How fussy are you on parking?

Soldato
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Shakespeare’s County
I'm terrible, take ages looking for the right space, favour next to hatch areas, on the end of a row, wide ones or ones at the corners of car parks etc. Its very rare for me to park between two cars.

1-2mins of effort to avoid a door ding thats on the car for ever, or significant cost to fix.
 
Soldato
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Norwich
I'm terrible, take ages looking for the right space, favour next to hatch areas, on the end of a row, wide ones or ones at the corners of car parks etc. Its very rare for me to park between two cars.

1-2mins of effort to avoid a door ding thats on the car for ever, or significant cost to fix.
Same although its becoming more strategic as people seem to want to park right up against your car if it is in a row of 20 empty spaces.

Worst one was a late night Tesco run. I parked obviously out of the way only to return to the still 2/3 empty car park to find a whacking great tarmac lorry right against the side of my car talking to his mate (who'd sensibly parked at the far end of the car park). The smarmy look he gave me as I walked up to the car was enough to tell me he'd done it on purpose to make some point I didn't really understand. :rolleyes:

The one which make my wife laugh is when I've got out of the car, started to walk away then spotted a child seat in the back or an edge of a door that looks like a dog has been chewing on it. I have to get back in and move it somewhere else... even in my company car :o
 
Caporegime
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Co Durham
Old car but ding protection is key to me ,far end of the car park ,only exposing one side if possible ,having said that I have been the only one in a car park and some humpty has parked too close when I return ,here instinct of some townies unfortunately

I do that at supermarkets, pay a long way away from the door and in empty spaces with no cars around form 10 spaces yet always come out of the supermarket to find somebody has parked next to me. Why?????????

My old boss always used to take up 2 car parking spaces as he didnt want anybody to open their doors on his range rover sport.
 
Man of Honour
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Surrey
My old boss always used to take up 2 car parking spaces as he didnt want anybody to open their doors on his range rover sport.
I absolutely hate this. He's basically saying he's more important than someone else who might need that space. He should get a smaller or cheaper car if he's that worried about it. I will happily park far away to get a "safe" spot. But I will never take up two spaces. He's a selfish ****.
 
Man of Honour
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Surrey
I'm terrible, take ages looking for the right space, favour next to hatch areas, on the end of a row, wide ones or ones at the corners of car parks etc. Its very rare for me to park between two cars.

1-2mins of effort to avoid a door ding thats on the car for ever, or significant cost to fix.
Same if I'm in my nice car. If I'm in my old banger then I will still prefer an end spot but will put it between cars if that's all that's left. It's the reason I keep a crappy old car as well. I can park it anywhere without worry. It's already covered in dents.
 
Soldato
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West Midlands
Regardless of what I'm driving that day, I park defensively.

But as others have said, since lockdown my skills have been lacking! I will pretty much always reverse into a space though as I'm more guaranteed to be parked straight :D (and it's easier).. ;)
 
Soldato
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I too agree with parent and child being ace. I'm sure it used to annoy people when I still had my 911:D (With the kids in). In 3 door cars they do make life much easier.
 
Soldato
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Nah I work for FirstGroup. Sites tend to be garages/depots with buses moving around a lot so they don't want people reversing into the path of an oncoming bus, apparently there was a time before the policy and it happened.

Same company for me, and it is a good rule. Most low speed accidents happen reversing out of parking spaces. I never understand why people nose in (except in the bollards case above) as it is generally more difficult to reverse out than in.

Parallel parking is a doddle and if the space is tight, I use my MB park assist just to avoid any scrapes :D
 
Man of Honour
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I always try to park fairly neatly... mainly driving a pickup parking is... fun... if I'm heading somewhere I don't know I will often research ahead as well - Google street view is a god send :s

EDIT: Have to wonder what goes through some people's mind sometimes though in car parks - couple of days ago the spaces where I wanted to park close to the entrance of a building was fully used so I waited out the way in a empty part of the car park until a spot came up - cue someone coming and parking right beside me (not really a big deal but there was 200+ other spots they could have used) when a spot came up I swung back around the car park to get to it - as I'm approaching the spot I swung wide to the right and indicated left so as to get a good line on it cue the person behind me trying to come past me on the left as I'm starting my turn! (not the first time this has happened*) which then put me off a bit and I didn't get cleanly in - the second person behind me then parks in the bay immediately behind me as I'm sitting there clearly waiting to reverse and line up properly... despite as above there being like 200+ empty bays including the ones left and right of immediately behind me.

* They are going to come off way worse if they go into the side of me as well as I have heavy duty step bars on the side of my truck.
 
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Soldato
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Same company for me, and it is a good rule. Most low speed accidents happen reversing out of parking spaces. I never understand why people nose in (except in the bollards case above) as it is generally more difficult to reverse out than in.

Parallel parking is a doddle and if the space is tight, I use my MB park assist just to avoid any scrapes :D
It's even worse when people are doing it when parking on their drives. I don't get reversing onto a main road.
 
Soldato
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Quite hard to reverse onto your drive on a busy main road, so people naturally drive on, but then have the "dangerous" task of reversing off their drive on to said main road. No easy wins there, just got to be careful.
 
Caporegime
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Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Quite hard to reverse onto your drive on a busy main road, so people naturally drive on, but then have the "dangerous" task of reversing off their drive on to said main road. No easy wins there, just got to be careful.

After work most days I drive straight into the drive so I had to back out because like you said it's busy. But then I also purposely go shopping late at night round 9pm so when I return, it's quiet and then I reverse back into the drive. Making the morning going to work easier.
 
Soldato
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After work most days I drive straight into the drive so I had to back out because like you said it's busy. But then I also purposely go shopping late at night round 9pm so when I return, it's quiet and then I reverse back into the drive. Making the morning going to work easier.
People could do that just without the shopping part. It must take 5 mins to turn a car round on a night.
 
Associate
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13 Oct 2008
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1,132
I do that at supermarkets, pay a long way away from the door and in empty spaces with no cars around form 10 spaces yet always come out of the supermarket to find somebody has parked next to me. Why?????????

My old boss always used to take up 2 car parking spaces as he didnt want anybody to open their doors on his range rover sport.
They're using your car to line up straight. So annoying.

I absolutely hate this. He's basically saying he's more important than someone else who might need that space. He should get a smaller or cheaper car if he's that worried about it. I will happily park far away to get a "safe" spot. But I will never take up two spaces. He's a selfish ****.
Yeah, it's really arrogant behaviour.
 
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Soldato
Joined
11 Nov 2004
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Location
Couvains, France
It's even worse when people are doing it when parking on their drives. I don't get reversing onto a main road.

Some muppet in a Range Rover did it to me while I was driving a double decker, and then bitched at me that I didn't pull into the side road to give him room to move off.... The mind boggles!

Quite hard to reverse onto your drive on a busy main road, so people naturally drive on, but then have the "dangerous" task of reversing off their drive on to said main road. No easy wins there, just got to be careful.

It is definitely easier to reverse off of a main road than on to it, for a given level of busy!
 
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Soldato
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13 Apr 2013
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La France
I’m finding that the dirtier my Duster is, the less likely I am to have people park next to it if the car park isn’t rammed.

The local farmers having a reputation for parking their usually filthy 4x4s by touch could be a factor.
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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159,534
I’m finding that the dirtier my Duster is, the less likely I am to have people park next to it if the car park isn’t rammed.

To be fair a neglected Dacia is exactly the sort of thing I'd avoid parking beside as it has a flashing neon sign above it saying 'I don't care about cars' and it's that sort of thing where door dents become more likely.
 
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