My first ding was MY FAULT. One week old 2011 Mini Cooper S. First trip to the ATM. Dropped my card on the pavement and opened the door to pick it up. Yep, right into the ATM machine. Didn't even chip the paint but if you look at it just right, with light from a certain angle you can see a tiny ding on the door edge. Was gonna fit it but then realized , here in Charlotte, home of the worst, most inconsiderate drivers in the world it is mandated by the gods that EVERY car will have at least one ding. If I fix this one , the next one (and there will be a next one) could be much worse. So I'll leave it along and just consider it my sacrifice to the car gods.

 

I got a 07 used a few months ago and it has dings on both sides and it also has 2 on the boot as well as three on the hood above the lights I don't know what the previous owners did but it really makes me angry

 

I guess I'm wayy over protective with my cooper, firstly, if I saw someone ding my car, I'd immediately call the cops. As far as I'm concerned, it's a hit and run if whoever does it leaves-but who cares if they do, you'll have their license plate. A few weeks ago I was at work and I got a call from a customer warning me that there were kids messing around with cars in the back parking lot. I barely managed to get the phone back on the receiver before darting out the door. My brand new 2011 still with temp tags on it was parked out there. Thankfully no dings/dents/damage, but they took two of my tire valve caps along with those of at least another half dozen cars in the lot, and I called the cops for that, only because someone was able to identify one of the kids in the group. I don't understand why people have such a hard time keeping their hands off things that don't belong to them.

 

I had a range rover back into me in the same spot as OP. He was gonna pay cash to fix it, but then his lawyer dad told us to go f ourselves with no proof.
One month later I had a 95 year old dude slam into the opposite back corner while my car was parked. That got fixed on his insurance.
About a month ago I had some careless trades person scrape my rear bumper with what would apper to be drywall and take some paint off.
Then after working for 27hrs straight Iand being physically drained, accidently dropped a ladder on the panel above the tail light!
Arrrg!

 

A little advice here, ALWAYS ALWAY ALWAYS call the poilce when someone damages your MINI. Without a police report you're up the creek without a paddle pretty much, he/she says they're gonna pay cash and lets leave the Insurance co out of it ???? Screw them,, they damaged your MINI and its no concern of yours if their preminum goes up. A bit hard nosed ?, maybe but you hit/ding my MINI, you're gonna pay

 

Oh really, I would have keyed the crap out of his car just for him being a douche.

 

I made the mistake of washing two weeks of winter salt and cinders off my 2010 MINI this afternoon and my whole day was ruined when I found three 1 inch scratches on the bonnet. I suspected such when driving into work every morning because I would often hear pebbles banging off my windshield even when hundreds of yards behind the car ahead of me.

Should've kept the car dirty.

 

Like everybody on this thread, I want my MINI to stay flawless. It's a big deal to me. But after a drunk driver with no insurance ran a light and totaled my much-loved pristine 911 a few years ago, I came to the realization that the only way to be sure nothing happens to your baby is never drive it. Since those of us who love to drive our cars know we’re not going to leave them in the garage, we can only do what we can do. Thankfully, Gromit doesn’t have a mark or a ding on him--so far. I’ll continue to park at the outer edge of parking lots, put the car cover on when I can’t, and hope for the best.

Sadly, most other (non-car) people are completely oblivious to us, our special cars or to our door-ding paranoia. I'm not thinking of drunk drivers or vandals here, just ordinary folks who have no interest in cars. To them, cars (theirs and ours) are just appliances. Door dings and scratcheson our cars, inflicted by their carelessness, are nothing. It doesn’t make them bad people. But, I’m afraid we will always share the road (and the parking lots) with them. We just have to do the best we can to protect our MINIs and make our peace with the fact that sometimes it may not be enough. Fortunately, most dings, chips and scratches can be put right, given money and time. Also, it helps to remember that in a hundred years, it won’t matter anyway!

 

I hear ya. A ding from the parking lot is one of the most annoying things to deal with since there's no real recourse and far too small to report. If I were in the car while it happened I'd ask the other driver for their contact info and that they pay for the repair. I'd immediately write down the license place number just so they figured I was going to report the incident just like it was any other accident and if they gave me grief about it, I'd explain that technically its still an accident and that they would be leaving the scene of an accident. Not that this would work but might be enough to guilt them into paying for the ding to be fixed.

 

I have a small ding with a line that's still yellow in color. Someone keyed my car at work. Is PDR available in So Cal?