley-rpg028:
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The first scratch is the worst. Now that your car is a dented old beater, you can park wherever the heck you want!
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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.
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It lost it's cherry. Park with abandon!
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Any video from the security cams?
I park my '04 station wagon in the far spot, too. Still looks pretty good except for the damage my brother-in-law did when he backed a pickup into it :confused:
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If it makes you feel any better our family has two of our cars totaled in the last four days. Fortunately nobody was hurt. I'd rather have my door dinged.
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If it makes you feel any better our family has two of our cars totaled in the last four days. Fortunately nobody was hurt. I'd rather have my door dinged.
Holy crap!
Glad no ones hurt, and yes, of the two choices, I'd agree with your preference.
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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.
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davemchine wrote:
If it makes you feel any better our family has two of our cars totaled in the last four days. Fortunately nobody was hurt. I'd rather have my door dinged.
Glad to hear none of your loved ones came to any harm.
Yes, perspective is paramount. Still... people are idiots.
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I'm w/ Acer and 3d... baby a new car for the first few days, then put it in harm's way to get a ding so I don't have to worry about it anymore. :-)
OTOH, taking it to bare metal is going too far; gotta just score a ding, or two, that don't go all the way thru the paint, except on the rear bumper. I don't know what it is, but our rear bumpers always get beat up... never used to mind, as Baby Buzz was always doing sports, and getting his gear in and out, and our chairs in and out, and the pop up tent in and out, etc. gave the rear bumpers plenty of wear and tear. The sports went away in 2012 when the kid blew out his shoulder, but the rear bumpers still get thrashed. At a year old, I'd look to keep a bare metal ding from rusting, and here $140 would barely get you an estimate, much less a real repair, so while it's painful, and frustrating, venting a bit and getting that fix, is probably the way to go.
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