Someone please tell me their secret. How do you cope with all the stress brought on by worrying about scratches, door dings, chips, etc on your RX8? I get so ANGRY when my car gets a scratch or I get a door ding. Driving down the Interstate to work I hear all kinds of little "dings" from debri flying into my tire wells (or so I hope). It drives me crazy. Another example, my previous car was a 1993 camaro. It went ELEVEN years without getting a single door ding in it. I owned it for its last 3 years and I was never precautious with it. I didn' t care if anyone dinged it, and lo and behold, nobody ever did. I've owned my RX8 for ONE month and have gone to great lengths (or should I say walking distances) to prevent door dings, but to no avail. Some pathetic low-life dinged my door today while I was at work. I'm losing faith in the human race. *Sigh*

edit: this is my first nice car too. I've owned some crappers in the past. 1989 oldsmobile cutlass supreme (8th grade). 1990 ford ranger (senior year of high school). 1993 camaro (college).

Park like an asshole works for me.Hell ill take up 2 handicap spots if i have ta.

I know the feeling, I am so anal about getting dings in the 7 (custom paint: black metallic with silver metallic stripes) and the WRX and both have gotten it good. What can you do other than your best and hope others respect your ride. The freak stuff is just that--freak occurences and you can't sweat it. Thats not to say I don't want to punch things at every new rock chip and tiny ding.

at work i park in the last row of 1 part of the lot. at stores i park away from other cars in a particular area but i dont park too far away or double park. that is an open invite for a key. theres not much you can do about the little stone chips and stuff like that accept mabe get a bra.

Originally posted by WTF no turbo
Park like an asshole works for me.Hell ill take up 2 handicap spots if i have ta.

Sounds like you want to be keyed...

my only worry with taking up two spaces when parking is that someone will get pissed and key my car. i'd rather take the ding than a keying. But man seems nobody respects anything lately. What's the world coming to? I'm always so careful about not dinging other peoples' doors. Even to the point to where I have to squirm my way out of my car. I need to invest in a piece of crap car and go around dinging everyone's doors. Why not right?

edit: I do all those things mentioned earlier. Park away from others, and when I'm at a restaurant I park in front of the glass doors so I can see where my car is, etc. Funny thign is when my car was dinged, it was pretty far off in the parking lot. Pretty far back, I guess somoene just felt compelled to park next to me.

Has anyone tried "Paintless Dent Removal" ? I saw some pictures of it...and it looks like you rape the seal around your windows in order to remove a dent from your door. Is this true? Sure looks like it....

I just at like I dont care.
drive like a new car but think like a beatup truck.
the other this asshole hit me in the back I just told him to go.

some guy rear-ended your RX8 and you just flagged him by? I'm going to have to wave my BS flag on that one ... =)

It's just eating me alive. Anyone else got door dings? Misery loves company. grrr. It just bothers me to know that in that big parking lot where I am parked out in BFE, someone feels the need to park NEXT TO ME. Then when the door ding happens, I know whoever it was that did it felt guilty for maybe 2 seconds before they realized they could just chicken $hit their way out of this by leaving the parking let and never giving it another second's thought. Which leaves me to piss and moan about it all day. I hate people.

I've already had my 8 keyed once and backed into once. The keying happened when I wasnt around (parked on the street.. cowards). Then wednesday morning last week, I was eating some breakfast around 7 AM and I hear a car alarm going off outside. I look out the window and its the old lady next door fumbling with her keys trying to turn her alarm off. She uses the driveway, I park on the street. Anyways, she gets her alarm off and gets in her car. What do you know, she backs right into my new car. And then she speeds off. She is like 80 years old and the damage is really not bad at all, just a small chip above the rear fender, but it killed me when I saw it. I dont think I'll say anything but it amazes me how careless some people can be and how downright mean people can be (with the keying). Sometimes you just feel like you have a big target painted on your car.

god grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference

Keep remembering that when you're inside and driving... dings make no difference!

Winning_BlueRX8: There are a couple of long threads on door dings and how people try to prevent them. Search a couple of key words, you will find all the advice you need. I used paintless dent removal on my winning blue, and they did not go through my window seal, it was on the passenger wing door.

When I have to park in a lot, I always find a spot next to a curb. I park as close as I can to the curb so if someone does park next to me, there is enough space for them to throw their door open and still miss me.

Less than 1000 miles and an idiot at work opened his door into my handle. Through the paint right to the metal. I know the car will get nicks and dings, but geez, I hoped to have it perfect for a few months. (Tracked the guy down and beat the crap out of him.....in my mind only. He drove a piece of crap 93 Ford. I didn't want money or insurance, just to tell him to be more careful. My security guy gave him a lecture which I'm sure was ignored.)

All we can do is keep saying that serenity prayer or the original from St. Francis "grant me the wisdom to accept that which I cannot change". And get a voodoo doll......

Get this...I am already worried and thinking about how to avoid dings, scratches, chips and I have yet to get my car!! I have a Protege5 right now and within the first 6 months someone rear ended me, got 3 dings(My husbands fault...parking in garage), and many little chips from these darn trucks that carry material, rocks, dirt etc. Everywhere I go here there seems to be a material co. hence a ton of rocks and debris! Considering a bra but I hate to cover up that beauty and worried about paint fade and water in between. Ugh! Boy, just wait till my car comes in....hopefully in 3 weeks!! I guess we have to relax about it somehow!

My car got banged twice this week.

The first time was my fault - I was backing out of the garage and my fiance had parked in my blind spot (which wasn't her usual parking spot), and the corner of my rear bumper whacked into the center of her rear bumper (Dodge Neon). It put a tiny scratch in the plastic of her bumber, but it partially popped out the black bottom panel on mine and also partially separated the joint between the back part of the bumper and the side part.

Today on the way to work, I was at a stop light and started to go, didn't rev it enough and the engine almost died, but before I could start again, the guy behind me smacks into me.

However, I must be extremely lucky this week. The guy was only going a couple of miles an hour and neither his car nor mine was even scratched. And where my bumped separated, I was able to just snap the two places back together and it looks just like normal. None of the plastic had cracked, and the snap-locks connected it back in fine. And there was one tiny black mark that rubbed off.

Two heart attacks in one week is enough for me though.

For those of you so concerned about scratches and dings, do a search for the 3m material. Its a clear plastic type material that is preofessionally installed, adhears to the car, creating a near invisible layer of protection. Pretty much the only place you can see it is at the seams. Probably the best way to protect your car. If nothing else, works great on the front in place of a bra.

Yea, I have heard of that.....were you the one that posted pics of the material being applied on the car? How well does that work and what is the cost? I'd just do the front bumper and just a small part of the hood. Well, I can check it out where I live....Thanks.

Well, I'm very careful where to park.

- not next to high door opening SUVs and Pickup trucks

- not next to cars that look like they come from the junk yard (unfortunately, sometimes they all do like like that.. no choice)

- not close to the entrance of the facility I'm visiting - people who park close are in a rush and won't be careful opening doors

- at work: ideally in the right most spot next to the curb. The car left of me - probably only one person in it - will open no door towards me


With my previous car I had less luck. In the second week, only 500 miles on it, I parked 15 minutes in the San Jose airport .. some big SUV hit the left rear.. a white mark of the size of 2 footprints and a decent dent. Hit and run.

A year later, the same car was keyed thoroughly (Total of 25 strikes on both doors) by an angry ex-girl-friend who didn't want to believe the ex- status. I couldn't prove a thing although she admitted it to me in person.

The photo makes it look less bad than it really was. That Firebird was a real nice color .. 'chameleon blue-green' with the color changing in the angle of the light. It had to be repainted front to back on both sides.

[The cop said I should convert those marks into one of those flame paint jobs :-) ]

The dent from the parking lot was taken out by those Dent-Pro people .. hammering away.. looks terrible but they are talented!!!

-Peter

Originally posted by NineT4
For those of you so concerned about scratches and dings, do a search for the 3m material. Its a clear plastic type material that is preofessionally installed, adhears to the car, creating a near invisible layer of protection. Pretty much the only place you can see it is at the seams. Probably the best way to protect your car. If nothing else, works great on the front in place of a bra.

I just had the 3M clear bra applied to my car last week. It's awesome.

I'll post pics soon, but if you didn't know it was there, you'd never notice it.

To do the entire front end of my 8 plus the lowest third or so of the hood, it cost $350 for the materials, and $400 for the labor.

Yeah, it's a lot of money, but I drive through a lot of construction and gravel, and it's the best $750 I ever spent, 'specially since Mazda paid the first $500, thanks to the buyback. ;)

I have keyed to the metal and into the metal one car that habitually did this. I left notes first, then in the weeks that followed, determined that it was something they didn't care about and so I did damage that was promised in the note. They were taking up THREE, count them - THREE handicap spots at the private lot we park in for work. I called to have the car towed and they did nothing, so action was taken.

I don't LIKE being a butthead, but rudeness should be punnished.

I have NEVER gotten a door ding, WHY? Because I park so far out no one parks next to me. If you don't want dents you walk, if you want to park close you take that chance, but don't get angry when some kid gets out of their parent's car and slams into yours. They just don't know better, people don't care about possessions or common decency as MUCH as they used to.

Protect what you own with a little common sense!

Originally posted by mpowers8
I have keyed to the metal and into the metal one car that habitually did this. I left notes first, then in the weeks that followed, determined that it was something they didn't care about and so I did damage that was promised in the note. They were taking up THREE, count them - THREE handicap spots at the private lot we park in for work. I called to have the car towed and they did nothing, so action was taken.

I don't LIKE being a butthead, but rudeness should be punnished.


Right on!

Like others, I either take a spot next to a curb (and get real close to it), or park out far enough where people won't park next to me.

There are occasions where you have no choice but to park next to or between cars. In that case, I carry around my old Kodak digital camera and take pics of the cars next to me (including lic plates). I take another couple pics when I get back, just in case the cars have changed since I've been gone. It may seem like alot of work, but if someone does ding me... I think they should pay, not me. Besides, we're not talking about using up any real "film";)

good for you mpowers

anyway I'm going to be worried like crazy when I get mine. I have had an 83 Camaro (white) for like 4 years and nothing has been deliberately or accidentally done to it

I feel the jealousy factor won't be the same though when I get my 8...
I am just a college student so I really can't afford anything but the car itself so I'll just have to be careful

I don't like to see someone take up two parking spaces, but I understand why they do. If you could trust the other drivers, none of us would have to worry about it. It puzzles me, however, when a real beater purposely angle-parks over two spots. What's the point? Personally, I always take up one spot, hopefully far away. When my wife is with me, I drop her off first. What the heck -- I need the exercise!

Originally posted by Winning_BlueRX8
my only worry with taking up two spaces when parking is that someone will get pissed and key my car. i'd rather take the ding than a keying. But man seems nobody respects anything lately. What's the world coming to? I'm always so careful about not dinging other peoples' doors. Even to the point to where I have to squirm my way out of my car. I need to invest in a piece of crap car and go around dinging everyone's doors. Why not right?

edit: I do all those things mentioned earlier. Park away from others, and when I'm at a restaurant I park in front of the glass doors so I can see where my car is, etc. Funny thign is when my car was dinged, it was pretty far off in the parking lot. Pretty far back, I guess somoene just felt compelled to park next to me.


haa haa this is a great thread... dude i feel your pain...

this is totally me Winning_BlueRx8! i make a special effort to park the vehicle in the following ways:

1) park as close to a CURB in an END SPOT of a parking lot as to minimize the damage to only one side (L or R) but still exposed in the front or rear

2) park in an empty part of a lot with no cars around and take 2 spots. i'll take the extra effort to walk from my secluded space to the destination.

3) i'll only park in between cars if i can see the "8"

4) i'll make sure i only park on the passenger side of another vehicle at work. as most people don't have passengers. only the driver door should open on the offending vehicles.

i'm lucky so far but i'm sure someone will be jealous that i have a perfect and flawless car and either key it or back into it for the only reason of jealousy or spite. i've only had the car for 2 weeks so it will be a sad day when i get my first ding!

or WORSE yet... scratch my rims when parallel parking...

and EQUALLY as bad... scratching the under body of the front fender on a parking barrier or uneven drive way...

oh the HORRORS....

Well, so far my ding is 1.5 days old. I keep telling myself that I am going to find a paintless dent removal shop and have it removed, but I have a feeling I just keep telling myself that so I don' t lose my mind! I've calmed down a little bit...I am getting the $500 from mazda...maybe I will use that to get the dent removed. Yea...

Originally posted by Wankeler

There are occasions where you have no choice but to park next to or between cars. In that case, I carry around my old Kodak digital camera and take pics of the cars next to me (including lic plates).

yeah, I did that for a while too, and still today always carry my camera with me for that reason, but it's not really much of a proof, since a door ding doesn't necessarily leave a trace on the offender's vehicle so they can just say that someone else did it.

-Peter

Originally posted by Winning_BlueRX8
I keep telling myself that I am going to find a paintless dent removal shop and have it removed

Dude, there are such places in most cities. They come to your place. Removing my ding was $180 with Dent-Pro (the local shop).
See: It's not that expensive.

Later I learnt that my Pontiac/Mazda dealer has an arrangement with this company. When I had another ding, I had it fixed through the dealership, and the same size ding cost only $120. Discount of $60 for the dealership!

-Peter

It's natural to want to keep the car as perfect as possible, but remember one thing. It's just the appearance after all, and it could be repaired. I was really really paranoid about my first Miata, but have come to accept some of the inevitable dings.


My $0.02.