We thought it would be interesting to share with you some of the most common causes of dents, dings, and damage we see and repair just about every day.

Here’s are a few things to watch out for:

Mother Nature

Inclement weather takes no mercy on your vehicle. High winds blow branches, yard debris, and other objects into your car.

When objects are picked up by high winds and hit your car, you may find yourself with a good size dent, scratches, or other damage to your vehicle.

If you’re parked under a tree, a heavy storm can cause tree limbs to fall on your vehicle. Squirrels and other critters may shake nuts or tree bark loose, which hit your car with enough force to cause dents and dings.

Avoid parking under trees, especially on windy or stormy days.

Car Door Swings

At some point, just about every driver has returned to their vehicle and finds a nice dent in the door from a vehicle that was parked in the space next door. It’s usually fairly obvious that their car door swung into yours and caused the damage.

Maybe the other driver parked too close to your vehicle. Perhaps a gust of wind blew their door into yours. It could be that the other driver was in a hurry and opened their door aggressively, smashing into your door.

Whatever the reason, car door damage causes a lot of ding and dent damage. More serious damage occurs when you see paint transfer, or your paint has come off at the dent location.

Whenever you park in a space surrounded by other vehicles, your car is at risk.

To avoid this risk, try to park in an area with the least number of surrounding vehicles. It also helps to give yourself enough room to exit the vehicle safely.

Wayward Shopping Carts

You’ve probably seen them rolling around the parking lot if it’s windy or the lot is uneven.

Once shopping carts start rolling, they gather speed until stopped. Unfortunately, your vehicle may be the thing that stops them. If that happens, you’ll find a good deal of denting, in addition to potential scratches and scrapes on the auto body.

To avoid this type of damage, steer clear of any loose carts and don’t park near the cart corral.

Conclusion

Hopefully, knowing about these most common causes of dings, dents, and damage to your car will help you avoid these everyday mishaps.

If your vehicle needs repair from dents, dings, or collision damage, contact Downtown Collision in Santa Rosa for expert repair and restoration of your vehicle.

The post Common Causes of Dents appeared first on Downtown Collision.

But seemingly small dents can turn into bigger problems the longer you let them go unrepaired.

Here are six reasons why you should get those small dents taken care of sooner than later.

Small Dents are Cheaper to Repair

To save money, the time to fix a dent is as soon as possible. Small dents eventually spread damage to surrounding areas of the car, causing bigger problems and bigger repair bills.

Paint Damage

In addition to the potential for rust, even those small dents can cause your vehicle paint to lose its bond with the auto body metal.

From there, the paint will crack, bubble, peel away, and spread, turning what was once a nice-looking paint job into a hot mess.

Rust

When your car gets dented, the paint around the dent cracks.

When rain or other moisture gets into those cracks, it seeps into the underlying metal underneath the paint. Over time, that moisture causes the metal to oxidize, which is how rust sets in.

Untreated rust not only looks terrible but will eventually eat away at your car body.

Function Issues

Dents can interfere with the performance of basic functions of your car.

Door dents can impact hinges and make car doors hard to open or close. A dent in the hood could do the same thing. A dent near the wheel well could affect the tires, causing the car to pull to one side while driving.

You get the idea. A small dent can have far-reaching damage that impacts the vehicle in more ways than you initially realized.

Safety Concerns

Because of the possibility of small dents affecting basic function issues of your car, this concern alone is enough to fix small dents right away.

Small dents can potentially affect alignment and the overall driving performance of the vehicle.

Resale Value

The goal of keeping your car looking its best is not only for yourself but also to retain the car’s resale value.

This may seem obvious but a car with unrepaired dents significantly reduces its resale value.

Conclusion

As you can see, the best course of action is to repair small dents before they turn into bigger headaches.

For dent repairs resulting from a minor fender bender to a more serious collision, trust your vehicle to the experts at Downtown Collision in Santa Rosa.

The post 6 Reasons to Repair Car Dents Sooner than Later appeared first on Downtown Collision.