Vettereturned

I have the same fear but it is getting easier to handle here's why. The other day the wind caught the door and pulled it out of my wife's hand. The door edge hit the stucco of the house 'peppering' a two inch section. Went to a local body shop (whom I've delt with previously) they mixed up some touchup paint and touched it up with a brush and cleared it. You'd be hard pressed to see where it had hit. I had to make them take $50 and now I have some 'spot on' Jetstream Blue touch up paint just in case.

piper_chuck

Got it, drive it and do what I can to protect it.

SCcues

You described my situation pretty well. When I bought my car it was going to be my car to drive, but after I got the car home and thought about it I end up not driving it except for some fun rides mostly by myself. There's no way i'd leave it unattended in a public parking lot like a shopping mall unless I parked as far out as I could on the end of a row with no cars around and I knew I was only going to be gone for a few minutes. My car is my baby and there are people in this world who would walk down it with a key just out of jealousy or spite because they don't have one or can't afford one. I worked hard for my car and i'd like to keep it near perfect as long as I can.

Here's a short story about what happened to a friend of mine in his BMW 5 series. He drove it to a sports bar to watch a football game and have a few brews and when he came out after the game to go home someone had keyed both sides of his car from the front to the back. He worked for Rick Hendrick Chevrolet and luckily for him he'd leased his BMW through Rick Hendrick's BMW store next door. Due to the damage to the paint the whole car had to be painted to get it back right and the cost to you or I would have been $5000 at the Rick Hendrick body shop, but since he worked there they cut him an employee discount and did it for $1500 which saved him a lot. He paid for it himself to save making a claim on his insurance since he liked to drive expensive cars and he didn't want his insurance to go up. My point is can you imagine what the same low down person who keyed this BMW would have done to a nice shiny Corvette!

Kevin_NYC

Dings are hard to get; the body is flexible and paint is very hard

Scratches yes; and many can be buffed out.

Key is get one-sided spots where space is larger (pole, end, odd-corner, next to handicap) and hug one side.

DO NOT get into altercation with A-holes who park one inch from you even when you park 100yds away. Happened to me at huntington beach with redneck F-150. Yes, in friendly, laid-back, car loving Cali. In NYC ur head gets blown off for that.

Kevin_NYC

Pic of 328 pls, sweet ride. Heard reliable as camrys.

SmileyOr

Had a bunch of people over for a BBQ last weekend and I watched a guy in a 4x4 pickup (was the drummer with his gear) getting into his car at the end of the night. His door opened until it hit my car door. I walked up to him, calmly, and politely asked if he was trying to damage my car.

He apologized and then climbed back into his truck. I moved my car back into the driveway farther so it couldn't happen again. Then he proceeded to pull out to the right, then stop and back up into the driveway right next to the van parked on the other side of him. CRUNCH! OMG he hit the van. Then he pulled back out and stopped. I got his insurance info that time.

It's a 96 van and has 160k on the clock so a rub mark on the front end didn't look too bad in the light the next day. And I could not find a scratch in the door of my car. Seems the door panel is tougher than I thought.

You may find the little things may not be so bad after a while

rsparks64

What they all said. I even get paranoid sometimes that something will happen in my garage. When I was young, my father put a bbq grill up on a shelf in the garage and the next morning it was on the hood of our new Buick Wildcat. I can't get that out of my head.

jwf

I think fear of door dings is an incurable disease contracted by many vette owners. You just have to suck it up and cope with it in any way possible. Following is a list from the least risky to the most risky options. This could include leaving your vette in the garage and using another daily driver anytime you are going somewhere you have to park in a parking lot... Driving your vette but parking in the absolute farthest parking spot from the door.... Driving your vette and parking normally but running through your errand to minimize the vulnerable door time... Driving your vette like any other car and not worrying about it...

Tony 327

I try to do that also. Got a nice end spot and parked it close to the right side curb leaving plenty of margin on the left - and I could see it from the hotel window. Then some moron in a Dodge Ram parked right on the divider line and the lot filled up, so I could not move the car to a better spot. I gave the next spot a wide berth and they still parked on top of me. But, the people were apparently careful with their doors as I had no damage.

Chevy-SS

Door dings are my BIGGEST concern any time I know the car will be parked. I do not take the Vette if I will be forced to park in a 'normal' parking lot.

No friggin' way.......
No friggin' way.......
No friggin' way.......
No friggin' way.......

Uhh, yeah, I guess I've got some OCD about door dings, LOL

JJC5

My last Vette was a black Z06 that I kept looking immaculate. Black is tough to keep up; especially if being obsessive about it, and I was too. Since it was my weekend driver, I was always debating the same thing you mention and that was to drive or not to drive the Vette on any given day because of fear of door dings and vandalism. It's really not worth it, my friend. It's a car and it won't ever stay "perfect". I sold it because it seemed as though I never drove it for those reasons stated. I replaced it with a MB SL550 and I drive it twice as much as the Vette. Now I wish I had driven the Z06 more. Great cars they are.

INTRCUL

This story isn't going to help anyone worried about dings....

Normally I park waaaaaaaay out like most of us. One time near a holiday the lot was packed and I had to do some shopping so I had to park in general population (gen-pop). I followed an old lady to her VW Beetle on the driver's side and watched her swing the door open and get within 1". I about hit the roof, but at least it didn't touch my car. Not even 30 seconds later, as I'm loading the trunk, a young mother and two little boys come up to my passenger side. Before I could get out a "hey little man be careful...." he puts both his hands on his door and literally THROWS his door into mine!

I reflexively yelled something I would rather not say in front of a child (not full cursing but still not good). The mother quickly rushed her son into the car, closed the door, and proceeded to not say a word to me. No point into going into what happened after that, but I now have the world's biggest door ding on that side as she wasn't going to pay for it. In less than one minute, both sides of my car were nearly destroyed, and one side was.

Now before the gasps get out of control, this was on my daily driver and not me Vette. I still love my DD and take very good care of it, but the point is, anytime you a near another car, there's a SIGNIFICANTLY greater chance that the car owner doesn't care if they hit our cars. If this story had happened to my Vette I probably would have been on the front of CNN.com the next day...

jwf

It's probably just not as bad as we expect it to be. Before I bought my Corvette, my prized car was an S2000. I treated the S2000 with utmost care and had an Acura Legend that I used as a daily driver. Then came the day that my Acura hit 205K and I traded it in for a new 11 GS; and then the GS became the car I was very particular about and I started driving the S2000 every day. And guess what. Now it's two years later and neither the vette nor the S2000 have a single door ding so maybe the answer is to just drive it an not worry about it.

IMG2

If you have to park in a "regular" spot a couple of tips are to park next to someone whose car has no door dings and looks as good if not better than yours. They will probably be pissed you parked next to them, but after a short walk around their car will leave happy. Another tip, park next to 4 door cars, the 2 door models usually have bigger doors to help get people in and out of the back seat.

Finally, if you do pick up a door ding, go hang around the back lot of a new car dealer M-F. There are all sorts of service guys who stop by lots to fix cracks in the windshield, touch of the paint, detail the car and of course the PDR (paintless dent removal). I found one guy who was an artist when it came to removing door dings. One way to tell the the good guys is if he isn't using a sheet of plywood or large board with a straight white line painted on it, that is leaned against a ladder, he isn't very good.

Stickshiftsteve

Just do your best to park in a safe spot.
The fact that you are out & stopping somewhere is a huge achievement!
I have long ago moved past that fear - but understand your concerns.
But most drivers don't care about such things - & they are your enemies!

Eric ray

You are more likely to get rock chips than door dings. But the new car syndrome will evetually wear off.

09C6inWA

My attitude is: it's just a car. I do look for a favorable space when I'm out and about but being constantly afraid of it getting dinged is counterproductive. I drive it as much as i can and with that contact with other cars is inevitable.

Boxcar

Roger that Chuck.....you will be glad you did, and don't forget the pics!

vertigogo

Yeah, kids. Once, in a tight parking spot, my son hit a brand new BMW (still had paper plates), leaving a small dent. I always try to be honest, and especially in front of my kids, so I left a note on the windshield with my number and an apology. I expected to get hit with a big bill, but I never heard from that guy. Maybe his mind was blown by the fact that I actually owned up to it.

With my previous "nice" cars, I have used a special pad I made out of bath towels with sewn-in magnets. When necessary, I would just hang the pad on the side of the door or fender, with the magnets holding the pad in place. Easy protection for emergencies. Of course, that doesn't work with the plastic fantastic, so I try to park far away. And when that isn't possible, I look for a space next to a very new and very expensive car, hoping that the owner will be a bit more careful.

Burken01

Good advice, yeah I scan the lot and park next to the Mercedes and bmw's since they're everywhere and equally expensive in most cases.. I figure they are as careful just as I am