Mine is over a year old with no dings, but I am a bit paranoid about where I park. Always look for a good space away from people carriers & 4x4's. Going back to the original question, does anyone have any pictures of the protectors, I have never seen them.
My old 3 series had quite a few in 2 years of ownership, perhaps as there is no protection on the e60 flanks then other drivers are a bit more careful?.
I do have a nasty scrape on my 123 18'' alloy, no excuse, did it myself turning in a dark road, ouch. Im having it fixed tomorrow by home repair service, hope it works out ok.

 

My 545 is 4 months old and ironically enough the only damage caused to the car is from the @#$%^&* car wash!! I strictly use the hand wash car wash by me but on the 2 occasions my wife took it to the automatic car wash, it got damaged.

The first time she took it there, after a month of ownership, the car came out with noticeable swirl marks in the paint. The second time which was 2 weeks ago the car came out with a small dent in the door(looks like someone shot it with a BB gun) and it actually took a chip of the paint off. It also has some nasty scratches behind the rear wheel well. I was fuming mad...

Now I have to take it to the hand wash to get the dent pulled($90) and hopefully they can compound out the scratches behind the wheel well..

WARNING! Do not take your car to an automatic car wash, especially when it is very cold out...Ice can form on the brushes and spinning at high speeds, it slams into your car causing damage...Then try arguing with the car wash manager over when the dent was caused. They'll say there's no way to prove it was done by the car wash.

 

[quote name='KenTO' date='Feb 26 2005, 05:00 PM']
I have had my E60 for over two months and so far I have been lucky, no "door dings" on the side doors. I am surprised, because the E60 does not have side protectors, like the last 5 series. I did have a few dents on my old 530.

Have any of you had a problem with these "door dings"?



Give us your address and we'll have someone stop by and ding it for you
(sorry...in a silly mood this morning)

 

I have no door dings, per se, but some careless bastard copier repair guy in a Saturn(God forbid) flipped open his door and put a perfect 2 inch vertical crease in my right front wheel arch.

 

I do those 2 things as well. Also avoid parking next to 2 door cars (like a Camaro), since their doors are wider--and extend farther to the side when opened--than 4 door cars. Avoid cars with car seats, since the parent usually has to open the door pretty wide to get the kid in the seat--and mini vans, since kids are usually less cautious about opening doors. Who's paranoid??!!

 

Grrrrrrrrr. My wife opened the front passenger door yesterday and clanked the edge of the door into three steel cables in this parking deck. I try to park against a wall or pillar to at least keep that side safe -- but that assumes the people in my car will be careful! It put three little chips right on the back edge of the door, right down to the metal.

She's 6 months pregnant, so I could really get her all upset about it. I tried to convince her it didn't matter at all. But I woke up crying a couple of times last night, just to get her ready for the baby!

 

I've taken to street parking as much as possible and not worrying if I have to walk a bit. I park in the largest space I can find. If I have to park in a parkade, I too try park as far away as possible, in an end space on the passenger side of the newest car I can find. I avoid any kind of 2-door, SUV, van or car with child-seats like the plague. Sometimes, if I know I have to go park somewhere my car could get scratched, I take our Subaru. My wife is 100% supportive of these initiatives.

 

I have like 60 dings and scratches from a large piece of plywood caught by the wind.. Two of my side windows are also scratched and the black window surrounding. So I really don't care about where I'm parking my car anymore... But it will be fixed and repainted next week, I hope it will be nice again.

I saw a 3 hour long documentery on Discovery Channel the other day about the building of the 6-series (E63/64). (Very interesting!) After they had painted the car they heated the whole car to 180˚C (356˚F). Of course they won't be able to do that when they repaints my car at my dealer. Will the result be the same? My car is pretty new (4 months). And I want it to look perfect again!

 

Wait until BMW has its' version of MB's Alu-Beam paint...Then it will be really difficult to repaint damaged areas. The pigments in the paint are incredibly small so it creates a look as though the paint is like 'molten metal', like the paint is almost wet...From what I've heard it looks AMAZING! It should be an available option on MB cars in about 2 years. Let's hope BMW is going to be doing the same ...MB was showing it at the Detroit Auto Show -

"Both the Vision R and Vision B show cars are painted in a newly developed ALU-BEAM paint that looks more like polished aluminum than traditional silver paint. Mercedes-Benz is the first automaker worldwide to use this innovative process, which makes use of 100 to 300 nanometer pigments to create the realistic metal-finish effect. The company intends to develop the new paint technology for eventual use on production vehicles."

 

After we got our car from the factory in Munich, we went to France and parked in a garage one afternoon. There were NO remotely located spaces, so we took one of the few that remained. This was only days after picking up the car for the very first time.

Well, after returning from a nice lunch what do you think was on the driver's door!!!!

A door ding!!!!! <_<

The spaces there were incredibly tiny, but you'd think people who park there would be experienced in avoiding those things. But then again, many cars in France have extensive 'in-the-field' sheet metal mods.

I'm going to try one of those guys who does the Dent Wizard type work some day...