You’ve had a long day and are just wanting to run to the store quick. You pull up to the closest spot to the door and jump out and go inside and get your items. Once returning to your vehicle you realize your vehicle has been struck with a door ding or unexpected damage. You feel upset, betrayed and in utter disbelief. Don’t put yourself in this position, follow some of these tips to minimize parking lot damage!
Parking Spots You Should Avoid:
Near The Store Entrance
Maybe it was raining, you’ll be in and out quickly, maybe you just don’t feel like walking any more today. We have all been there. While these spots can be the most convenient in some cases, if you come out to find a door ding or damage in your vehicle, all of that benefit goes out the window. Parking close to the store entrance opens you to a number of surprises. Typically these areas can have more random shopping carts scattered around, waiting to blow into your vehicle. These areas are also high in traffic and more traffic means a higher potential for other drivers parking near you, increasing your chance of damage.
Near or Beneath Trees
Trees can make you feel like your vehicle has some sort of shelter. While in a perfect world, that might be true, but remember mother nature can strike at any time. From furry critters sprinting along branches to random branches and nuts falling, these are all are all potential hazards for your vehicle. If you do insist on parking under an item for shade or safety, rely on a carport or some type of overhand instead.
Other Damaged Vehicles
Everyone gets into accidents from time to time, but vehicles with very big obviously damage should be avoided. If you see a vehicle with a door smashed in or similar bigger damage this can raise a red flag. Why didn’t the vehicle owner have this damaged repaired? Does the vehicle have missing paint and big scratches? Especially with a newer vehicle it has to make you wonder why is this not repaired. If a driver is willing to neglect their own vehicle, what does it say about their thoughts on other vehicles on the roadways? Now we are not saying a damaged vehicle makes for a bad vehicle owner, but it has to make you wonder. If you have the chance to, park next to a more maintained vehicle.
So where DO you park?
Near Other Nicer Vehicles
Someone with a nicer newer vehicle typically tends to take better car of their new investment. This is especially true if the vehicle is a higher end model. Often if these vehicles ARE damage, they are repaired immediately because they want to keep their new car NEW.
Park Further Away From The Entrance
This is where you will often find nicer vehicles, people with a newly purchased vehicle tend to know, the small walk is worth it.
If your vehicle has become a victim of parking lot damage, get in touch with us at Sioux Falls Dent Repair.
This dent removal was done in Sioux Falls, at our location, on this 2016 Ram EcoDiesel pickup. This type of damage is somewhat common in pickup bedsides like this one. When a person tends to use there truck for hauling purposes, especially if they do any type of contracting work, this will happen. Unloading and loading of materials, while convenient, often increase the chances of damage on the side of the bed.
This customer was very happy he did not have to have the side of his trucks bedside repainted for this type of dent removal. Also that we were able to repair them all in one day. The customer was so happy with the repair he even did a video testimonial for us which is at the end of this repair video.
When Scott brought us his vehicle he was so bummed out about what he had done. He went to move some things around in his garage. Suddenly, some items fall on his hood of his Audi. This is a big deal and very upsetting to almost everyone, but to Scott this was like a jab to the heart. He was so unhappy with himself about what he had done. Looking online for a repair specialist, he found us online, and gave us a call. He brought his Audi over to our shop and we looked it over. He was ecstatic that we would be able to repair it. The clear film on the hood would just need to be removed in order to repair it. Luckily he wanted that replaced anyways. This was no issue for Scott, this was an easy choice, take that dent out!
He dropped his car off and we were able to this repair along with the other minor ones all within a day. He was so happy about the repair he even had us do a video review of his experience, which you can view at the end of this repair video.
Thank you so much Scott, we loved working with you and we love making people happy and restoring their vehicle back to show room condition once again!
That’s what Bruce, the owner of this 2013 Ford Mustang had some damage in his recently purchased car. He took it to a local body shop to have them look at the damage. The body shop told him this damage could not be fixed using paintless dent repair. The body shop could fix this damage, they would have to have repaint the left fender, left door and left quarter panel.
Bruce comes from a body shop and painting background and was familiar with the paint process. Knowing the ins and outs of painting he knows about the many downfalls of having a repainted vehicle, from color mismatch, to peeling paint and diminishing value. He knew he did not want to have his vehicle repainted.
He contacted us about the repairs in the drivers door. Once we looked over the vehicle, we took note of the damage on his quarter panel. We asked him what were his plans with it. He mentioned he was going to take it to the body shop shortly and have them repaint it. Bruce was happy when we told him we could fix this damage. No repainting would need to be done on his vehicle. He was ecstatic and happy to go this route. He brought the car to us to have us perform paintless dent repair on it.
Can Dents in Body Lines be Repaired using Paintless Dent Repair?
We get these types of questions all of the time. The short answer is Yes. Many factors come into play when determining if a dent can be repaired or not. These same factors all apply to body line damage. For instance if there is severe paint damage to the dent, sometimes paintless dent repair is not the best option. But that is not always true, some customers are ok with minor paint damage and they are happy to touch the panel up after the metal is repaired. We did another post about this recently talking about paint damage and dent repair, you can see that article here.
This repair had no type of paint damage and would be considered a medium sized depth for a dent. The access to this dent with paintless dent repair tools was pretty straight forward. Access through the upper window channel was all we needed in order to repair this damage. No removal of any parts on this vehicle was necessary in this repair making it easier for us to repair and a quicker repair.
Today we are going to repair a door ding in this 2018 Subaru Outback. As you can imagine if you had a new car, and it had a ding, you would not feel so good about it and would want a repair done.
How did this happen?
This damage was caused when the owners bicycle tipped over and bumped into her car door. The customer was scheduling to have her vehicle detailed and ceramic coated with our friends at Superior Detail and they discussed the damage. They then referred their customer to us for their door dent removal needs. We scheduled her in right away and made this repair in a short afternoon!
Be sure to see what the customer had to say about their dent repairs.
