I park far away from everybody. I don't mind walking an extra 50 yards to keep my car safer. I have a few general guidelines like colburs

1) Find a spot with a least 1 protected side
2) If there is a line on the parking lot where employees must park behind, park behind it because employees park there for their shift, so not much traffic
3) Park with the front of your car and cars next to you facing the wind, doors won't blow open
4) Never park next to a car with dents/oxidized paint/etc.
5) Never park next to a range rover or similar "girl" car, especially if it looks like daddy bought it for them
6) Never park next to dumpster or cart return
7) Use common sense

 

Some of us care a lot about our cars and want them to look brand new for as long as we own them. Trying to prevent it really doesn't take long. How long does it take to scope a parking lot to find a suitable spot? 30 seconds maybe? And if its a place you go to a lot or work or something it should be second nature cause you now the place so well.

I'll never understand the people that wait 5 minutes for someone in a close spot to finish packing up and leave. It's easier and faster to park further away where there's no wait and almost no chance of damage and walk an extra 50 yards.

 

Valet will get you more scratches.

One time they exchanged my battery! Lesson learned! I avoid valet whenever possible.

 

I look for the obvious "safer" places to park, but nothing is foolproof. I really don't pay much attention to finding a suitable type vehicle to park next to because sure enough that vehicle will leave moments after you park and you'll come back to your car to find a beat-up 1965 Ford pickup that Bubba bought last week for $100 and doesn't give a rip if the stop springs on his doors are broken. Parking further out is a better bet, but sometimes you become a magnet for loose shopping carts.

Our 03 G had door guard strips and helped in many instances, including one time I was actually sitting in the car and some dude parks next to me and just let his door fly into our car. It was at night and with tinted windows he didn't see me in the car. I jumped out screaming and scared the s*** out of him, but then realized the door strip took the impact, so no harm on that one. Now without the door strips I'm a little more paranoid. I guess if/when it happens there's always the paintless dent repair guys.

 

This is what I'm taking about. I do some profiling, but seriously, you just can't prevent everything. It comes with driving a nicer car. If I drove a sports car (Z06, AMG, M, GT-R), I would almost expect that my car would be keyed or something every time I walked away from it.

 

At some point it just becomes impossible to avoid parking where you don't want to park. I try my best to find an end spot or park next to a car thats not likely to ding me. The thing is though once you've been looking for a spot for an hour plus and are running late, you take what you get.

Just last month i came out of class to find a quarter sized door ding on my passenger door deep enough that you can see it from about 20-25 feet away from the car

 

I park in handicap if need be. Dont care about the tickets

 

You're a ****.

Granted, if you said expectant mother parking, I wouldn't have said "you're a ****".

 

Get to know a good PDR guy....I've had many substantial door dings removed successfully. Now if I could figure out a way to keep away windshield chips...I do not tail gate, but I just picked up a noticable one yesterday :-(

 

good points. this reminds me of the scenerio i saw at the grocery store. it was really windy one day and i saw a runaway cart gathering speed in the distance. it was really flying when it almost broadsided a escalade but the guy was in it. he gunned it full acceleration and the cart just missed landing a dent the size of the grand canyon in his door

anyway. i always look for the end spots but i do avoid parking way out in the middle of a parking lot by myself. my wife and friend from work experienced people purposely messing with the car because of it. one was a rust bucket that purposely parked next to our G inches away. a friend from of work got the F word keyed into his drivers door just because the kids singled his m35 out. 1000 to fix it.

 

No, you're D I C K

 

I'm paranoid about my car too, and I have ventureshield installed on both doors and the side skirts to prevent people inadventently kicking my car and stuff. I never let anyone valet my car, and that's actually part of my general rule of "no one touches my car unless absolutely necessary rule". If someone's getting in my car, I open the door for them (they mistakenly think I'm just being kind hahah).

When parking, I pick a spot far far away from everyone, preferably with pillars on both sides if I'm in a parking lot with that, or with some protection on one side. I don't park near anywhere that I think another person or car is likely to be near. When going to a place that I have not been before, I google map it, and use the aerial map to plan my parking spot. I go early to work just so I can get the nice wide spots. I avoid parking the car if I have to - i.e. walk to buy groceries (I'm lucky because I live near a grocery store). If I deem the situation to be too risky, I take the cab/bus.

Some may ask, why the hell did I even by the car if I'm taking a cab. Others say "a car is meant to be driven" Driven sure, damaged no. I love driving my car, but I hate parking it unattended, that's the difference. I'd rather spend some extra time money on a cab, or parking far away, than the hundreds for a door dent repair. Plus, when they repair it, there are always scratches left behind!!! You can't keep your car brand new forever, and sure damage happens, but I want to keep this to a mininum.

 

At my workplace the building across the street is vacant so I park over there. The spots are painted to allow really long vehicles, there is 5 feet between the car and sidewalk, 6 feet between the car and the road and no curbs! It's like the perfect spot!

Of course I'm not the only one trying to avoid the parking lot; the car in front of my coupe is a G37 sedan and in front of him, a 350z. A longer walk, but worth the piece of mind.

 

Totally worth the longer walk. Also good for your health lol.

 

Two months after getting my G37 sedan, I had been a victim of a dent. I went to a local restaurant and the parking lot was full. As I waited for a stall to open up, I noticed a Honda Civic with two fat chicks in it. I had first priority to the parking stall that opened up. What I did not know is that there were two spots next to each other as the spot next to it wasn't clearly marked. I didn't let them park first, because I had been waiting. As we entered the restaurant they had pulled into their parking space and were getting out of the vehicle. When I returned to my car I found a dent the size of golf ball on my driver's door. I had a feeling something like that was going to happen. I should have let the fat chicks go first as they were hungry. Clearly it was done on purpose. PDR repaired the dent. I had no scratches on my car until yesterday. When going to the local grocery store I always park near a delivery truck that is always parked at the time that I go shopping. I knew that the truck was not going to be moved so I had my driver's side of the car protected. As I was getting out of the car, I became distracted and I accidently hit the car door against the metal rail on the truck. What really pissed me off was that this was caused by me. I couldn't believe what had happened. Luckily it was just a small scratch and there was no dent. I always do walk around to check the car for dings. I was wondering if we could use insurance to repair the dents? What does it go under? Comprehensive or Collision?