We have a one year old car that someone was kind enough to open their door right into causing a huge ding just a few months in. I was livid and it still makes me mad. But what can you do? Fwiw it happened at a kid's activity where the parking lot is tiny so there's no parking farther away. For 5 years have never had a problem at this place, but it just takes one inconsiderate jacka$.

We either fix it ourselves or let it go. It’s hard to care about dings in a car.

I park at a garage at work. I scraped my car against a pole once 8 year ago like 2 months into owning this bigger car. Its still there. But it never happened again as i was super careful and this is a Subaru outback.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I’m the PP and answered your question, you aren’t unlucky with the dings, those are self inflicted. If you want to keep your car nice that’s the advice I’d give you to maintain a car (old or new) in nice condition. Or if you want to fix it get it done right and spend $7-$10k. Or just continuing driving into poles and buy a new car every 3 years.

Just go away. I don’t care. You can park “corner spots” and “further away” — not applicable.

I want to hear from folks who did encounter damage in urban parking, perhaps frequently, did you drop a couple $1k every time to fix it? Even knowing more damage was likely?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I’m the PP and answered your question, you aren’t unlucky with the dings, those are self inflicted. If you want to keep your car nice that’s the advice I’d give you to maintain a car (old or new) in nice condition. Or if you want to fix it get it done right and spend $7-$10k. Or just continuing driving into poles and buy a new car every 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think most people worry about dings in their car, especially if it's 10 years old.

But what about when cars are newer like 3 years old?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I have a 2010 w/ 160k on the odo and no significant damage. There are some barely noticeable small dents/dings that's just going to happen over 13 years of driving. Nothing I'd consider fixing.

And you live in the suburbs. That’s my point.

I know it’s shocking to some of you but most people on this board actually do live in the suburbs.

I don't think most people worry about dings in their car, especially if it's 10 years old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I have a 2010 w/ 160k on the odo and no significant damage. There are some barely noticeable small dents/dings that's just going to happen over 13 years of driving. Nothing I'd consider fixing.

And you live in the suburbs. That’s my point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I have a 2010 w/ 160k on the odo and no significant damage. There are some barely noticeable small dents/dings that's just going to happen over 13 years of driving. Nothing I'd consider fixing.

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

You are insane. Corner spots? Further away? I assume you aren’t parking a full size car in 70s garages in the city. It’s a completely different problem, and this car has ZERO cameras.

I would leave it and just save it for your kids. If you don’t value taking care of the car and bump into things, park in tight spots, scrape against poles then this is what years of neglect will look like. I care about cars and they have never been in the condition you described. Take care of the new car and be careful who you park next to, never near drivers doors, pick corner spots, or park further away.

More like Don’t care about dings.

So people just don’t get dings?? Man are we unlucky.

We have a decade old Honda with tons of dents and scratches from years of parking in tight garage parking spaces with poles all around. We would scratch, touch up paint, and then scratch again. Kids open doors into poles. On and on.

We never took it to body shop but was curious about how much it would be to spruce it up. $3000 minimum for a 13 year old Honda — can’t justify that.

Now maybe if we had kept repairing it over the years it would seem less daunting, but it seems like each trip to body shop would be minimum $1k??

But most cars around here are in very good shape! Though most do seem newer and we live in suburbs now so way way easier parking.

How often do people take their cars? Are we just unlucky with dents? Our newer car is 6 years old and has almost no serious dents or scratches (knock on wood) but we never take it into the District.