I just picked up my new clubman and I see that without door trim; dents look inevitable.

Any thoughts or comments?

 

I have a dent on the panel next to the door. Someone's insurance company paid me $517 to accept it. If only I could get 47 more dents just like it, I could have the car paid off in no time... though it would look pretty ugly.

 

yep, if you think the mini's bad you should see my wife's Land Rover LR3. Massive doors.

 

I have seen magnetic door guards. They look like the ones that they put on cars on the '60s and '70s. Color matched to the car.

Any thoughts?

 

I'm not driving a MINI yet, but with my current car I took the door guards off. The car looks much better now and I've not had any dents. Maybe I'm lucky, but I feel like a lot of times door guards are useless against doors of different heights.

 

Not effective against SUV doors just because their are higher than your car.

Best parking tactic? Park far away (Don't call attention to yourself by parking in the boondocks either) and always look for end spaces.

3+ year old 2005 MCS = 0 dents, 0 dings, 0 scratches and it gets driven daily.

ditto for our 4 month old Clubman.

 

Oh and I highly recommend getting Dent Wizard's "Ding shield" insurance. You'll likely use it enough to pay it over and over again with the first 1-3 dents.

Unfortunately dents are a fact of motoring life if we are to enjoy our cars. But good parking strategies can go a long way in keeping the odds against getting them fairly low.

 

$517 for a door ding? Must be a massive

Pics please.

(That much money can pay for 4-5 PDR ding repairs)

 

Yup, park far away, and on the end next to planters when possible. I find with my Clubman, it is much skinnier than the average car, so it fits right in the middle of the average spot really well, and puts it well out of the range of the average car door, even opened at full length. Even the massive doors on my brothers 330Ci can't reach it if I park square in the center of the spot.

 

I've found that most dings are on the passenger side as most cars are occupied by just one person. So I try to park on the driver's side of a parking space to give the car on my right more space for the driver to get out. That or park on the end preferably with the curb (or nothing at all) on the passenger side.

 

Avoid parking next to cars with baby carriers. After watching a woman struggle to get her baby out of the back seat of her car and lean against her door leaving a very nice dent in my car door. I always look for them now.

 

Here in oklahoma any. car with "Wal Mart Rash" we stay away from! park and walk............ your car will thank you.

 

05 and no dents YET.. i always park at end of lot and walking is good exercise...

 

We got our MINI in August and have zero door dings. My wife and I had a "talk" about the do's and don'ts of parking. Basically, we have four preferred rules:

1. Parallel park
2. Park on end space with lots of room for the next car
3. Park so far away nobody would want to park next to you
4. Find a wide space with a curb and park as close to the curb as possible.
   

Our first car got a door ding the first day and we never looked back. Our second new car didn't have any dents until my wife asked me to park close to an entrance (guess what happened). This time we love the car so much, we never place it in the line of fire.

 

Do what I do...park far away and TAKE UP 2 SPOTS!!!!!!!!!Ya, dont PARK NEXT TO ANYONE!!!! I live in Europe and these jerks have absolutely no respect for property. Hell theyll slam into your car and not even think twice...unless they think someone saw them. The only safe place to park your MINI is between Two Italian exotics.
Oh and stay away from Walmarts too. I have a 1,000 dollar dent in my quarter panel. They have to paint the whole back half...IF I had definitive proof it was my trashy neighbor Id put a dent in his face Oh watchout here comes the mods, Id better go

 

All these hints are oh so true. Ever since my first MINI, I've been annoying the heck out of my husband by parking off away from the main entrance of any store, etc., and always try to park next to another really nice car.

 

Although I often try many of the tricks above, you can't always steer clear of dangerous situations. So door dents are going to eventually happen. But I was actually thinking about this the other day, and I decided that the car just would not look the same if it had some plastic trim across the side of the car to prevent dents. I like it the way it is! AND ... this is my 400th post!

 

Yup, wifey got her first door ding in the 3rd door of the Clubman. I will be giving DentMasters a call next week.

 

that must be painful... let us knwo what the damage

 

I've had them do work before and they do EXCELLENT work! My guess is about $50 to $80. Ya gotta love it......I'm paying because someone else doesn't care.