What was your first ding/scratch/dent?
 

As my daughter got into the car the other day she said, "Have you always had that little ding on the fender?"

The answer is a resounding NO! I still haven't got the stomach to go over to the passenger side to look at it. Until now, the body was pretty much spotless save for a few tiny pebble chips on the nose. I may have to close my eyes whenever I wash that section.

However, a couple of weeks ago I was stopped for a light when the dope behind me managed to take his foot off the brake and bump me. I got out and didn't see any damage, so after scowling at him and telling him to pay attention, I drove off. I should have gotten a better look, but I didn't want to hold up traffic any longer. Sure enough, when I got home, there was a tiny scuff and a little circle embossed into the bumper cover from his license plate screw. ARRGGHH! Why couldn't I have been driving my beater VW?

Oh, and last year, some arsehole thought one of my backup sensors was a doorbell and pressed it in. Nearly lost my hand reaching inside the bumper to deal with it, but got it out.

People can be such idiots. My dog never does anything like this!

All three of our vehicles are daily drivers. We always park as far away from everyone else as possible. Very rarely do our vehicles pick up any dings. We knew that my wife's XK8 had a fairly visible passenger-side door ding before we purchased it thanks to the pre-purchase inspection. But I have a local guy who is absolutely anal-retentive about fixing body flaws at very fair prices so we lined him up for the job before the XK8 was even delivered to us. He kept the car for two days, fixed the dent, and perfectly matched the paint just like he always does. He also fixed a small scratch on our S-Type's rear bumper several years ago. Still looks and feels perfect....

In north Texas huge oversized trucks are as common as they come. And most of them insist on backing into the parking spaces instead of just pulling in. (Not sure what that accomplishes, you either back in or back out, so if you backed out instead you would have more room to maneuver.)

You'd think with all that practice they would be good at it, but they are most often slightly crooked and therefore close to the line. Add that to the smaller size of parking spaces these days and dings are inevitable.

Despite being careful about where I park, I just added one this week. At work! Seriously? You'd think people would be more careful around people they might actually see during the course of the day.

first scuff!
 

Pulling into my garage, coming home from same day surgery, still alittle stu-nod from anestesia. scuffed the front fender. duh! they said not to drive. It did come out with alittle detailing... whew! lol