FI Flyer

What is the best device for protecting bumpers while parking?

I live in New York and park my car in a public garage. Many people using the garage (including me) use various types of bumper protectors. There are two main types:

• Fabric covered pads that wrap around the bumpers and hook on the edges of the wheel wells
  
• Rubber 'flaps' that are secured with straps that fit under the hood or trunk lid (Bumper Buddy etc.)

There may be other devices of which I am unaware.

The fabric covered pads work well but are bulky to carry when not in use. The rubber flaps are thinner and smaller and therefore more compact but I don't know how well they protect the bumpers and i worry that putting the straps under the front and back hood lids may damage the lids (aluminum) and/or the seals. I suppose there is also a minor risk that they will damage the paint.

What is your experience and advice.

Ucube

Holy crap, all I got out of that was how badly do New Yorkers park in a public garage where you need bumper protection front and back? If it were me, then I'd just leave my P-car at home. Screw it!

todd.

+1
I just Googled these devices for the first time, seems like they are made for New Yorker's. Bumperpad.com, gee, if that has to go on a car, time for an armored vehicle, or a POS that just for driving in NYC.
Now have seen something much worse than a clear bra.

FI Flyer

Alas, most New Yorkers -- including me -- do not have a "home" for our cars. We live in apartments and store our cars (at vast expense) in garages where they are parked -- and moved around -- by attendants. Often the cars are parked with their noses or tails against the walls of the garage. Bad things happen. But even worse things happen to cars parked on the street. Bumper pads mitigate the risk.

As my father used to counsel me, "Perfection is the worst enemy of good enough." In this case, bumper pads are the best I can do.

Of course, Jerry Seinfeld protects his collection of Porsches in a brownstone which he bought, gutted and converted into a garage. But I am not in that league.

MUSSBERGER

Too bad you can't just sneak it in.

"I don't remember buying that. Oh well."

FI Flyer

Getting in is easier than getting out. (A lesson which several of our recent presidents -- including our current one -- have learned the hard way.)

alexb76

3M clear bra... won't protect against everything but if done right will do well against minor bumps.

Eric - Plug Guy

That is freaking nuts. I'd move. Really.

triman

+ 1.

I'd get the hell out of there. Or buy a country garage for my car and a beater for the city.

uvgaal

I live in NYC. You just need a better garage. my 997s is probably not even in the top half pricewise compared to the others. Never had as much as a scratch in the last year. Those bumper pads are not cool.

PHDX2

No experience with bumper protection, but lots of experience with door protection.

Please see the following thread: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...rotectors.html

Very useful for protecting Porsches!

peterm

I am also in NYC all the time -usually tipping pre park helps- i see alot of cars with those "diapers" that they never remove while driving- looks really pathetic and lets you drive around with an ugly bumper guard so the next owner gets a nice car. Sort of like plastic slip covers.

If you park at the FI seaview lot you'll need them there too!, OBeach not an issue park yourself

todd.

How the heck are people parking in these NYC garages that necessitate bumper covers, please explain, are people in NYC habitually hitting each others cars in garages?

FI Flyer

It is not the drivers but the attendants and the attendants are not hitting other cars (usually) but, rather, lightly bumping into the garage walls and support pilings. Even at negligible speeds, in this contest concrete beats paint (or gelcoat.) Also bumpers sometimes touch when cars are backed into slots where there is another car behind them.

A sad truth of modern automotive design is that it is not always easy to determine where the 'corners' of a car are (which is why Porsche sells ParkAssist.) Then imagine trying to park many different cars, none of them your own. Add to that the fact that the seats and mirrors in those cars will be adjusted for people with wildly different physiques from that of the parking attendant. No wonder New Yorkers protect themselves with bumper pads.

And its worse -- far, far worse -- on the streets. Suffice to say that the norm is something called "park by touch" or, more graphically, "park by ear." Welcome to the big city!

For what it is worth, I have ParkAssist to help me -- and that is for a car with which I am familiar.

peterm

touch parking is a unique NYC "norm" I have had serious debates with my touch parking Sister in law who's comment, " its just a car what do you care", is countered by my" Its my car and for me to care about and you to respect". I did put front brush guards on an explorer of mine and it works wonderfully to put two linear dents in the trunk of "touch parkers"