Ford spins pop-out anti-prang door shield

its a start, though would much rather my car had protection rather than protect the other cars. as it is i've never dinged another car yet my car doors resemble the surface of a golf ball.

For whose benefit?

Unfortunately, the only person not to benefit from this is the vehicle owner. Any chance they could make it compulsory? Apart from my car of course - I'm always careful...

If that was all we needed to worry about....

It's not an edge protector that I need but something to proetect my car from idiots who have as much parking sense as Ray Charles. In my locality parking by touch is the most common method.

Don't see how it helps......

And how does that help when you're parked next a bloody pillar or something in a car park?

World’s most altruistic vehicle feature?

In the future I shall only park next to new Fords.

R&D Effort

I can 't help but think that there are soooo many better things that this effort could have been pointed at. It took 'how long?' to have car headlights turn off when they key was removed and as for making it almost impossible to be certain where the 'contact corners' of modern cars are...... This is the sort of project that apprentices used to be given to help them understand devlopment/production life-cycles to great applause even though everyone knew it was never going to be used. Have the 'hard of understanding' apprentices now reached 'Head of Design' level?

Like many others

I'd prefer something to protect my car from other doors.

And trollies. Could they fit this to shupermarket trollies? That would be cool :-)

Lessons life has taught me

A car is a tool with moving parts that operates in a harsh environment all day long. Don't buy or drive a car which you would care about someone writing off. It will get scratched, dented, scraped, stained, shat-on (only by birds, hopefully), get hit by rocks and other projectiles on the motorway (deliberate or just road-debris that's thrown up) and everything else even if you're the most careful driver in the world and everyone around you is being careful too. In the real world, that means it's DEFINITELY going to happen anyway, and the chances increase with the amount of time that the car is not in the garage.

I use the lawnmower rule. If I bought a lawnmower, there's only a certain amount I would be willing to pay. It operates in a harsh environment so I would keep it well-oiled, etc. to ensure it continues working. But I'll be damned to be out waxing the damn thing at all hours, or fawning over the slightest scratch. At the end of the day, it's a tool to transport you safely. If it does so, it has earned its money. Everything else is for show.

Although I would *NEVER* deliberately damage someone else's property, it can happen completely by accident anyway. Yes, there are careless drivers but there are also accidents, in the actual meaning of that word. Whether they come to me and say "Oh, I'm sorry, but I think I've scraped your door" or not, it makes no difference - it would still cost me X amount of money to repair that scratch even if their insurance pays for it (the no-claims-bonus scam - I had it explained to me when I was very young that this is NOT a no-fault-bonus like humans naturally expect at first). So worrying about a scratch here or there is pointless. Besides the fact, you can easily pick on up on any motorway that has oncoming traffic and small stones (if they can take out your windscreen, imagine what they do if they "just" hit the side of your car and you don't notice). Touching a overhanging tree-branch and other silly things can cause EXACTLY the same damage. Hell, I've bumped my car into posts and kerbs myself - sometimes it just happens and the post/kerb always comes off better. You can do it by brushing along your own car while wearing a zipped-jacket. I'll be damned to be paying hundreds of pounds on my own car for filling, resprays, etc. to cover a couple of bumps and scrapes. Most people will be selling the damn thing within a few years anyway, so why fuss over it?

So worrying about scratching OTHER people's cars is certainly an issue. We solved that with the little rubber things that go on the door-edges (which are similarly completely useless because it's never THAT bit of the door that contacts!) and being careful. Worrying about your own car being scratched, though, is 100% pointless. It'll happen more by accident / chance than it will because someone is being ignorant and bashing their doors into yours (which damages their door-edge too, don't forget!).

A bit of rubber isn't going to stop people's cars being scratched OR the edge of your door being scratched. I can't wait for the first rubber-flap failure that shuts it in the door along with it's plastic/metal components and damages the door itself.

More importantly - when are we going to get a car with all-round bumpers (the Fiat Panda 1000S doesn't count because it dodgem-like by design) that are EASILY and CHEAPLY replaceable and don't damage other objects at low-speeds, a paint-job that doesn't expose bare metal from the slightest touch, and one that doesn't LET you open the doors far enough to contact another object (by rubberising the whole damn outer edges!).

Gimme a car with a crap look and much, much longer-lasting paintwork and where I can just swap old bumper (the clue is in the name) for new on front, back and sides for minimal cost. If you can make it so that the exhaust isn't hanging precariously unprotected from underneath and poking out the back, even better.

truly car manufacturers have peaked if this is progress.....

But what does it do for ME?

Since I'm paying for the car, can I instead get some sort of bumper strips on the sticky-outiest part of the door, proximity- activated flame-throwers, or something to reduce the number/ severity of dings that *I* get? Not that I'm against being a "good neighbor" in the car park, but I'm not too keen on paying extra for it (and, has been noted above, the retracto-edge thingie won't work in many situations anyway).

Bah!

Don't spend money on this, folks. I've already got you covered. I carry a small ball-pien hammer in my car. If I come back to find you've left me a door ding (and the paint on your door matches the scratches in my door) I simply reward the bad behavior with some rough justice.

I started doing this when I watched some git in an SUV smash his door into mine as I sat on my train powerless to remonstrate with the brain-dead tw*t. That day, the second payment was due on my car, and when I got home there was a neat, three-inch crease in one of my panels.

I photograph cars I park next to so that I can track down those who ding and leave too (gotta love the modern cell phones. Idiots tend to park in the same spot so they're easy to find the next day or the day after. If I find my paint on their door, out comes Mr Hammer for a visit to SUVland. (And yes, it's always an SUV).

For the people who park so close I cannot get into my car, I have a special treat - I leave an appropriate thank-you message on the glass of their door mirror in white paint marker. It comes off of course, with some elbow grease and a razorblade scraper. Less effort to park properly if you ask me.

Park properly. If you cannot park it, don't drive it. If you're not gonna drive it, don't buy it.

Words to grow on.

Great

The MILFs in the giant SUV's can stop dinging the doors on my Subie...

Now if only made people park better...

...but it won't. This IS a step in the right direction, even if it is electronically actuated.

What is really needed is a "bumper sticker" (of the VERY sticky variety) that says "Parking Slob" (nice large type) that one can stick on the windshield (windscreen) of the offender, preferably in the drivers line of sight!

Maybe this is a product ElReg can offer in bulk to us mere peons.