Parking Lot Strategies...

[billyk]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Can backfire horribly as I parked beside a Benz one time and came out to find the guy pretty much sitting on my hood talking to somebody!
Keep in mind the "nicer" the car the higher the probability of the driver being a major douche. To these guys our cars are cheap junk.


This is my strategy. It is too complicated to put in words:

Brilliant!

[samfrs]

I stop parking my car away from others because it helpless. I still got door dings both side, backed up into front and back multiple times. U get the idea. It draw unwanted attention IMO. Instead I park with every other cars BUt ONLY there is enough room for both cars beside me can open their doors as wide as they can without hitting my car.

[Demandred7]

I seem to get a disproportionate number large trucks parking beside me and sometimes almost too close to even get in my car without some sort of weird yoga like move. Pretty sure they just don't care about anyone but themselves (or don't know the size of their vehicle), but, it certainly gives the appearance of douchebaggery (real or not).

I've actually come to expect some bro-dozer parked beside me every time I park despite having numerous other spots available.

[extrashaky]

Door dings are only half of it. This is the other half:

Originally Posted by Demandred7

I seem to get a disproportionate number large trucks parking beside me and sometimes almost too close to even get in my car without some sort of weird yoga like move.

The doors on this car are pretty long. Geometry means that another car with shorter doors can open at a wider angle. So in addition to door dings, I get assholes parking right next to me thinking the ten inches they left between our cars is enough space for me to squeeze in. I can slide into my Jeep sideways, one leg at a time. I can't do that with this car.

[jblmr2]

Originally Posted by Decay107

To prevent assholes from doing this I always drive my beater car and double park next to an end space. Then I take the bus home, get the FR-S, and re-park the beater and FR-S together to allow for 1 car-width buffer zone. If I'm going to be there for more than 10 minutes I always put a car cover on the FR-S. Then when I'm ready to leave I just do it all in the reverse order (minus the double parked beater step, wouldn't want to waste time!)

Seriously funny! Thanks.

[jay1989]

I generally either park at the end of the town as close to the curb or grass that I can get, I also find parking next to the other clearly nice cars works as well. Or if there is parking on the side it is generally less crowded. But really I just simply access ththe situation when I park.

Also when going to shopping centers I never park in the parking lot I always park on the street and pay the meter . But really I mean I don't worry about it to much and I'm certainly not going to loose sleep or spend 20 minutes thinking about where to park.

Although I have been known to take 4 parking spots up in the back of the lot with my challenger but it is a much more expensive, and built show car and I certainly do not want to have to repaint it but rarely does that car go anywhere unless it's being driven or tailored to a show

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by billyk

Nice!

If your avatar is a give-away, I doubt you'd want someone to park a truck too closely to your '61 Strat.

Tell me you own one...

No the 61 is something else entirely. And honestly I think all my guitars are replaceable. One particular amp however...

Funny enough my Strat is a squeir, the day I play a Strat that I like better I'll figure out a way to own it, the Japanese make good instruments.



Ah the consequences of picking a screenname when you are a child and then being too lazy to think of another one.

[pinski]

Originally Posted by billyk

I've owned cars that cost more than my new FR-S, like Acura sports sedans and SUVs. I always park away from the crowd and have done so for decades of owning and caring for nice, clean, new Acuras, Hondas, and VW's. Typically, this has worked out just fine.

But, the FR-S is something else. There is a definite pattern of a**holes parking within inches of this car. Today, I parked at a local supermarket and as usual, I chose a spot in the way-back. There were at least 50 parking spots closer to the entrance of the market and there were no cars within 30 yards of my car. When I came out, you guessed it, the prototypical big, old, rusty, construction contractor truck parked within 12" of my FR-S. Driver's side door facing my car, of course. Just my car and this POS truck way out in the middle of nowhere. On quick inspection all looked good.

When I got home I noticed damage to the paint in the area where that truck's door would have hit. I might be able to rub it out, but it's too damn cold outside today. A job for another day.

So, have others noticed this with their FR-S/BRZs?
Is it just a**holes with POS trucks being a**holes?
Are they actually trying to say something? (I realize they may be non-verbal).

Maybe I have to give up on the "parking away from the crowd" strategy. I seem to be attracting too much attention.

It doesn't seem to me that people are intentionally parking next to my car when I park away, but I have noticed an increased number of door dings versus my Lexus. Right now, I'm averaging about 1/month and only three months into ownership .

Originally Posted by billyk

I am coming to this realization.

But, isn't it worse with a FR-S/BRZ?

The only thing I can think is that the metal on these cars is thin and we already know the paint is crap. Someone dinged my door handle and the paint came right off, and there's another small dent on the passenger door with a minor scuff in the paint, clearly from a door.

My thought is that combined with the weaknesses of the twins, maybe their physical stature also hurts? If someone is in a big SUV and gets out, they may not see the car next to them and swing the door out.

IDK... people can be oblivious.

Originally Posted by Takumi788

I find myself constantly thinking of new ways to outsmart the annoyance of the door-ding. I found that the general societies mindset is to stay in-between the lines of a parking spot. So find an end spot and park as close to the curb as possible on the passenger side (as long as you dont have a passenger). This way, even the asshat with the rusty pickup that you always find yourself next to, is in between the lines of the next parking spot far away from your car.

Also remember that in order for a car to park next to you, someone had to drive it there, but they may not have a passenger. So park in a spot where they can only hit you with their passenger side door to minimize your chances of the dreadful door-ding.

It's a science.

I do this as well, but it has yet to help.

[Defuser]

All I can say is there IS value in putting a 6 inch lift on a truck that never leaves pavement. Peen factor aside.

[Jesse36m3]

My scientific order of operations:


- Do a quick sweep pulling into the parking lot. Scan for open areas towards the back. (sometimes the back is on a downward slope, so that means shopping carts).
- Find a spot next to a curb. This will effectively reduce door dings by 50%.
- If that fails, I try to find a spot parallel to a curb. This will eliminate dings 100%, but you might sacrifice a bumper due to other incompetent drivers. Toss up.
- Back into single row spots along a curb. Less traffic and passerby's.
- I never found that parking next to other "nicer" cars works either. People honestly just don't give a shit anymore. But if everything else has been compromised, this is what I usually end up doing.


Or I just make my girlfriend drive. This works 100% of the time.

[pinski]

Originally Posted by Jesse36m3

Or I just make my girlfriend drive. This works 100% of the time.

LOL! This is what I've started doing... I think she's getting wise to my game now.

[rs999]

This is a $25K car, $18K used. Park it anywhere.

[dreamingat30fps]

I use to be one of you. I would freak the hell out about about any tiny ding or scratch. At some point I just stopped caring. What's more impressive is even though I stopped caring I did not see a surge in new scratches and dings because of my wild reckless ways.

Don't get me wrong, I still like my cars and I keep them in great shape, but ultimately its a car and it's meant to be driven. If this was some kind of show car then I would understand, but its not. Chances are I will eventually trade it in to a dealer who also doesn't give a shit if it has a few dings (because they are gonna screw me anyways ).

[Tcoat]

A lot of people think that door dings are all the results of douches that just don't care. While that in undeniably the case in some I would say the majority are truly just accidental.
Kids getting of cars do not know about clearances and when that SUV full of energetic 6 year old hockey players unloads any car within range is at risk.
Nobody else ever had the wind catch your door, pull it right out of your hand and fling it wide open.
My last car was 2 days old when it got it's first ding and I watched it happen. A young lady in a BMW pulled in beside me, started to get out of her car while holding the door away from mine, stumbled (don't know how she drove in those shoes) and pushed her door against my car. She was totally devastated that she put a tiny ding in it!
I am sure that many people that do this don't even realize that it happened!

Not that any of this makes it any better when you get one but hey, shit happens.
I have managed to avoid any so far and I do absolutely nothing special when parking.