10 top tips for avoiding those unsightly and rather annoying dings and dents.
1. When in the supermarket car park, don’t try to park as near to the shop doors as you can. These are the spaces everyone fights for, park at the back or in the corners where there are lots of empty spaces…..the exercise will also do you good!
2. Don’t park near the shopping trolley return bay, once people have unloaded there shopping into their cars, they really don’t care how neat and tidy they place their trolleys. To some it’s almost a game of seeing how far back they can launch the thing into the allotted space. You’re asking for trouble!
3. When pulling into a space, check to see if the cars on either side of you display any visible signs of having kids onboard. Everyone knows that these little terrors have absolutely no cares in the world when exiting mums taxi at 100 mph. DING!
4. Try not to park on an uneven level; B&Q pallet trolleys have an uncanny knack of acting like guided missiles to car doors.
5. Never park next to a 3 door car. These doors are much larger than their 5 door equivalent and have a greater opening wing span when opened.
6. The garage! We all load our garage shelves with too much junk, whether it be little Johnny’s scooter, Dads golf clubs or the quarter filled tins of paint we all keep that we convince ourselves we’ll use again one day in the future (just in case we need to touch things up in the house). Why would anyone park lives second most expensive purchase (after the house) under all that ready to fall clutter. Stop playing garage jenga!
7. The wheelie bin – a dent mans dream invention! Its bin day, you’re told to but them out on the pavement. But problem, the car is in the way. No matter how much you think you can get the bin past the car with room for a single piece of A4 paper clearance on either side, mark my words, with all that weight in the bin, you WILL fail!
8. Don’t buy a house next to the par 5 fairway….especially a municipal course, enough said there I think!
9. When stuck in the snow or heavy mud, you’re going to need a push. Dent technicians make a good living out of the helpful car Samaritan who thinks he’s done his good deed for the day. Only to find 2 large hand print size dents to the tailgate of your pride and joy. Buy a 4×4!
10. When at a festival, concert, air-show, whatever it is, the bonnet must never be expected to double up as a step ladder on your way up to the roof (your deck chair)
Yes, I said there were only 10, but here’s one extra that I thought I’d just quietly mention. When letting your hormone charged teenage son borrow the car to pick up his new girl friend, find a subtle way of explaining that the bonnet of the car is not a distant cousin of the office photo copier on a Christmas party.
Follow these simple rules and you’ll never need to call a dent man again.
