I saw one at the Dealership the other day with the same type of dent, up high. I thought the same thing , how can moldings stop something like that. They might be able to, even by being lower they might stop the door from hitting. It's all logistics.

I park way out too. It's amazing when I come out and see someone parked next to me, WTF.

 

^^ I always park after 10 to 15 vacant spaces (mall, grocery store, you name it) and when I come back, almost everytime a jack*** parks next to me...go figure...

 

As you all do, I try to park in a far, remote corner of parking lots, well away from other cars, yet return to find someone parked right next to me, despite there being hundreds of other empty parking spaces all around. I've NEVER understood the psychology or motivation of people who do this - can someone propose a feasible explanation?

 

LOL, after watching that commercial, I'm forgoing the side door moldings for reactive armor cladding. I'll put up with the added wind noise. http://gallery.gdatp.com/main.php?g2_itemId=3072

 

I'd prefer to have doors that repel metal, the opposite of a magnet. Or maybe guards that actually jut out from the sides like bumpers when parked.

afpj, sorry to see the damage. PDR should take care of them. And make sure you park far away from cars driven by monkeys

 

People laughed at my ding insurance, but it gives me peace of mind and I don't worry about parking the car. Last year in my 400h while waiting (stopped)in the designated Holland Tunnel line a car decided it would try to just make an extra lane to get ahead of me. I heard a squeak and discovered that they guy's sideview mirror had made a foot long dent high up similar to the one posted. Although we didn't think it possible the ding man at the dealer was able to take it out and only charged me the price of a little ding.

 

I got my moldings from Sewells in late Oct. and had them professionally installed. So far they are fine. As a matter of fact, the folks at Toyota guaranteed the installation for a year.

 

I'm still on the fence about ordering the side moldings. I too park far away from other cars but it seems that some wierd gravitational force continues to suck cars towards all of us.

Alittle worried that the pieces arent solid and only have 2 thin pieces of double sided tape to hold them to the car. Here in NJ, we can get bad snow, rain, and a wierd mix of everything. Just had snow last week still

Any pics of the pieces not on the car?

 

I was gonna say that the moldings don't have any significant function other than for aesthetics only.

 

Maybe you can modify these electric steps to add some extra bumper bars, then have them deploy when you lock the car with the FOB

http://www.electricstep.com/

 

Looks like damage that a Paintless Dent Repair place could fix relatively easy.

 

Super excited, as my new car should be delivered within a few short days. How many of you have added the body side molding to help prevent 'dings' and such? And do they actually work? Looks pretty simple to install, from what I can tell on the Sewell Parts website instructions. So I'd probably add them myself. But just wondering if it's really worth the trouble.

 

Strangely enough if you buy a Starlight Mica or Black Opal here in Canada it comes with the body side moldings. Not sure what makes the black ones so special. Does not matter what trim level either. Odd, but okay with me as I ordered Starlight Mica.

 

I saw this video on the ES350 forum. It might come in handy if someone is considering a DIY installation of side moldings. The video shows an ES but the process would be similar for an RX.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...ing-video.html

 

I just purchased mine a couple of weeks ago and has them installed by a local high end Body shop for $45.00. It wasn't worth messing with for that amount. Lexus wanted $150.00 which I would've installed them myself for that price. Just double check all your measurements before install as I've seen a picture of one and the driver side molding was crooked.

They look good and the match is perfect. My wife parks in a parking garage at work so we had no choice if we wanted to avoid the dings which of course is very frustrating when people are not careful and don't care.