From my experience, you can't do much about door dings or anything of the such but choose better parking spaces. From personal experience, I have six very minor dings (shows up very well on black), and I am a total ASS about parking spaces. I've been known to circle parking lots for 45 minutes just to find one that I think is safe for my car.

Here's my tips about parking:
- park between cars with small doors and make sure you have a very good distance between the cars. side toward the one that seems safer (if you park next to a camry and a ferrari, get closer to the ferrari because the owner probably doesn't have kids kicking doors open)
- park next to the right side of vans that slide doors open while pulling in and estimating the correct distance so if they open the passenger door it won't hit your car, but rather, your mirror.
- avoid SUVs and obvious family sedans. cars with baby seats will swing doors as wide open as they can because they need to strap their baby in and that takes room.
- if you park at the end of a succession of spots, park as far away from the other cars as you can. at the least, the guy next to you will have more room.
- if you're a real ass about things, write down or memorize license plates or leave cards on the car's window next to you that explains for them to be careful and that they're appreciated (but some people are asses and they'll really ding you for that.)
- freak out whenever someone gives you a door ding. even if you don't get money from them, at least you will get an apology and they won't do it again...until tomorrow. :fawk: