My 40-ish month old Prius got its first significant ding sometime in the past week, and it ruined my weekend when I found it. I have no idea how this happened - the position is below and slightly back from the mirror. This seems like a very tough location to reach with a swinging door... I might have a guy at work who does paintless dent repair take a look. The problem I see is that it is RIGHT on the style line of the door. This makes it really "pop". The scratch is pretty bad too. Any suggestions for a product to try to tone down those scratches?
get some rubbing compound to the scratch and see how it looks, if you have lacquer thinner it makes the clean up quicker. paintless dent removal is the answer to your problem. If the paint is bad, get it professionally touched up with a company like aero colors or similar businesses, call your local dealer and get some references on who they would call to do scratch repairs.
If it were me I would take it to a body shop and have it repaired. You will be better off having a professional repair job done rather than a DIY job that you will see every time you get in and out of the car and be dissatisfied with.
Look to me like someone parking on your right open their driver door really hard and the end of the door hits yours. Your mirror might have stopped that door from further damage. Sorry to see. I would be grrr too. Not sure, but the white part of the ding might be able to come off with some cleaner. I usually use Carb and Choke cleaner. If it does come off, I would just live with that ding.
I always park on the spot furthest away from the store entrance because there are no other cars around that could ding me! The GF is upset we have to walk further tho.
Sorry... Every time I get a new car, I immediately begin worrying about someone carelessly damaging it. Unless I'm confident I can fix it, I would contact a local repair shop.
I do exactly as you do and besides that, we could all probably use the exercise, certainly benefits me.
Which is why I've bought used my last 2 cars, including my 2010 Prius purchased last year. Besides avoiding the depreciation hit (debatable, I know...), I find that I avoid the new car "worry" which I really find can really be a burden. With previous new cars, I would be constantly worrying about finding new blemishes on the car, and I would get furious if I found even a small scratch or ding that I knew wasn't caused by me. For me, that largely went away went I went pre-owned, and I could just enjoy the cars and just let things be. Purely psychological, but it's nice to be relieved of that little bit of stress in my life!
Yeah, I know I need to get over it, but even at 3+ years old it bugs me! And careless people in parking lots just make me mad! SCH-I605 ?
You are not alone in your thinking. I hate to get a door ding on a 6 year old car. I think you could park your car in the middle of a 100 acre field and some idiot in a 50 dollar car would park within a foot of you. A little far fetched but not much.
I've had someone do that to me in a parking lot, where I parked at least 200' from anyone. They obviously did it on purpose, but I swore I would set their (pos) car on fire if I saw a dent/scratch anywhere.
Some of them obviously do it on purpose and believe me, I understand exactly how you feel. Another very good place to get your car damaged is the parking lot, especially at Walmart and at supermarkets. I have seen people purposely give a cart a shove right into a parked car. When I go to parking lots like these I park my car at the fartherest point in the lot. I keep my car nice and I do not want it pecked to pieces.
Today I was at Walmart and parked strategically far away where there was no cars in front, or beside me. When I finished shopping and came out, I see that this douchebag parked his car directly in front of me, his car facing my car head on and he is working on the engine (either topping up fluids or using a tool on something) with just a foot between our bumpers. JESUS!.. no scratches on the front bumper but it seems like the more careful I get, the more God tries to screw me over.
Yeah, I've gotten nailed in the "no one around for miles" spaces too. That's unfortunately the land of people who take shortcuts across the lot by zigzagging across the aisles, people who back up too fast because they've got "tons of room," people who unload their cart and then just give it a shove, etc. I suspect crowded spaces may actually be safer because moving objects can't gain as much momentum!
