How to protect my baby?

[naturoses]

First of all, I have neighbours who are very jealous about my car and it's shine. I am constantly trying to protect from dings and creases and in this process, because of these rude people beside, I am feeling very tired as well becoming very very anxious too.

I do not have BSM (BODY SIDE MOLDINGS) because I wanted a plain look and as well as easy to polish.

I decide to see what you all think and help me decide. THanks

1. For door dings: (I am very very concerned, Hence I prefer the first link, doorshox)

http://www.doorshox.com/

You Tube

You Tube

Second Choice for dings:

http://doordefender.com/con_features.html


2. For Bumper: (not that concerned because I do not parallel park)

You Tube

You Tube

[jgayman]

Interesting concept except that 50-60% of the side of your vehicle is still exposed. Plus, those would only work if the vehicle next to you was of the same height. Basically, there is nothing you can do. Just this past Friday night I got in my Highlander to come home and discovered two big dings right above the rear fender well on the passenger side. There are no strips that cover that area. I suspect it was a larger SUV and I got nailed by the rear door or something.

I've discovered that while some BSMs can help protect against another vehicles opening their front door into you, there is almost nothing you can do to protect from their rear door hitting you. And since most rear doors are scalped-out for the rear wheel well there is this big protrusion that will ding you and scrape the paint every time.

P.S. How do you "not parallel park"? I mean, in the course of normal travel don't you need to park along the street SOME time?

[naturoses]

Originally Posted by jgayman

Interesting concept except that 50-60% of the side of your vehicle is still exposed. Plus, those would only work if the vehicle next to you was of the same height. Basically, there is nothing you can do. Just this past Friday night I got in my Highlander to come home and discovered two big dings right above the rear fender well on the passenger side. There are no strips that cover that area. I suspect it was a larger SUV and I got nailed by the rear door or something.

I've discovered that while some BSMs can help protect against another vehicles opening their front door into you, there is almost nothing you can do to protect from their rear door hitting you. And since most rear doors are scalped-out for the rear wheel well there is this big protrusion that will ding you and scrape the paint every time.

P.S. How do you "not parallel park"? I mean, in the course of normal travel don't you need to park along the street SOME time?

Hi jgayman, Thanks for responding.

I am planning to use these only in apt. complex parking area. My neighbour has Honda Civic. Yes, I agree only 50% is covered. But, what to do? I had BSM's on my 2010 Rav4 and they protected a little as you said and hence I did not buy these for Highlander because I felt they do not protect that much either for HL.

Since, I am always worried about these dings/dents etc., I only go to places where there is lot of space. Since, I did not street-park till now I am safe but in future I may have to.

I love my HL and want to keep at it's best

Not sure why some people are so jealous of my HL

[jgayman]

Originally Posted by naturoses

Not sure why some people are so jealous of my HL

I don't think that is the problem. It seems that folks these days are just so inconsiderate. I've actually been sitting in my car when someone wacked my door so hard it shook the whole car and they gave ME a look like "Why was your car in the way of my door?". My '01 HL has those thick rubber BSM and my drivers door strip actually has a chunk missing from someone wacking me so hard. I'm planning to get a new '11 HL and I'm sure not looking forward to sacrificing it to public parking.

[Thunderchief]

Someone needs to invent something like a bullet proof vest that covers the whole side of the car. My first thought was as mentioned above. What if it's a car that has funky doors, sometimes you see the bottom flared out like this land yacht. Look at the door lines, the bottom of this door would do the damage down low. I know this is not likely to park next to you but you get the idea where I am going.

[TrailDust]

I go to extreme lengths to protect my Highlander, always parking at the far end of a lot and in corner spaces when I can. Every now and then I get some dingleberry who, even though I'm in a corner spot and hugging the concrete on one side, still parks literally on or over the white line and crowds me in.... When that happens, I leave a little note....

As it is the only damage to the exterior of my baby is a scrape on the driver's door. I was pulling down some camping equipment and a collapsible shovel fell down and--thankfully!--did a glancing blow. After my coronary had subsided I cursed myself for hours for being so careless. Fortunately it's the kind of scrape that only shows when the light catches it just right.

[asimms21]

Talk about dings!!! Since we have had our HL, just in my neighborhood, 3 of their cars have had some good scraps on them... I'm hoping the curse doesn't come to my house!!

[naturoses]

Dings and dents are so unpredictable like anything else in life. In an accident, it is unavoidable but these are mainly caused by these inconsiderate people who have common sense but chose not to use it.

I did many things for my 2010 Rav4. I bought $300 or 400/- worth of car cover (Covercraft WeatherShield HD Car Cover), Body side moldings, Venture shield paint protection film etc., but none of these protect our investment from inconsiderate people

[toy08]

I feel your pain. I go to great lengths too and still got a ding near by gas cap door. Also, I think when I got it detailed, the buffer guy pushed to hard on the right rear of my bumper because now have some sort of reverse ding that looks like a screw is pushing from the underside. Didn't notice until a month later.

Is the Civic lowered? A stepbar may help stop their doors from hitting yours.

[TrailDust]

And the thing of it is the Highlander has very high door panels relative to other vehicles, so there's a lot more real estate for people to hit. I'm pretty fanatical about parking, so my rate of dings is extremely low. Another huge benefit is if you can get your HL in a garage, and that way no one can screw with it in the wee hours of the night or no neighborhood kid can run into it with his bike. My HL fits in the garage with one inch to spare at both ends (that is at the rear with the hatch swung open)...me eternally happy about that....

[kesawi]

My in-laws had a scrap down the whole side of their car due to a parking lot incident. The other driver hit the side of the car near the front and just kept on reversing out.

[Thunderchief]

Originally Posted by TrailDust

And the thing of it is the Highlander has very high door panels relative to other vehicles, so there's a lot more real estate for people to hit. I'm pretty fanatical about parking, so my rate of dings is extremely low. Another huge benefit is if you can get your HL in a garage, and that way no one can screw with it in the wee hours of the night or no neighborhood kid can run into it with his bike. My HL fits in the garage with one inch to spare at both ends (that is at the rear with the hatch swung open)...me eternally happy about that....

I just sold a Murano and I advertised, no dents, no scratches, not even a door ding. It does not happen by accident that the car somehow avoided that. I parked every night in my private garage, plenty of clearance between the Murano doors and the G-35 which also boasts no flaws at all. I only park in the boondocks or I shimmy right up on the line next to a handicap spot so there is 4 feet between me and the next car when in a parking lot.

For those that have to park at a work parking lot or leave their car at an airport or even park on the street, you are at the mercy of the uncaring or even jealous ones that want to and take joy in inflicting damage to your nice ride.