It's my turn......rant

[ob]

I was washing the cars yesterday and while wiping them down I was astonished at the number of door dings that we have accumulated in the two years that we have had them.On the drivers side of my Pathfinder there were 2.On the passenger side there were 27.As in two/seven!! ..Is this just the "luck of the Irish" or is this commonplace?Granted the sun was setting and I was viewing the dings from an oblique angle and many of them are shallow yet contact dings nevertheless.The fact that most are on the passenger side front indicates that they were caused by the other cars driver door.So now I've ruled out youngsters.I don't park in the same place on a regular basis so it rules out that the same person is doing it.Getting all of them repaired IMO is an exercise in futility if they will just reoccur.I have also ruled out the possibility of alien encounter ,as I have not witnessed any orbs of light circling the vehicle at night,nor does there seem to be any particular geometric pattern to the dings.Are many drivers nowadays just unaware or apathetic to the fact that they may be swinging there door JUST a bit too far and briskly when they are exiting their vehicle?I'm not perfect by any means ,however am cognizant enough that I can state with reasonable certainty that I can't recall since I've been shaving every morning,the last time that I swung my car door open on the one parked next to me.Oh well..Thanks for listening to my whine.I feel much better now that I know at least my gripe can be heard 'round the world' in cyber space to any unsuspecting soul that chooses to open this thread.Have a nice day <br /><br />PS ,If you happen to be parked next to a 99' model gold Pathfinder with graphic side body decals and Texas plates,please don't ding the side of it ,but rather insert any spare change you might have ,through the slightly opened passenger window.No contribution is too small.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Re: It's my turn......rant

The fact is some people just don't care. Take a look at some of the heaps running around. Some of these guys will swing it open and ding your car when you are in it,,I know it happened to me. <br /><br /> People that have no respect for others personal property are just a fact of life we have to live with,, your not gonna change them.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: It's my turn......rant

I know how you feel ob, but its just a part of<br />normal wear and tear on an automobile.<br />When I deliver a new auto to an excited customer<br />I usually give it its first dent.just so the<br />customer can get that over with right away. And<br />then its not so horrific when they get they first<br />parking lot door dent which inevitably always<br />comes.

 

[rwise]

Re: It's my turn......rant

On the wifes S10, you could say it was more that a door ding! About 24" down the front pasenger fender, no note nothing just crushed metal and scraped off paint! Ok its not new but still. Some people just dont care what they do to other peoples property!<br />Richard

 

[JGREGORY]

Re: It's my turn......rant

Know exactly what you mean ob. <br /><br />Here one for you, When we bought our house 2 years ago we parked the cars off the street in an area out back infront of the garage. We were not there for more that a month when I hear a crash out back and see someone on the ground and a dirt bike under my truck. After making sure the lady (yes I said Lady) was ok I pulled the bike from under my truck to see a nice crease at the frame under the door. Up to this point I didn't even have a ding. <br /><br />Apparently the bike stalled out for the girl that was riding it and her step mom was trying to start it. She succeeded but in gear the dam bike took off right for my truck. <br /><br />They are my neighbors up the street so I didn't make to big a deal although it is a nice crease. But the boy likes to race up and down the alley a little to fast about ready to put spike strips out there. Hey Bubba can you help!

 

[ebbtide176]

Re: It's my turn......rant

i remember having this conversation with fellow employees when i first moved to atlanta. it started when i noticed dings on a new car one of them had recently gotten. they all just brushed it off like a fact of life... lol luckily my dog gave my truck the first one - so i could handle the rest better <br /><br />i've had people ding mine while in it once or twice - unbelievable. both times by fairly large people who need to swing both legs out before standing up. everyone else gets out on one foot, sliding thru a 1/3 door opening.... <br /><br />oh yeah, those Saturns that i drove when a road tech didn't have those dings - the nonmetal doors, ya know

 

[LadyFish]

Re: It's my turn......rant

This is a big pet peeve of mine too. I've always had nice vehicles and door dings can send me into orbit. I take the extra effort to park away from "hoopties" and other non-insured vehicles and try to park as far away and walk to avoid this happening but somehow it still happens. <br /><br />Either people are getting fatter or parking spaces are getting smaller or both.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: It's my turn......rant

door skins on these Jap cars are so thin OB they pile<br />up fast. the wife's '02 MPV has more dings than<br />my '92 deville that has REAL doors

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: It's my turn......rant

I take great care in parking my silverado diesel.<br /><br />I LEAVE IT IN THE GARAGE

 

[SoulWinner]

Re: It's my turn......rant

The wife and I have talked seriously in the past year about me getting a Countach. It's my dream car, has been since highschool. But the more I thought about the hassel of owning a car that attracts that much attention with such thin skins on it I decided against it. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never own a car that I cared whether it got scratched and banged up. So I think I'll get a H1 Hummer. Plastic and fiberglass, no dings, and after a few trips to the woods it will be as scratched up as my 4Runners.<br /><br />After the loss of my Supra I figured heartbreak over a car wasn't worth it

 

[SeaMasterZ@aol.com]

Re: It's my turn......rant

Whats a hooptie????<br /><br />lol, the One Woman Panic Attack Parade now has her 16 year old out in her Outback, and she is very careful to have the kid be careful when opening doors and more importantly, staying away from the sh!theaps that will bash into you<br /><br />of course, you have to consider the fact that shopping carts sail around like door seeking cruise missiles, launched by half fast morons saving a few seconds by "heave n hope", heave the cart and hope it hits the cart pen<br /><br />as a member of the 400 club, (lost 400 pounds) I likely was the fattest person any of you have ever met, and since Im STILL 250 pounds from goal, Im still fat ...well, gravitationally challenged, yet only one time did I ever hit a car, and that was cause a big ding was on my van, blue paint from the car right next to me, some of my green paint on that hunk of sh!t, smoking gun, dead body ...<br /><br />its not fat, or small spaces, its ignorance, its apathy, they dont know and they dont care<br /><br />

 

[LadyFish]

Re: It's my turn......rant

Whats a hooptie????

Ray, I saw these words painted on a car that was driving around in the hood (it was just barely road worthy.)<br /><br />"It's my hooptie, you get you one"<br /><br />No further explanation needed.

 

[Scoop]

Re: It's my turn......rant

Aaaarrrgh! This has to be number one or two on my pet peeve list. When I first met my wife, she would fling her door open into the car next to her and would park in the closest spot. The first time she did it, I just about blew a gasket. Now she is careful as I on other people's cars but she sometimes parks too close. I hate the way all those dings look. I can take hail damage more than dings in a door.<br /><br />I am known far and wide for parking as far away as possible or in an end spot where I can pull over as far away from where someone else will pull in as possible. I just tell people I am parking in Egypt, it is good for you to walk. I will not take up two spaces though.<br /><br />My first ding on the car I own now happened just when I brought it home from the dealer. I pulled in the driveway, turned it off opened the door and my 6 year old opened my other cars door into the new car. He is now as careful as me. I think my wife thought I was going to hurt the kid from the look on my face. Now it actually seems kind've funny.<br /><br />I work with a guy that bought a new Cadillac. His first one. He picked it up from the dealer. Pulled into his driveway and while moving his other car to get the Caddy in the garage, he backed into the side. He took it back to the dealer and told them to fix it and that he did not want to hear a word about it.

 

[ob]

Re: It's my turn......rant

LOL,Ray and Scoop. Some of those self inflicted stories remind me of the time when I brought my brand 81'new Dodge Ram pickup for its first trip to the carwash.I pulled into the stall and decided I would instead back out of the stall and use the vacuums first.Being very careful with my new shiny,and probably didn't even need to be washed pickup ,I began to backup easing out on the clutch.The truck moved a few feet and didn't seem to progress much further.I figured I was hitting the incline of the carwash stall and needed a bit more accelerator to clear the hump.Unbenounced to me ,as I was carefully looking rearward to avoid any mishap,the wand hose had gotten behind the drivers side view mirror when I had initially pulled into the stall.It was firmly secured in its stainless steel wall bracket.Just then ,I heard what sounded somewhat like a small caliber handgun being discharged.Long story short,the steel reinforced hose literally ripped the mirror assembly from the drivers door by the roots and sent it catapulting forward into the middle of the stall.I thought,No way that just happened.The rest of the story I'll leave to your imagination,but it is one that the wife and I get a good laugh out of at family gatherings.<br /><br />Ditto on the thin metal melowyellow.A good breeze will dent some of these late model cars.I guess its all in the name of impact crumple effect.Some of these slow speed impact collisions that cause so much damage remind me of those little exploding toy cars that you put back together and roll them into the wall and watch them fly apart. I forget what they were called.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: It's my turn......rant

modern doors are "engineered" Ob...<br />just as strong or stronger in an impact, but<br />for diff. reasons... not about parkin lot dings<br />4 sure.

 

[Bowfin]

Re: It's my turn......rant

every door ding I ever got came from Wal-Mart and usually came home with the wife .Come to think of it, 99% of everything I get comes from Wal-Mart. <br /><br />Bowfin

 

[samagee]

Re: It's my turn......rant

Yep. I quit parking at this one location to catch a bus, because some idiot backed into my drivers side door. They didn't even leave any information so I could charge their insurance company. Now I can't open my window all the way, something I really like to do on nice evenings. Especially on road trips. I get this strong urge to dent in all the cars in that neighborhood, everytime I go past it. The body on my van was almost perfect till this.

 

[SeaMasterZ@aol.com]

Re: It's my turn......rant

I remember those fly apart toys, loved em, I would catapult them into stone walls to see how much they could take, lol, ddnt take too much<br /><br />my favorite toy was a winnebago my brother got, huge thing, he didnt want it anymore so it was tagged for disposal<br /><br />oh ... throwin this out?<br /><br />yeah, I hate it<br /><br />ok<br /><br />so he comes outside, and sees me blasting away at it with a my Ruger 22, and immediately starts bawling hie eyes out<br /><br />Ill let ya have three free shots, the rest are three for a quarter<br /><br />stopped bawling, instantly .. (little faker tearbag!) and took three shots, dirt dirt dirt<br /><br />jeeze ... here kiddo, hold it tight, sights right on the side, just like shooting the bb gun! hold breath, squeeze the trigger ...<br /><br />hit!<br /><br />hit!<br /><br />hit!<br /><br />off he goes to raid quarters, lol, brat prolly went straight to my room to nail em<br /><br />but eh, that winnebago took so many 22 slugs it looked like a sieve<br /><br />and I got a coffee can full of quarters out of the deal, lol, not bad, not bad, cops would show up now and then but we would tell em the kids out back were shooting off fireworks (bad kids ya see, we were angels )<br /><br />ah the good ol days when toys were something you had to really work at destroying!<br /><br />

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: It's my turn......rant

samagee said,<br />

Yep. I quit parking at this one location to catch a bus, because some idiot backed into my drivers side door. They didn't even leave any information so I could charge their insurance company. Now I can't open my window all the way, something I really like to do on nice evenings. Especially on road trips. I get this strong urge to dent in all the cars in that neighborhood, everytime I go past it. The body on my van was almost perfect till this.

samagee, take you a bathroom plunger and get your door wet, then stick that sucker to it and give it a good pull, and walaa!!! no more dent.

 

[12Footer]

Re: It's my turn......rant

A "Hooptie" is an old car that has a more expensive sound system than it's blue book value. I'm not making this up. That's what the younguns call them too.<br />It's a step-down from a "ricer", without the prerequisite of being made in Japan.<br /><br />Another little trivia question...<br />What do the younguns call the large tailpipes on ricers?