Paranoid parking in parking lots

SlowestCivic said:

park in the garage

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I drive to work and parking is in a big garage where lots of us park on the ramps between levels. When driving UP I look to park on the right side so that when opening my door I have to push it uphill -- so I'm not next to someone who might let their driver's door get away and slam into the car (MY CAR!) on their downhill side. This works when vehicles park nose-in - reverse the approach when spying a spot next to a vehicle that was backed in

BoxsterSteve said:

I’ll always use the empty far end of the lot where nobody wants to park because it’s too far to walk.
Amazingly enough, all too often when I come back out to my car, some assclown has his $300 shitbox parked a foot away from my driver’s door.
And there are dozens of empty spots all over.
WTF.

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Similar thing happened to me last week. Parked way away from everyone else, in an area with no cars at all. No sooner had I parked, a "Little old lady" dove up and parked about 9" from my passenger door... I don't know how she planned to get out of her car !!!
No other car for about 10 parking slot either side of us !!

I just moved before she could attempt to open her door

If she had arrived a few minutes later, I am sure I would have found my passenger door dinged when I returned !!

The problem were I live is all the furthest parking spots have a tree line which is shady that’s great being in Florida especially the summer. BUT the air conditioning in most of the crap boxes down here don’t work so they take up all the furthest spot ( shady spots) most of the time I’ll park where the loading docks are not much traffic and not many cars parked there if so it’s usually employees and the weekends it’s dead in those areas

SCOPESYS said:

Similar thing happened to me last week. Parked way away from everyone else, in an area with no cars at all. No sooner had I parked, a "Little old lady" dove up and parked about 9" from my passenger door... I don't know how she planned to get out of her car !!!
No other car for about 10 parking slot either side of us !!

I just moved before she could attempt to open her door

If she had arrived a few minutes later, I am sure I would have found my passenger door dinged when I returned !!

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It amazes me that people park with their driver's door next to me where it might be difficult for them to get out, instead of parking on the other side with their passenger door next to me. Of course that may be worse depending if they have a passenger. And I'm far out in the lot.

I also don't park near those shopping cart racks & try to park uphill from any that I see. I saw some idiot give a shopping cart a push down the aisle & past about 6 or 8 parking spaces & the cart hit the side of the cart rack. Lucky there were no cars in those parking spaces.

Been that way with every car I’ve owned for 30 years. Passed on the madness to my son. This is how he parked it visiting a store a few weeks back. All alone!

Had door dings pulled from other cars. Can’t stand the sight of them.

+1 for all of the above.

Always away from other cars.
Always on the top part (uphill) since people can't be bothered to return their shopping carts properly.
Away from dumpsters because nails and other shit that ends up in my tires.
And I will never park beside a car that has the front wheels turned toward the empty space.

Also... I stay away from blind spots and try to stay away from the thoroughfare. People are just too busy and distracted.

SlowestCivic said:

At my college me and my friend park in the garage on the fourth floor (one floor under the top floor) in the back that is farthest away from the stairs and elevator. We also park on the inner line of our spots just in case some drunk person decides to park next to us and fling their door open we have 1 or 2 extra feet of space. My fellow college residents scare me.

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Honda 4life said:

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lmao I loved it. He reminds me of my buddy. I did the same thing to him once when he had just bought his new 4Runner, and he gave me a similar reaction.

Always park hella far away, or next to curb literally almost touching it! No exceptions

Even when I do my best to guard against dings, soccer moms and their shopping carts find a way against my defenses.

guilty ill park at the back of the lot at work hoping to avoid getting door dinged.

I started parking remotely when I got my 2006 Civic. I kept saying that I'd stop being so careful when the car got old, but I was still doing it last March when I traded it in on a 2019 Civic hatch. Of course I'm even more careful now.

In my normal routine I usually find "safe" spots to park. But in some circumstances it's difficult, for example I visit relatives at a nursing homes with limited parking. And I took a cross-country trip where some lots I had to park in were about full.

I've thought about buying a couple of the advertising magnet signs that businesses use. Wouldn't put any verbiage on it, just match the car color as closely as possible. They wouldn't protect against a hard whack but I wonder if they'd mitigate little dings. I've seen them online for about $30 for a 2'x4' -- cheaper than repairing a dent.

When I had my BRZ.....I would always park away from everyone only to come back to my car and have an SUV or a lifted truck park next to me and their wheel is literally right in my parking spot. I'm not gonna lie.....I had some thoughts of what I was gonna do but I just inspected my car and saw that its fine and then drove off.

I usually park far away from the entrance, and at least with supermarkets I always park next to the cart return. People either don't return their cart, or they put it into the return, it's the safest place. I recognize the paranoia though. Every time I park at the garage next to my train station I'm worried I'll come back to dinged doors or worse.

BriteBlue said:

It amazes me that people park with their driver's door next to me where it might be difficult for them to get out, instead of parking on the other side with their passenger door next to me. Of course that may be worse depending if they have a passenger. And I'm far out in the lot.

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I'll choose to park on the passenger side of a vehicle if the far away safe spots aren't an option. I'd rather be safe when opening my driver's door than not knowing if the other person is going to be reckless with theirs and ding me.