Protection from door dings

This is a particularly bad issue here in Godalming, as the average age of the population is about 300 years old. These old duffers, who should've handed in their car keys decades ago but refuse to because "you'll never take my freedom away" seem to drive by touch most of the time, and can't see further than 6ft in front of them which often leads to some interesting situations at roundabouts and junctions because they wait six business days to pull out. Not a week goes by without at least one post in our local Facebook groups from someone who saw some old biddy bump in to someone else's car and took a photo and stuck it on Facebook so that old biddy can "do the right thing before the police get involved".

One particularly bad one is in our little cul-de-sac, this woman must be over 90 years old, every single day without fail her car is parked as if it was flung out of an aircraft, and every single time with a random assortment of doors / windows / boot open, and despite being spoken to many times about being a parking menace and that her driving abilities are going to get someone killed, she's made it abundantly clear that she just doesn't give a toss. Her car also doesn't have a single straight panel on it, and the whole thing is covered in scuffs and scratches from top to bottom.

It's genuinely a problem here, I reckon if the popo did random eye tests and driving competency tests at our local Sainsbury's, they'd knock over 50% of our traffic off the roads in a day.

It does make me laugh though, when we first moved here I thought we'd have all these lovely elderly people around us who are all kind and friendly folks, turns out that half of them are miserable old sods who have given up on life and decided that whatever issues they cause in society isn't their problem.
 
need some lateral thinking move to the USA for bigger parking spaces for moderen bigger cars - get a narrower car. ?
Locally I think I'd rank our Aldi > sainsbury > waitrose > tesco for place size,
and bigger drivers aren't hdelping (they open the door wider tammzy).

some of the Cambridge roads, you won't be double parking with a 2M+ car
 
Remove the doors.... :p

Not a lot you can do, parking spaces are small, cars have got bigger, just park miles away and hope that someone else doesn’t feel lonely and park next to you.

You could buy a smaller car, we have no issues with the Up, loads of space in car parks.

You could go old school with a bumper strip but can’t imagine it is going to do much for a modern car.
 
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jpaul said:
need some lateral thinking move to the USA for bigger parking spaces for moderen bigger cars - get a narrower car. ?
Locally I think I'd rank our Aldi > sainsbury > waitrose > tesco for place size,
and bigger drivers aren't hdelping (they open the door wider tammzy).

some of the Cambridge roads, you won't be double parking with a 2M+ car
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Your drivel game is absolutely on point today, well done :D

"move to USA"

wtf :cry:
 
Get some foam rectangles that are covered in a waterproof material, like crash mats but lighter, that you can velcro onto your car.
 
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Nabinium said:
Find a space further out in the car park. Also, try to look for a space that has an immovable object to your nearside like a kerb, wall, bush, etc., so nobody can park on that side next to you. Then you can park as close to that side as possible, leaving more space on the other side.
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Only works so much :(

Drives me up the wall how often when I parked my pickup well out the way you'd still get that one person who'd come and squeeze in next to you despite the 200 empty spaces all around :( and the more you squeeze up against something just seems to invite them to intrude on your space :(

To illustrate my moan in the other thread recently I was parking here (car A - which I've set to the angle I was stopped at) and between accommodating someone else leaving a space, pedestrians and a bit of miscalculation myself I ended up stopped in the bay at a bit of an angle and encroaching on the next space - sat there with my brake lights on looking around waiting for the cars behind my to clear so I can straighten up and the last car behind me does what I've illustrated with the red car and lines - nearly cleared behind me then reversed back across me and parked in the bay right beside me - I've also edited the rest of the rows beside and behind me to how many other spaces were available they could have used instead...

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I was annoyed enough by the lack of consideration to remonstrate with the driver and ask them what on earth they were doing and they were genuinely utterly clueless and oblivious. And these are the people we share car parks with :(

EDIT: And yes I went in nose first - with a bunch of traffic behind me I wasn't going to mess about trying to reverse park.
 
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I was in the local hospital car park the other day. In the space of five minutes two separate old biddies just opened their door with out a care in the world. You could hear the bashes and then they drove off without a care in the world.
 
One of my neighbour's decided to carelessly swing his Mercedes limo door into my rear wheel arch at night....almost £500 later I got it repaired looking almost as new again.

I always park at the most remote spot I can find...Mars is next seems to be safer :eek:
 
casper_uk said:
I was in the local hospital car park the other day. In the space of five minutes two separate old biddies just opened their door with out a care in the world. You could hear the bashes and then they drove off without a care in the world.
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I've got a colleague who winds me up the wall - happily rests the car door against the next car and work vehicles the same - happily opens them up so they are touching the wall or next vehicle, just doesn't see a problem with it - even if/when it doesn't do damage it is just a lack of consideration for other people.

EDIT: I see it a lot from older people as well who you'd think were from a generation who would know better on average.
 
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Begbie said:
This is the way. I've done this a few times and the best driving experiences.

It's so freeing.
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Yeah my son's got a 2009 Honda that is totally battered with faded red paint but sails through every mot. I even borrow it sometimes if I have to park somewhere I don't want to take my car (which sounds mad, because it is...) I've done the 'nice car' thing now and much as I love it I'm not sure the stress of nobody giving a **** these days is worth it.
 
Uther said:
Yeah my son's got a 2009 Honda that is totally battered with faded red paint but sails through every mot. I even borrow it sometimes if I have to park somewhere I don't want to take my car (which sounds mad, because it is...) I've done the 'nice car' thing now and much as I love it I'm not sure the stress of nobody giving a **** these days is worth it.
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It's really not. I had a few cars that were **** boxes, one basically had no paint. Would drive up walls to fit into parking spaces. Ripped a bumper off parking one off road. Load up with bikes not caring if interior got ripped apart.

The best way to drive. I miss driving like this.
 
I actually take an inflatable car with me that I pump up with my cigarette port powered tyre inflator, I then inflate said inflatable in the car parking space next to me, with some bricks to weigh it down.

Kind like those inflatable tanks the Ukrainians use as decoys against Russian drones.
 
Begbie said:
It's really not. I had a few cars that were **** boxes, one basically had no paint. Would drive up walls to fit into parking spaces. Ripped a bumper off parking one off road. Load up with bikes not caring if interior got ripped apart.

The best way to drive. I miss driving like this.
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Yep, cheap cars for daily use is the way now. Much less stressful.

If you have nice things, it's going to get damaged or someone will steal it.
 
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Unless you are going to completely cover your car with carpet (joke obvs) there's not really much you can do other than try and park away from everyone.

I think any kind of 'protection' is going to look much worse than the tiny ding your likely to not notice when they inevitably occur
 
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