All four corners on my NC have been hit, badly in a couple of cases. In my road, Waitrose car park, and elsewhere. It was almost immaculate when I bought it. I’ve scuffed a couple of cars in my time but left a note for the driver with an apology and my email address, but no-one has ever left one for me.
1 Like
None as i don’t park in supermarket car parks with my MX5…
One minor car park scuff but numerous stone chips and wheel dings from bloomin potholes.
Bodywork on my NC wasn’t in a great state when I bought/rescued it, but it would easily pass the ‘10ft test’. That is until someone decided to scrape their car down the side of mine while it was parked outside my house. No note and they clearly knew they’d done it. Sadly my CCTV wasn’t working at the time either 
Someone keyed my 2005 NB 2.5 1.8 Icon [drivers door] back in 2014 in the car park adjacent to my property [have a suspect but no proof]
Then teenagers started using her boot lid to roll their ciggies so lots of tiny scratches …caught them at it and scared the pants off them threatening to report to police for criminal damage
First garage I used when moving here drove her too fast off the ramp and dented her rear wing…they paid for it all to be fixed/resprayed. I changed to another garage
Then her soft top was slashed in 2019 [same suspect as above but again no proof]…Bloke is a visitor to a neighbour and has anger management issues…has a steel plate in his head
Then phew…finally got Bullit a rented garage and ok since 
Nothing parking in Tesco
Err…the remainder of her ‘scuffs, dents, missing paint’ is entirely down to …err…her owner 
Well…we’ve been together since 2007 and all over the UK
She’s never been a show pony
But am saving me pennies to have her resprayed asa practicable …GRR…Cost of Living/Energy Crisis et al
Mine are all self inflicted. I have a big garage but it’s full of motorbikes and another car so I have to get tight to the wall. There are screws in the wall, one of them decided it’s best location was between my bumper and my wing. A nice little gouge as a result. She’s a garage princess to keep the rot at bay, shame she’s owned by a muppet
1 Like
A couple from doors being opened into mine.
The most interesting though was when I drove through a road under construction (it wasn’t closed). There was no asphalt on it and so it was closer to a dirt road than an actual road. Anyway, I was driving slowly as to not fling stones at my car. In the opposite direction comes flying a small crossover that sprays stones in all directions. I heard one hit my door and it left quite a nasty chip.
1 Like
Living in a rural area with some narrow lanes I find that most of the marks on the n/s are from hedges. It’s unavoidable when both cars have to pull over to pass. Hawthorn hedges are particularly cruel to paintwork.
1 Like
My one has a few marks here and there. If you look down the profile of the door there are tell tale signs of dozens of door kisses from other drivers.
I don’t particularly mind. When she’s shined up I still get compliments on her condition but because the bodywork isn’t perfect I don’t go full CSI after every outing looking for new damage. Best of both worlds in some respects 
1 Like
I bought mine needing repairs to the front wing and both bumpers which I had sorted and a month later it was parked in the road outside my house and someone (probably a neighbour) hit the rear bumper in the exact spot that had just been repaired. They didn’t own up to it of course. 
1 Like
We have a new Swift after having to sell both our 5s for health stuff. So far, its only done 2,300 miles in 2 years…mostly hosptial & Tesco. Now, we make sure and park far from any other cars in Tesco, in fact one of us stays with the car outside it . Reason is Ive just had to fork out £400 in front nearside bodywork. Narrow miss on headlamp unit0…they are £1,500 to renew. That’s the second ding. Given the car only comes out of garage may 2 or 3 times weeky, it’s a grim stat. Also, given Tesco is 5 minutes stroll from house, we bought a shopping cart for small top ups, and now get our stuff delivered. Which TBH is a no brainer anyhow.
1 Like
My MX-5 isn’t perfect cosmetically so the odd time someone dings their door in the car park doesn’t really annoy me too much… The front nearside wing has a couple of dents and the paintwork over the whole car is a few different shades of blue… In my eyes as long as a car is physically clean it will always be tidy enough for me!!
1 Like
Credit where credit due, there are people in this world who’s temperaments i wish I had. Someone whacks the door of their car into yours in a carpark, totally carefree, selfish, don’t care about other people’s property, probably don’t inform you, and it don’t bother you much. Fair play, you’ve 10X the temperament that I have.
1 Like
‘Temperaments’
In reality I suspect most of us who love our Fives are more than a bit miffed when other drivers et al cause harm to our vehicles
But the trick is… I find… is to ask myself the question
‘What can I do about this’
e.g. park in Supermarket car parks away from others
If…on reflection and research etc I find there is nothing I can do about it
Then I just have to ‘let it go’ because by continuing to stress about something I can’t do anything about just causes me harm [e.g. raised blood pressure, toxic hormones]
Make sense ??
5 Likes
It does makes sense, and on a ‘life, universe and everything in it’ aspect I find a lot of people are like that in life (often I wish I were like that), but at the same time, I feel if everyone was like it, nothing would get done or changed for the better. It kind of extends to a wider society thing. Many a person, say, detest people throwing their rubbish out of car windows along country lanes etc. 99% of people think although they don’t like it, why get stressed,let it go,there’s apparently nothing they can do etc. But 1% of doers in life organise watches, call people out, report incidents, and then in some cases positive good comes out if it. Likewise, the ‘I don’t want to get involved’ stuff in neighbourhoods when there’s a problem neighbour, or say people playing football by their cars etc. 99% of people don’t want to get involved, hope it’ll go away etc, but the 1% don’t, often at their own detriment so others who provided zero effort, get maximum reward. So yes, I do totally see the mindset, and as stated, I kind of wish I was engineered that way, but I’m glad everyone isn’t like it and some people get ‘sparked up’ etc, as if no one did, even more bad things would happen in life when good people turn the other way.
3 Likes
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said 
Except your percentages…99% and 1%
There are many, many folk working towards change for the better for all folks but they aren’t in the public eye e.g. on social media so we don’t know about them until something goes wrong and catches the eye of the media
Club Rules : ‘No Politics or Religion’
[So I’m not gonna mention my recent email to my MP about Govn Plan to Overhaul the PIP System come November 2026…especially for Pensioners]
Oops…I just did 
Have more faith in these folk perhaps and adjust your percentages is all I ask …
And now I’m logging off because I’m allowing myself a ‘Me First’ [Being part of your 1% ???] Day
As it’s my 67th Birthday
Yay…cream crackered old lady …sickly from birth [nearly died twice according to parents] has made it this far
Thanks to them folks we rarely hear about working behind the scenes out of the public eye
3 Likes
I hope I am wrong about the 99-1%!
I can only go by experience. I mean, pieces of trash smash/throw out of their car windows lager bottles when driving all over the near by road by me, a rat run road, which people often use as a cut through, but which ALL local residents have to drive through to get to two estates (the two estates are turns off this rat road). Of all the people on two estates it directly effects, does anyone else other than muggings here regularly (ever?) get a brush and pan and clean it up? Nope. In my experience I’d say it’s less than 1%!
1 Like
Happy birthday, and thank you.
1 Like
Ok, I am not alone then, sadly. Are there any decent looking bumper protectors available, not really found much.
1 Like
Nothing wrong with a ‘garage princess’
Especially to keep the rot at bay 
If Bullit had been garaged from 2007 instead of 2019 I strongly suspect she wouldn’t have needed welding !!
I so admire all the posters on the Forum who do such wonderful work on their fives and I loved your sense of humour
2 Likes