Who did that!?!?!

[Thornster]

So I took my little boy to his Saturday morning football session at a local Sports Centre, carefully selected a space near 'nice' cars as there were none in open areas as there usually are.

Later in the day I was back at home looking out the window at my GTI on the drive. The reflection on the drivers door didn't look right....I got that sinking feeling.

I went outside, and sure enough a 'V' shaped dent in front of the drivers door handle, right on the panel crease, and another small circular dent about 8" below, and a section of the door is now concave!

No idea how I didn't see the damage when I got back in the car (rushing due to weather, distracted by my boy), but going to have to claim on the insurance...
I'll try and see if there's any CCTV, but there were different cars there when I arrived / left so I can't even be sure which car damaged it (could even have been a 3rd car there between the 2 I'm aware of).


On the plus side I'm now getting just over 40mpg on my 97 mile adhoc commute.

[JoeGTI]

Awful, I've been there!

Find a good PDR guy in your area. These guys work wonders for small money and will have it fixed in minutes. Assuming the paint isn't cracked there's no need to go down the bodyshop route.

[mk7gti]

As Joe has already stated I had to pay £60 to have the same issue resolved by a PDR specialist.

[JoeGTI]

Unfortunately I can see this being an all too common problem. The metal is very thin and dings very easily and unlike older cars we don't have plastic bump strips on the doors anymore. My PDR guy told me he's noticed the metal is getting thinner and thinner on newer cars. Fortunately the paint is relatively resilient.

[monkeyhanger]

The common weight saving for all MK7s is the thinner and (supposedly) stronger steel being used, which shaves 26Kg (or somewhere in that ballpark) off the bodywork. It saves weight on the car and a smidge of fuel, but more importantly it saves VW lots of money when they’re churning out thousands of cars a week – every little helps.

[gazmondo35]

I feel your pain,I haven't even got my car yet & I'm already worried about door dents,with car bays getting smaller& the missus Parking next to every transit van,mpv &rusty Heaps in the land It's a real problem,if only all parking bays were as big as Costco's.

[JoeGTI]

The common weight saving for all MK7s is the thinner and (supposedly) stronger steel being used, which shaves 26Kg (or somewhere in that ballpark) off the bodywork. It saves weight on the car and a smidge of fuel, but more importantly it saves VW lots of money when they’re churning out thousands of cars a week – every little helps.

There's no way the panels are stronger. That has to be VW marketing spin! I had a PDR guy remove 3 or 4 dings from my MK6 and already had to use him once with the MK7. Never needed one for the MK5. Can't be all down to bad luck! The PDR guy also told me that the swage lines and creases in the panels are there for strengthening purposes too (in the absence of plastic mouldings), its not purely for aesthetics.

[GolfTi]

Ouch.

Really, really annoying when this happens.
As others have said a good PDR guy can work wonders, probably not worth going through your insurance.

It'll  be good as new soon.

[Ap69]

So I took my little boy to his Saturday morning football session at a local Sports Centre, carefully selected a space near 'nice' cars as there were none in open areas as there usually are.

Later in the day I was back at home looking out the window at my GTI on the drive. The reflection on the drivers door didn't look right....I got that sinking feeling.

I went outside, and sure enough a 'V' shaped dent in front of the drivers door handle, right on the panel crease, and another small circular dent about 8" below, and a section of the door is now concave!

No idea how I didn't see the damage when I got back in the car (rushing due to weather, distracted by my boy), but going to have to claim on the insurance...
I'll try and see if there's any CCTV, but there were different cars there when I arrived / left so I can't even be sure which car damaged it (could even have been a 3rd car there between the 2 I'm aware of).


On the plus side I'm now getting just over 40mpg on my 97 mile adhoc commute.

Pit of the stomache sinking feeling, when you care and look after your car its a sickner.

Great mpg got 40 in mine today on a short 10 mile commute (warm engine)

Last week 43 on a 45 mile commute not too shabby in the cold with 200 miles on the clock!

[Thornster]

Car now fixed.

Had to go bodyshop / insurance route in the end (I did get dent/smart repair company to take a look, but they said no-way).

The repair seems good, I can't find any obvious faults, and I'm not sure if I want to go looking for problems!!!

Great to have the GTI back having spent 2 weeks in a 1.0 litre Micra. The engine of the Micra was actually ok, and the quality (or at least volume) of the Bluetooth calls was actually better than the GTIs (!), but the gear change was truly horrible!
 
The most annoying thing is there is very little I can do to avoid similar damage again in the future, I wish people were more careful and considerate in carparks...

Thanks for the comments all.