I put mine in a panier on the way to San Diego, and a loose screw drilled a hole in the aluminum lid. I put a github sticker over the hole, and things still work great.
I wish I knew. I do know when the drive got wrecked, it was after sitting in my carry on after a 16 hour plane ride overseas. I don't even take it out anymore I'm so scared about the fragility of it. I have to say this, overall it looks better after a year of hard use than most of my Dells.
My other notebooks look terrible too, but I attribute that to cheap plastic. Little pieces broken off on the corners, battery that won't stay in place, etc.
Before my MBP I had a black MacBook. It was nice but much closer in durability to a PC. The matte surface got shined up in the corners a lot worse than the Thinkpad T before it.
At this point, I doubt I'd buy another laptop without the all metal unibody construction.
I put mine in my messenger bag and have ridden to work every for a year with it and the only thing with any signs of wear are the feet.