I bought a set for use on my car while in the garage. I have an S and a trans am with huge doors. I am protecting my car from me!

 

The thickness of the material is not what stops dings... it's what it's made of. Some products have air as the protector, while some have heavy flexible rubber that is impregnated with a lot of metal. The basis of stopping the ding from happening is to spread out the "hit" over a larger surface area.

The dingdefender, for example is over twice as thick as the metal and has enough magnetized metal in it to provide a magnetic "hold" of over 150 pounds per square foot of material. That is what allows the effects of a ding to be minimized. I guess the question would be: "What is better 1/16" of heavy rubber and metal or 1" of plastic and air?"

What you have works for you in your situation and my 7" tall dingdefenders work for me in tight parking lots with a lot of contractor's pickup trucks around. Not one new ding since they were installed.

I have even seen foam rollers (hung on the car like a boat fender)! We all have to make that final decision of which is best for us.