i gave up.

The plastic body cars like the GM APV vans and the Saturns don't get parking lot rash like a steel body vehicle. I've got over 500,000 miles between two of these vans and not one nick from these parking problems.

Unfortunately, Saturn will be going to steel bodies in the coming model year, and the GM mini vans have been steel since 1997. I thought that the GM pickups were going to more plastic, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

GG

I favor a much more comprehensive driver training program - today's one is a bad joke..
And our government is not acting in a responsible manner in allowing such a variance of "bumper" heights.
Until the auto-makers extract their brain containment housings from a place where the sun don't shine; many more regulations will be necessary.

They even need to be told where to place the side "protective strip", which is now just a cheap and useless decoration...
And how about bringing back a true bumper ??
People are human, will always make mistakes..

More regulations are needed - most parking lot widths are too narrow, some are way too narrow - sized for a model T Ford !!
But if a man really cares about his car, he will park in an empty area, way in the back and never at an end.
The walking exercise is good for us..

LOL I told my wife to park way out at the end.She now does but the first time I told her that and the exercise would be good for her.She took it wrong and put a ding right on my fore head Ouch!!!!

Drive a beater man. Much easier on the budget and if you get a door ding it is automatically considered a character mark.

I wonder if some of it is due to the huge vehicles taking up most of the parking stall width. When they open their humungous doors, there's no room to open except into the next vehicle? I try never to park next to one of the behemouths! I've gotten more than dings in the door - got a few good size creases in fenders!! Some people just can't drive!!

There ought to be a UNiFORM height for door opening and side moldings. When bozos open their large doors they would have to be within an inch of the standard height so it would have to hit your side bumpers (on the doors)
Then no one would have damaged sides.

Mostly it is just UNCARING people who dont give a S#$t about YOUR car. These are the same NUTS who drive reclessly, tailgate, cut you off, etc. There is only one way to fix this. Give out STUPID tickets! Lots of them. When you collect say 10 or 20 you get to lose your license! :-)

I take my youger brother along to watch the car.
6'4" and he is a mean moth- uh well he's mean. No dings :-)

I usually take the doors off and put them in the trunk until I am through shopping. ; >)

There was at one time, a certain French car that a man could actually do this - remove the doors simply by lifting them off !!
It is a cultural problem - some simply have no upbringing - no respect for others, much less their car or house..

I really do not know what the solution is......Banging heads , but our taxes are too high as it is... Psychological testing , probably too full of holes, too few men and women to do this properly; the ACLU would shoot it down as would the politically correct..

So I drive a semi-beater.. and park in the back and we have 99.9% decent people here in York county..

I park WAY AWAY from everybody else!
Then I walk...........it's good for ya! LOL

Drive it through mud or dirt when it is wet and then no one will come near it. I had a Cavalier (see my post) and the darn thing is almost 4 years old the only dings I had were (sold the lemon today) from my neighbor. They had this HUGE truck that took the entire parkng space and being drunk half of the time, he rubbed off his paint on mine and that is the only blemish it. I probably washed my car 2x since Dec 2000. It was dirty when I handed the car keys over to the next owner this morning....

What did you get for it?What did you buy to replace it?

JohnDeere,
I got $5500 for the POS Chevrolet Cavalier. I sold it to a private party w/ 26K on it. Sold it to the first person that made an offer. I was sad to let it go but it was my only chance or trade it in for scrap. I still have not gotten my refund on the last repair. Now they tell me that they do not have the original receipt. I sent it in via certified mail! It really irks me. GM customer service sucks! I think I will need to flip the coin as I cannot decide on the Camry, Accord, Mazda 6 and the Passat.

That not to bad a price atleast.

I sold my wife's '91 Vauxhall Astra 1.4 for EUR450 with scrapes up both sides, gained in car parks from other ppl's carelessness. It was running like a bag of S anyway! Replaced it with a '00 Daewoo Lanos. Mechanically perfect, 39,000 miles from new, but has a few scrapes down the side gained in car parks from other ppl's carelessness. That lowered the price and seeing as though it will get a few more scrapes down the side, what have I to lose?

I try to park as far away as possible with my driver's side next to the passenger side of the empty spot. Most dings are caused from the driver's side.

Two new ideas - one, a vicious guard dog in the car. Two- security cameras poised to catch the criminal in the act.
In todays more and more insulated society - more disrespect exists between men and between people and businesses and government...
Not good.
Any solution ?

i park in the farthest spots available and take up two spaces. knock on wood. some people will park next to you out there just so that they can fk your car up. if you take up two spaces next to the door you will inevitably get a GoodolBoy shoving a shopping cart into your car or keying it with their attitude that you are an ahole. but i have a $2500 paint job on my driver and a $10,000 paint job on another car. i dont let the 10K out of my sight. but they are both classics. a new car is made for dings. it doesnt affect the value much at all i dont think and they are easy to fix with touch up paint. i will park with my wheels next to a handicapped spot at my bank because i have never seen anyone there. that leaves a mile on the other side of me. there isnt much you can do other than park where nobody else is and take up two spaces, i always park diagonally across the two spaces as well so noone can pull in next to me if they stay btwn the lines. if someone is out to get you they will, the world if full of aholes. like one said, my next car will be a maaco paint job, or like my truck, primered. i stress out unreal just driving the 10K (72 camaro ss) for fear of a rock chip from either myself or a passing logging/rock truck. so it stays in the garage. it's for sale, it's basically useless now. it was bought and restored as an investment so it's got to go. it has about 100 miles on it tops after the resto. interesting subject

All I can basically do is part as far away as reasonable and also park between or next to cars that look like they're well cared-for too.

FYI The # of parking spaces is usually mandated by the square footage of the stores the lot serves. That is, local regs will say you need 'x' number of spaces for every 1000SF of leasable area. So if you've got a finite space for parking, you just make the stalls as small a allowed to increase the number.

Not to start a S***storm, but I alwsy found SUVs to be most of a PITA in the parking lots, not on the road, AFAIC.

I have a few dings on my 92 Camry which I take alot of pride in that it still looks like new and I always always park away from people. Yesterday I parked in the last row at the end of the lot at Walmart (which I visit twice a year.) Came out and darn if there wasn't a cart smashed into my car that put a big scrape on the side. That just adds on to my list of why I hate Walmart & lazy people who don't return carts LOL!!!!!

Copied :
I have a few dings on my 92 Camry which I take alot of pride in that it still looks like new and I always always park away from people. Yesterday I parked in the last row at the end of the lot at Walmart (which I visit twice a year.) Came out and darn if there wasn't a cart smashed into my car that put a big scrape on the side. That just adds on to my list of why I hate Walmart & lazy people who don't return carts LOL!!!!!

Earthworm :
These scumbags may leave fingerprints on the shopping cart - maybe.
The police MUST check this out. There may be a law against criminal mischief..
It is getting to the point where all men must have prints, even DNA on file..
The this SOB could be apprehended and pay a $10,000 fine and all damages and court costs..

Yet another way of preventing un-necessary door dings is to have our children properly reared, to have them taught how to open and close doors.
You would be surprised how many men cannot do this properly !!
And this would be much better than the police-state mad idea...

Atleast here one grocery store Aldis has done something to prevent shopping carts all over the lot.They charge you 25 cents to unlock the cart from the rest at the front of the store.You put your quarter in a slot and the chain device pops out.When you return the cart and push the chain device in out comes your quarter.Or if there is a new customer he will hand you his quarter and take the cart.Works well but I dought it would work at Wall Mart with all the rif raff that shops there.They woul probably load the carts in the trunk of there cars thinking they bought it for 25 cents?

Only if the carts say 'made in China'

johndeere, the owners of those nice cars you park next to probly wonder why people keep parking next to them when there are other spaces open.

One suggestion that works:

Avoid parking between two-door cars. Four door cars have shorter doors that don't swing as wide.

I have a Mustang that has very long doors. It's **MUCH** harder for me to get in and out of that car in a tight parking space.

I am usually very careful...'cause I'm a door ding fanatic and I don't want to damage the edge of the Mustang's doors and more than I want to inflict a ding in the other car.

But, cars like a Mustang or other two-door cars should be avoided when you can.

I used to park my car way out of the way. Now I try to find a wide open non-secluded spot.

Because of the north forty parking I used to do, I got my car broken into and everything stolen. It was bad because I was in the process of moving and had just emptied my safe deposit box and all the valuables were in the trunk.

Thieves probably noticed the out-of-state license plate at a breakfast restaurant.

The restaurant actually had a camera on the parking lot - the thieves parked a van in front of my car to osbtruct the camera view and popped the trunk with a screwdriver. No way to identify the thieves because the car was parked so far away.

When I arrived at my hotel that night and opened my trunk to get my suitcase - empty trunk!

The stores might have signs that they aren't responsible for damage caused by shopping carts, but that isn't usually true.

I had my van hit by a shopping cart at Walmart. There were carts loose all over the parking lot. I went right back into the store and complained. Someone came out and took pictures and said their insurance company would be in touch with me.

I had to get 2 estimates and Walmart paid to get the dent fixed. They also paid for a rental car. They never tried to get out of fixing it, they knew they were responsible. They just post those signs to discourge people.

So if you are hit with a shopping cart, complain, don't just blow it off.

I will often return a loose cart or 2 if I see them in a parking lot. Once a couple loaded their groceries and then just left the cart. I grabbed it and put it away for them. They drove by and gave me a look and I smiled and waved at them. They were just being very lazy.

Paintless Dent Repair is your friend. I take all the standard precautions, park at end spot, in middle of stripes, next to nicer 4 door cars. Yet still have many dings. For $250 I got all the dings removed approx 12 spots and the car looks brand new again, well worth the money! They even took the dents out of the hood where a plastic grocery sack full of glass baby food jars ripped and did a real number on the hood. I had this done a local car dealers body shop, the PDR guys came once a month and worked for 2-3 days on the dealers cars and any customers who brought their cars in.

RE: What do you do to prevent door dings?
Posted by: gladiolus (My Page) on Sun, May 29, 05 at 19:12

I used to park my car way out of the way. Now I try to find a wide open non-secluded spot.
Because of the north forty parking I used to do, I got my car broken into and everything stolen. It was bad because I was in the process of moving and had just emptied my safe deposit box and all the valuables were in the trunk.

Thieves probably noticed the out-of-state license plate at a breakfast restaurant.

The restaurant actually had a camera on the parking lot - the thieves parked a van in front of my car to obstruct the camera view and popped the trunk with a screwdriver. No way to identify the thieves because the car was parked so far away.

When I arrived at my hotel that night and opened my trunk to get my suitcase - empty trunk!

Earthworm : I hate to read about these things happening..

Talk about a lack of respect - here it is at zero.
I'd love to see these thieves sent to a penal colony in Afghanistan....
In todays society, I think the thieves are overly protected( we are too soft on crime and our respect level is far too low..)

RE: What do you do to prevent door dings?
Posted by: earthworm (My Page) on Fri, May 13, 05 at 11:00

" Two new ideas - one, a vicious guard dog in the car"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That is just dandy, if all of us had a mobile Car-port that we could park under life would be great. It may seem strange to you Mr. Worm, but I kinda love my Dog and just couldn't bring myself to leaving Ole Shep locked up in the car in full sun, on a 100+ Deg. day, just so I felt nice and secure about my car ! Your WORM'isms never cease to amaze me.

Once, when I was younger and had bigger brass *****, a very big Mercedes pulled up next to me. When both side doors opened, they banged against my car. When the woman looked at me, she didn't say anything. She looked at me as if to say, "What are you gonna do about it?" I waited until she, the man she was with and her children got about 20 feet away, grabbed my door in the middle and slammed it into their Mercedes about three times. When I had their full attention, I said, "Oops, sorry."
After telling a friend this story years later, I was asked how I thought they got that Mercedes? I said, "Point made." Moral to this story: if you think you're dealing with the mob, let it go.

I prevent them by only purchasing cars that already have them. That way, I don't notice new ones.

That makes a lot of sense literally and financially. I can't see spending twenty something thousand or more, to have a rolling, depriciating target.

Funny this was brought up about buying a vehical that already has dings.I have been looking for an old work vehical.Im finding out old high mileage vehicals are a rip off.They want $2000.00 for junk.They want $3000.00 for near junk and $4000.00 for soon to be junk.I can not afford to buy used and get ripped off.

About that Mercedes story, one must never cower, mob or no..
When that woman asks "What are you going to about it ?", simply say- "either pay for the damage now or I will call the police"..
Another easy thing to say(and think about) is "don't get mad, get even."

JohnDeere, find a private owner who is serious about selling, forget the dealers.
My '96 Saab(fair to good condition) cost $2,500..An equivalent Ford or Chevy would have been cheaper...

Johndeere wrote"""""""""I have been looking for an old work vehical.Im finding out old high mileage vehicals are a rip off.They want $2000.00 for junk.They want $3000.00 for near junk and $4000.00 for soon to be junk.I can not afford to buy used and get ripped off.""""""

Ive bought lots of $2000 cars that have gone 50,000 miles without any problem. Depends if you want to have a nicer house or a nicer car or whatever.I see lots of neighbors with nice new cars parked in front of mobile homes.

Lots of rich folks drive old cars. Lots of poor folks drive new cars. Go figure? Id liek to see myself in 20 years driving an old car.

I have driven plenty of $2000.00 cars in my life time.Has not been that many years I had to.I have also managed to put 50000 miles on them.But those days are now gone it seems.Now when you look at used you see 170000 miles and a $5000.00 asking price.I would not give them $2000.00 for the heap.I have a 05 and a 02 I just do not drive them to work.My wife does she has a clean job.I drive a 71 Chevy pickup now that has seen better days.Thats what im replacing.But not with something that is over priced and maybe not as good as I have.What burns me is KBB values.There should not be three values for the same vehical.Retail,Tradein,private party.I would glady give 500 over tradein value.Getting off topic.But door dings a dirty nasty dusty job site is why I will not drive my newer cars to work.Also I would by private party.But there hard to find worth the money also.Im a good negotiater.But when there asking double what its worth its hard to get them down to what I will pay.I remember the 500 dollar beater days well.Now there $3000.00 beaters.

The nicer the car the more apt it is to get dinged or keyed. I keep my cars nice (even though they may be older) and always park them either on an end spot or out beyond the normal parking area. I never ever would take two parking places as that's asking for it IMHO. Also I watch out for sloped lots where carts can run away and into your car. I agree that stores have a responsibility to have convenient cart storage and have a responsibility for runaways. Why don't they have brakes on the cart?

You may have a good idea, surfer.
Keep the government extremists out of it, they already have seat belts on the carts !
During windy times doors can be blown open against other cars causing serious dings and the car owners cannot stop this every time.

Better door hold opens are needed.

As the cars/trucks are larger than ever, the lots must be larger and the parking spaces wider.
And some kind of a brake on the carts will not hurt..Some baby strollers have brakes of a sort, so it can be done economically..

Oh boy do I know about doors getting blown open on windy days.A few months ago I was driving my mothers van I let her out at the door a K-mart.Normally I always park way out and walk up.But this day was extremly windy and cold.So I parked close and went in.I try to prevent dings to my moms van just like my own vehicals.When we came out I went to the drivers door and got in and pushed the power lock button for my mom.She was waiting for a van parked beside the passenger side to move.She noticed as we were walking out that the guy was leaned down and appeared to be touching her van.But he then quickly got in his and drove away.She screamed when she seen what the guy was rubbing.The ding he left in the side on her van with his door.Her van was dusty and he rubed it clean right where he dinged it good when his door got away from him.By the time I figured out what happened he was driving off.I chased after him but what good would it have done if I was able to pounce on his hood like a wild man.His word against mine and I have never heard of anyone collecting from a Ding maker idiot anyway.

My mother was mad I felt bad because she knows I always park way out.But the weather was terrible.I still here about it to this day.Could have been worse we were in there older Chevy Astro van and not there new Buick Teraza but they keep the Astro looking like new.

This happened after I started this topic.I remembered writing it that moment in that K-mart ding lot.I have not went back and dought I will.Unless I park on the side of the road and walk in.

Don't drive.

Seriously, I watched a man go out of his way to park next to our new car a year ago, it still had dealer tags. Lot was empty, and freak that I am, I parked a good ways from the door to avoid these problems. I saw this gentleman (?) and watched him park and walk up to the strip center, looking back often w/strange expression on his face.

We finished up our business, and sure enough, we could not get in the passenger door as he was parked so close. And he left a present, a little door ding. Thank goodness for paintless dent removal.

Now I don't think most people are as gleeful as this philanthropist was, but the culprits (who are many judging from the posts here and general experience) just don't care.

I once witnessed a man key a Hummer that was parked in the middle of an almost empty lot. Is this what we have come to? If we can't have it, just **** it up for someone else? Pitiful creatures we can sometimes be....us humans.

I park way out in the far reaches of the parking lot, if possible. I know it's only a matter of time before I get "dinged" but until then, I will do my best to avoid it. I had a near miss a couple of months ago...I was walking out of the supermarket and there, just a few feet away, one of the terminally flaky, hippie denizens of my neighborhood pulled up next to my car and opened her door. I watched in horror as her door slowly swung out (two door car) and began it's slow trajectory towards my baby. The door stopped just short of my car. I hustled over and glared at her as I climbed in...she just had that uncomprehending, vapid look. The other thing that kills me is going to the Home Depot and watching all of the heavy-duty carts littering the parking lot and rolling into other vehicles. I always take one back up to the store with me when I go in, but I find it astonishing that so many perfectly able people can get those carts out to their cars, but just can't manage to trouble their sorry a**es to return them.

Dings are allmost impossible.If your worried about your car leave it home.Buy a junker to go to the store.It's just a car people.I think to many people care about what others think of them by the way their vehicles look.I remeber back in 02 I bought a brand new chevy full size 4x4. I was leaving lowes when another trucked pulled in beside with children.Door flew open and put a nice scar on my new truck.The man started to yell at his kid.I told him don't worry about it.It had to get broke in sometime.I still have that truck and about 4 more dings in it just from parking lots.A vehicle without dings,just isn't a real american vehicle.No one or anything is perfect in this world.

Pehaps you should start a "Dings Are American" thread. This one is for those of us who try to avoid dings.

I hear the military is selling used surplus bradley assault vehicles. their armor plating is notorious for being ding proof.
John

yea, why care about anything, whether it's yours or someone else's. Respect for the rights of others including respect for their property is overrated.

IrishYankee I worry and do a lot of extra walking from way out to avoid dings.I could careless what you think of my reasons for not wanting someone to use my car as a door stop.They have no right to be careless and if I catch someone dinging my vehical they better have insurance.Perhaps I better also after I put a ding across there forehead.

I've tried the distant parking, parking with the the other careful people etc. I ended up buying a couple of those magnetic strips you see real estate agents put on their car doors. They're wide enough to handle just about any door contour design that may hit your door or fender on a truck. I take them off and throw them in the trunk when I'm leaving.
I've wanted to take an ice pick to the roof of a few cars that dinged me in the past. I figured the doofis wouldn't understand why it happened and gave up on the idea.

To prevent dings, I drive a Saturn, sorry to read they'll go to steel, I was planning on another Saturn when I drive this one into the ground in a few more years. I work retail, our parking lot is the test loop for the Indy 500. Everyone cuts through to get to the freeway quicker, heaven forbid they'd have to stop at that nasty stoplight. Semi's almost come through our front window on a daily basis, scares the heck out of my elderly customers to see a semi 2 ft. from the window behind them, and inching closer (sorry about that corner, truckers, I know how inconvenient it is for you). Nice coworker got a new Taurus last fall, noticed she had a good-sized dent on driver's side, rather high up on door, I thought, 6-8 inches under the window. She said it happened at work. Couple weeks later, I see a the exact same dent on passenger side, asked her about it, you should have seen her face, she's normally a peaceful woman, but...Poor thing, she probably didn't realize I have plastic doors when she started parking by me last year. The other day I came back from the bank, parked in my usual section, next to a....huge pickup, so tall the shrimpy guy who drives it prolly needs a stepstool to climb in. The car on the other side of him? My frind Dolores' car of course.Hmm, I can see how people get tempted to key cars (I would/could never do that myself). Couple monthes ago, a customer watched a junk car smack into a new car, the genius driver just parked there anyway, and went off to shop. Don't you know the witness waited for the smacked car's owner, and police were called. The offender looked shocked that she was caught. Boy I could go on and on, suffice to say it's true common courtesy is disappearing fast.