carnutpa

My dealer tells me I can't order body side molding on the 08 535i. It is not available. While I was speaking to him, another customer came in to tell his salesman that he got his first door ding the previous night. I have never owned a car without side molding and I would be really upset if I got a door ding on a new $60,000+ car. I always park as far from other cars as I can but door dings will be inevitable without molding.

Does anyone know where can I get body side molding in BMW colors for the 08 models?

530_nz

I don't even know that you could get door molding for previous year's E60s?

I collected door dings and when I get enough I call dent wizard to remove them. They charge per panel.

pharding

Body side moldings are very 1980's in my opinion. My 04 545 has no dings in the doors primarily because I park away from other cars and get some exercise with a slightly longer walk.

GSXR_Drew

Yep, you just need to be very conscious of where you park. There is no way I would ever park any of my German vehicles near other cars. Make the effort to find an end parking spot or be prepared to walk the distance of the parking lot. It's not worth the risk of having that college or high school kid with his 94 Honda Civic swinging his door open and hitting my ride. I am biased however as I will park next to other German vehicles...I tend to assume that those owners feel the exact same way that I do.

iversonm

Which is worse? door dings or body side molding?

Both. My 3 has ugly side molding (IMO) and a door ding, since most cars aren't designed with my car's side molding in mind.

bmw4life

I always pay extra for parking. I always park far for parking as well. I always park in a space where its relatively big. I also park at the ends if possible.

MacSid

They are equaly bad, in my opinion. I have taken to just trying to park well and away from others but, in the Netherlands, this is frequently not possible - very small parking lots jammed close to each other. The E60 just barely fits inside the white lines of a standard downtown-Amsterdam parking space.

One thing to make you guys feel better, though - you do not have to put up with the Amsterdam Kiss. That's when someone backs into the front or back of your car with their tow-hook and leaves a perfect round indentation in your license plate or bumper as they try to parallel park. Tow hooks are VERY common on cars here - either for towing caravans or for mounting bike racks. My E39's licence plate looked like the surface of the moon!

MacSid

530_nz

Unfortunately even if you manage to find the furthest, loneliest parking space, someone will park their car next to yours. Thinking about it, you don't want the loneliest as it'd be a great place for vandals and thief.

JDN

Body side molding is not that much protection, IMO. After three years, I have no side dings in my E60.

pinguhk

right on that what I do too
I have 2 right now.
most spaces in HK carparks are about 1 feet gap from car to car.
So in HK you are 100% get them unless you dont park in the carpark.