Protecting car from scrapes/dints

[malazn mafia]

This is probably impossible, but is there any way to prevent car from getting trolly dents, doors & bumpers getting scraped by other cars while parked? I've seen some cars with special bump strips that look horrible but maybe there is some type that can be put on/removed quickly.

[XARATE]

The best way to avoid the is be selective of where u park. Personally i like parking next to vans becuase children cant open sliding doors into my car or park next to a nicer car than your own lol

[stuartwaters]

i found the best way to stop this is stay out of carparks, i rarely park in them and if i have to i park in the middle of 2 spaces

[Hayden1]

I really don't think there is anything you can do unless park really far away so no one will park next to you.

Our TTG has so many dents and scrapes and NONE are from my family. We've had car doors smashed into it, trolley's rolled into it, hail landing on it, surfboards and kites landing on it and the most recent (you won't believe it):

A rock that fell from the sky...

I really can't tell you how unlucky we have been with this car I guess it just wants to be scratched and dented. I think the rock must've been dropped by a crow or something because it was one of those round stones that they like to look for. Can't think of any other way it could randomly fall from the sky. I saw it falling and thought it was a nut from some tree but there was a giant bang so I walked over and unfortunalty noticed a nice sized dent with a scrape right on the edge of the bonnet with a rock just at the front of the car....
sorry for the write up but I can't believe what has happened

[buggo]

I can only think of two ways to make sure 100% you won't get scratches, heaps of bubble wrap, or this.

[XARATE]

Originally Posted by stuartwaters

i found the best way to stop this is stay out of carparks, i rarely park in them and if i have to i park in the middle of 2 spaces

Dont sook if someone keys your car one day. I was trying to get a car park in a busy shopping center oneday amd some moron in a bmw did the same thing and took up two car parks. So i had it towed if your going into a car be prapared and accept that damage can happen, otherwise take public transport

[b2tf]

Don't drive it.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Neither of our cars have dints / scratches. We are very careful where we park them, usually next to a post / wall or at the end of the carpark that no one else parks. I am also lucky that I have a shed at work and a Merc on either side of me, we are all fussy about our cars!

The cooks car stays at home during the week now which is great.

[mik]

i think much the guys above, i`m also very careful where i park, often i`ll park 100 metres away from the general car population, if i must park in a car park i pick cars that are well looked after,gleaming duco /no dents, any car that has dents and scratches around the body work is a red flag i move on.

[XP6]

Simple dont go shopping in your pride and joy, buy yourself a shopping trolley... mines a fg xr

[chamb0]

Another tip: stay away from parking spaces next to bus stops. Buses just love to eat the corners of cars for breakfast as they pull in. Happened to me a few weeks ago.

[NickyN]

You could just drive another car as your daily and keep yours in the garage. Or just be careful where you park your car. Don't park next to cars that look like their drivers don't give a rip (scratched up, dented, dinged, rusted, you know what those cars look like), next to HUGE trucks with oversized tires (or tyres for some), cars parked crooked in the stall, in small compact stalls or if you have to park between 2 cars. I'd rather park way far away and at the end of a row of stalls than park next to one of the cars I just mentioned.

Depending on where I go, the last stalls usually have a striped off area next to the last stall so I park sort of in that area too, which gives me more space between my car and the car next to me on the other side.

[svo supporter]

Sad fact of carparks. The trouble and strife can park miles away from entrances to shopping centre doors, with no other cars within half a dozen parking bays either side of it. But you can guarantee, she'll come back and there will be another car right beside it, with empty parking bays next to that one, with a fresh piece of paint on our car door.

Doesn't matter whether your car is a lump of garbage or not. Mongrels will still open doors on it, or hit it with a shopping trolley. They just don't care for other peoples property

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by stuartwaters

...... and if i have to i park in the middle of 2 spaces

Two major problems with this, you instantly make your car a target for vandals running a key down every panel or letting your tires down or pouring brake fluid or paint stripper all over your car, and an over enthusiastic parking/council ranger will give a parking ticket for 'not park in allocated parking space'.

Much safer and legal option is to park wisely, next to (or even better between) poles or posts in parking garages, or way out of the way where no one else parks, I have found the phenomenon mentioned earlier, that when you get back there will be a car parked right next to your car even though there are 20 vacant spaces around you

[MarkAW]

Never park next to a white boxy van. The doors are at a height to cause maximum damage from the corner of the door, the ergonomics of the vehicle require the door to be open further so that a person can get out, and as a generalisation, lots of people who drive white boxy vans don't give a rats if they damage your car. You can see that in the condition of their van and the way many of them drive their work vehicle.

[xisled]

Get a push bike, leave the car parked in the garage.

But then again I drive my GT everywhere, not worry about being hit, and have not had 1 car ding my door.

I have found it is more of the private car park at work under the building where my car has been hit. Only people I work with, park in there

[tex]

You can't stop it, just risk minimise it.

A DAILY driven vehicle is going to get damaged, no ifs, buts, maybes. If someone reckons they have a daily driven car that remains dent / chip free, they either are telling porkies about the dents / chips, or the car aint no daily driven example.

i do try and risk minimise damage on mine, but it gets knocked about.

best 'solution'?

Have a good relationship with the paintless dent man, and a good bodyworks for when the paint is broken.

I have both as a matter of necessarty.

[Andy777]

just avoid car parks, i have to park in a bunnings car park a few days a week for work, i park on the end spot and so far over that my side skirt and tyres are pretty much on the gutter and still people hit it, now my cars has more hits then elvis (on one side)

about to upgrade the el xr8 to an fg xr6t and so tempted just to keep the el for the days i park in bunnings

[Windsor342ci]

Originally Posted by Andy777

just avoid car parks, i have to park in a bunnings car park a few days a week for work, i park on the end spot and so far over that my side skirt and tyres are pretty much on the gutter and still people hit it, now my cars has more hits then elvis (on one side)

about to upgrade the el xr8 to an fg xr6t and so tempted just to keep the el for the days i park in bunnings

Bunnings seems to be so bad for that aswel! I kept getting my car smashed at bunning when I use to go there. It was almost like trollies and idiots where attracted to it. But it was an old 4wd so I wasnt overly fussed.

[bob^]

My car got hit in Bunnings just today! But that was a woman backing into the front quarter :(
I try to park away from other cars. This time I had a whole row to myself...and she still managed to hit my car of all cars.
But **** happens, at the end of the day it's only a piece of depreciating future bit of scrap metal.

[Windsor342ci]

Originally Posted by bob^

My car got hit in Bunnings just today! But that was a woman backing into the front quarter :(
I try to park away from other cars. This time I had a whole row to myself...and she still managed to hit my car of all cars.
But **** happens, at the end of the day it's only a piece of depreciating future bit of scrap metal.

No mine was never that bad thankfully. It was mainly people opening doors on me.
You have a very good outlook though on when most people would be ranting how f'd the world is. Good on you.

[Franco Cozzo]

People ask me why I don't take care of the outside of my car, I don't really wash it, I've probably washed it three times in a year total.

Well, first off I go down dirt roads fairly often (i try to avoid it now with my car being lowered), so it will be covered in crap anyway. Because its my daily, I'll park it in the shopping center and one day I'll come out to find that it will have dents, scratches or a big nice scrape on it because someone drove into it.

So I don't really care what it looks like on the outside, I tend to look after it servicing wise, but other than that, I really don't give a rats *** about how it looks.

Its inevitable that it will sustain damage, no matter how carefully you try avoid it.

[brydie76]

As others have said, park far away from the doors/entrance of wherever you are going. Can normally get a park without anybody next to you on a quiet day. Spaces are sometimes a bit bigger the further away you get.

Also-
- if you go somewhere regularly, scope out the car park. Often they will be designed so that there will be one or two spaces that are protected from other cars/on their own. At one shopping centre I go to, I park in their "old car park", full of spaces with walls/pillars on both sides of you, so the nearest car will hit those when they open your door. Some centres have parallel parks as well, these are rather good. In the car park near my work, I have "my spot", a large parallel park I get every day.

Finally, as said above, get parallel parks where you can. From experience, minor bumper hits are a lot less common and easier to repair than door dings. Even better if you can get the first/last park in a lane or street, as only one car will be parking near you then (and there is less risk of some idiot trying to squeeze between yours and another's car if said another is parked too close)

Good luck, and it does come down to that. My car has one visible ding on it at the moment, it came from me reversing into a metal barrier whilst driving into a "good" park (luckily only slightly gouged the black bit of my bumper). This is compared to parking at uni, which (touch wood) hasn't left a ding on my car yet, despite the spaces being too small for my Fiesta. So it really can be luck of the draw unfortunately.

[Andy777]

Originally Posted by CRYHSV

No mine was never that bad thankfully. It was mainly people opening doors on me.
You have a very good outlook though on when most people would be ranting how f'd the world is. Good on you.

Drivers door hit by trolley
Someone reversed into my front bumper
Countless Door dings

I just laugh at it now, when I had my old dungbox commodore no one hit that and I parked in the exact same spot... Should just drive my dads patrol with its rocksliders that will protect the dings lol

[TheZHLANE]

Always park at the back of the carpark in 2 bays with the fairlane, cant risk some idiot that cant drive/park running into it or the same idiot opening doors into it. On the other hand my f100 is a bushpig but you cant fit in 1 car space ;D.

[mik]

one thing that really annoys me in these shopping centre car parks........... the car parks have the trolley return racks all over the place.......... and assholes might be 3 car widths away from the rack and will just leave the trolley in the bay next to them on a hill.............the slightest wind comes along and away they go seeking someones pride and joy to dent up, i mean fair dinkum, some people ought to be.....!@#%%$.

[nitro50th]

Doesn't matter where you park.

Just recently i was wandering around a shopping center car park looking for a spot on a particularly windy day.
Someone had been too lazy to return their trolley to the stalls and as i was driving along it drifted across my path, bounced off the front bumper of a nice FG XR6, left a dent on the rear door of a VE Commodore parked two spots away, drifted to the next row of parked cars and smacked an EL on the rear quarter. Kept on going with a couple of near misses before ending up in the gutter about 30 meters away.
All before i even got out of the car.

Doesn't matter where you park.

[BPXR6T]

I've experienced the Bunnings curse too. What p!sses me off is when I park miles from anything else and some moron parks right next to me. Probably just to wind me up. My good cars have never seen a car park, I have a car for commuting and shopping.

[NickyN]

Like brydie76 wrote, parallel parking is the way to go. IF its available, that is. If not, the diagonal stalls (slanted so each car angled) is way better than the rows of cars parking head on.

Seriously, avoiding other cars and parking far away on purpose often leaves me returning to my car to find another car parked RIGHT NEXT to mine! I mean, come on! There's at least 20 empty stalls and he or she has to park right next to my car? Grrr......

[topgear]

Like few mentioned, park wisely and hope for good. Park next to pillars or walls and park as close as you can to the wall or pillar. Stay away from trolley stands. If the car spot you found is a bit tight squeeze, leave it and pick another one. Don't park next to the cars that are badly dinted corners, scratched bumpers. Park in such a way that the other cars around you can get in and out easily. Don't park too far in or out depending on the car park.

I think a little bit of logical thinking will keep your car safe.