Where do you park?
Why do parked cars always get dinged!? Even in an empty parking lot, some douche bag squared in their “normal person car” will park RIGHT beside you like an inch away, even though he/she could park anywhere else!!? Are they trying to spite you or are they just functionally retarded? Doesn’t it seem like this happens to you ONLY when you drive your best car? Well, let’s not be victims anymore!!
Please share your door dings, dents, and other parking tragedy stories.
Please share your stories of morons parking beside you and denting your car. Please include pictures if possible. Think of this as a support group, where people who have gone through the same thing can sit around and plot our revenge…heheh, muahaha! 
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What do you propose we do about such people and such tragedies?
Should we:
- Get over it – go through the 5 stages of grief and eventually let it go.
- Get even – please include your detailed plans for revenge, all plans must be limited to misdemeanors, no felonies please .
- Build a protective barrier to put around our cars while they are in parking lots?
- Be forced never to drive our beloved car lest someone defile it?
I am looking forward to hearing your stories and ideas .
One terrible weekend
Part 1:
I have decided to add a story to this post… I believe it was 3 weekends ago my car got accosted 2 times in 2 days. I think it was just a streak of bad luck. I was in a parking garage in MD at a restaurant. I was on an end spot, no one to the left, so I of course parked all the way to the edge on my left side. So, as I walked up to the car to get in, some people had just parked beside me and were in the process of getting out of their car and putting money in the parking meter. They had some little crap car… like an old Civic or Accord or something with little square doors. With those doors, its almost impossible to hit someone’s car, they are so tiny. I am not talking about Coupe doors that are long, those are bad. The driver was woman, who didn’t speak English and had clearly never been in a parking deck before or had used a parking meter…??? But she was driving so perhaps she has a driver’s license. Anyways, she opens her little crap square door right into the 911. Of course she parked really crooked and the front left side of her car was close to mine and she kinda parked diagonal, it was a large space and she had a compact car.
So, WHAM! I heard the sound, and I was standing right there! I couldn’t get into the car on the passenger side because she was getting out. She looked oblivious and didn’t even acknowledge me, but I don’t think she was smart enough to even know I was there and she hit my door…or any of that. Then she was blabbering to her family who had already gotten out about something, probably the coins for the meter and left her door there…in my car. I was fuming mad at this point but she didn’t seem to know what was going on so I didn’t yell at her. It was open for a minute of two and she stood confused and retarded… then she walked around the other side of the car and put some money in and got confused with the meter. There is only 1 slot with an arrow and a digital read out of how much is in there, so not much guessing to it. And I am waiting and thinking of ways to kill her at this point. She walks back around and closes the door and I walk over to inspect the damage and a huge nick of course, all the way down to the silver color body. And I looked up at her to see if I could talk to her or if she had left and she and her fat stupid family were slowly walking away and I thought, if I chase after her or say anything she couldn’t understand me and wouldn’t understand what a ding in a door was, what a Porsche was. So, I didn’t do anything and was very pissed.
Part 2:
The second story happened the next day, I was at the grocery store and I parked ALL THE WAY on the last row. It was a hike to the store and well below freezing. The parking lot was half full. No cars around me. I am on a corner spot again, so nothing can park to my left and I am all the way up to the curb, and the 911 is a tiny car. I come back out and a OLD GREEN Buick is parked all up my ass, really close on my right side. REALLY close, I couldn’t have opened my door. Still, no cars around me except for it. I figure, why would an old person want to walk so far? … I walk over, hoping and praying that he didn’t leave a mark and there it was. Even deeper and larger than the retarded lady from the night before. And green paint too.
What should I have done differently?
I am thinking next time to kick their door as hard as I can or use my ginormous Porsche key to get retribution… I mean I KNOW it was that person, their paint was on my car…
Yes, I hate when that happens, and the biggest problem is……..the offenders usually drive something oblivious where you couldn’t even tell if there was a scratch on the door or if it came from the box that way.
See, the people with nice, more expensive than average, well cared for or even rare automobiles know the true value of these cars and always park carefuly, get out of the car carefuly, basically they do everything with care.
I could be boxed in by Porsches on all sides and I would know they didn’t ding my car when they got out of their precious cars. In the first place because they wouldn’t want to ding their own precious car, but also because they recognize that others are probably just as careful of their cars as well….simple
I experience this phenomena all the time. Ever since I got my first nice car, I’ve been careful to park it in remote corners of parking lots, careful to keep my body panels out of range of other car doors. Well, someone should publish a sociology or psychology paper on this, but almost every time I park far away, when I come back to my car, there’s someone parked RIGHT beside it… in a totally empty parking lot at times. And a lot of the time, these people park RIGHT UP against my car, sometimes leaving me little room to even open my car door! I’ve been boxed in by SUVs, trucks, and other miscellaneous vehicles… I’ve been unlucky a few times and have received door dings that scratched up the paint
. It’s sad really… most people are totally unaware/brainless/functionally retarded, and have no regard or respect for other people or their belongings.
The worst that happened to me is that I parked outside of my apartment one night, woke up the next day to find my 911’s bumper had been crashed into by some person who’d parked opposite me! They reversed their vehicle, and crashed my bumper. I was pretty mad…
Anyway… I try not to drive nice cars to grocery stores, or large cities anymore… I’ve accepted it as a fact of life that I must have a sports car and a daily driver/beater…
Nazmul.
For me, it’s quite simple. I don’t drive my Porsche(s) to do normal errands. People simply have no respect for others property anymore. The few times I’ve needed to park my Porsches in public places I’ve made it a point to park as far away from others as possible. I’m not one of those people that takes up multiple spaces (I think that’s just asking for trouble), but I do make it a point to try and stay away from others. Every once and a while I’ll come back to the car and find that someone parked right next to me for no other reason than to be a jerk (as there are tons of other spaces available closer to the door).
I think, sometimes, the only way to avoid this is to have ALL the Soprano’s standing around the car…..the whole time you’re parked….
Mike in Kuwait
Mike,
. I also think it would work if we could some how run an electrical current thru the car the entire time after we lock the doors, kinda of like a car sized bug zapper – this would at least prevent any repeat offenders but it wouldnt do much for the first time offenders, hehehe.
That is a great plan, I think it would work for sure. Very good suggestion
Mike, I forgot to ask…what Ferrari did you have? What do you drive now since you sold it?
Instead of the Sopranos, sometimes I think that this parking deterrent option should be installed on nice cars
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hahahhahaha, where can i get that installed???
I’ve come up with some rules when I park my car… Whenever possible, try to park next to a 4 door car – the doors are shorter than on a 2 door (so there’s less chance the owner will need to open it as wide).
Minivans with sliding doors are also good to park next to – as long as you’re not at a real kid friendly place… chances are, the kids are at home.
Look for cars that have crap piled up in the passenger side – if it’s full of junk, then there’s no passenger, and no one will be opening that door.
Also, perhaps the most counter intuitive, I usually park in a space that already has adjacent occupants… Not only does this give me a chance to find the *largest* one – but it also lets me gauge the caliber of the vehicles. I’d rather pack in between two pretty clean SUVs (as long as there’s generous room for my car), as opposed to parking in an empty area and not knowing what morons might park next to me there…. One of those: the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know… kind of things.
Van,
Welcome to the community and thanks so much for the comment.
WOW i am impressed. That is the most logical and well thought out plan ive heard. It makes tons of sense.
I totally agree about parking where other cars are so you kinda know what you are getting into. Assuming of course, the ppl you carefully parked beside dont leave and get replaced with other morons, this has happened to me before. The idea about the 4 doored car is brilliant, those little square doors are so small its hard to hit a car with them. Excellent comment and thanks so much for sharing
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Izabel
Hi Van
Welcome to the DLG community. That’s an excellent set of guidelines for how to park. Perhaps we should create a new page on DLG with this information in it, titled “how to park your nice car”…
Thanks
Take care
Nazmul.
Van,
What car do you have right now? Are you also into watches?
My dad has his own list of “Halverson Laws”. He’s always been a person to keep a very clean car. If I remember correctly, Rule #3 is “Any time you wash and wax your new car, and then park it in a public parking lot, it will attract the biggest piece of junk to park right next to you”. He’s always driven Chrysler products well over 100K.
I am convinced that BMW’s seem to draw the wrath of other drivers. I’m currently driving a ‘96 318ti with 135K as a work vehicle. Mechanically it’s great. However, it’s been keyed, driven into, and whacked purposely with a grocery cart (happened last Sunday). I didn’t know any of these people. I think some folks still equate BMW’s with the wealthy (I’m not wealthy with two kids in college), and they want to show their disrespect.
Pride of ownership is something we need to reinforce. I’m lucky to have a 74 year old man living in Wisconsin driving a ‘96 Dodge that reinforces this with me every time I visit him. The Dodge isn’t perfect, but it looks and runs better than most cars half its age.
Look out for the junkers!
Hi Brian! Thanks for posting a comment and welcome to Drivelikeagirl!!
. I think BMWs and Porsches must piss ppl off..and they enjoy denting them..i guess it makes them feel better about themselves???… They hate on ppl who they think are rich…rednecks! all of them! GRRR.
My 911 got a mystery dent right in the front, on the bumper. I am thinking they kicked it or used a shopping cart…
What car do you have currently? What is your all time favorite car?
Izabel
A guy (not from my office, but apparently going to the bars/restaurants in the neighborhood), parked his small, older Japanese-brand economy sedan in our garage about 12 inches (at best) from my Cayman as I was walking back to my car at the end of the work day, and he had the nerve to say, “don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of room.” Clueless? Or just being spiteful or resentful?
Lucky after 5 weeks, no scratches yet.
Hi Glenn
Welcome to the DLG community. I think the owner of the small economy sedan is functionally retarded
. No spatial awareness 
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Glad to hear there are no scratches! I wonder if that plastic stuff they glue on to body panels helps with door dings? When I got my 997S, the dealer was trying to sell me hard on buying this plastic stuff that they would install on all major body panels around the car… I opted out, since my dealership is run by a bunch of crooks… but I wonder if there’s merit to this plastic shield/guard thing?
Does anyone have any experience with this stuff?
Take care
Nazmul
The Clear Bra, you mean. Yep, got that, but I don’t think I have it on the door edges. They put it on the bumpers, halfway up the hood, on the backs of the mirrors, on the front edge of the rear fender, and on the back of the fuel door.
Porsche does the paint very soft these days, almost like a plastic coating if you have a metallic color – so I don’t know if it scratches as readily as my black BMW used to.
I have talked to a few dealers…Porsche and BMW and they told me they can use the 3M clear coat on the ENTIRE car!! This is a relatively new thing… But if you get a ding or dent you have to get the plastic sheet replaced on the entire body panel where the dent is. So this would be even more expensive to repair than just a regular ding or dent…you know. You can’t repair the plastic sheet, you have to replace it. I am not sure how good of an idea it is but apparently lots of ppl have this done. I also dont think the paint color would look as nice and shiny either… the plastic coating would make it look strange
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With my 997 when ppl nick my door it takes a lot to remove paint. For the 996 it wasnt this way, the paint was thin. But the 997 paint seems different and thick. Also, the sheet metal on the 997 seems really tough. I dont have any dents on my doors only the paint gets scraped off.
Hi Glenn
Does that clear plastic stuff actually work? Do you not have rock chips, etc. where the clear stuff is? Does the plastic coating affect the shine/finish on the body panels that it’s coating?
Take care
Nazmul.
Many people that we have to co-exist with, are so completely oblivious to reality. In their world, that person and what they have going on, is what is important.
It takes all of their focus and brain power to figure out how to get into the parking lot, locate a parking stall, determine the best way for them to fit the vehicle in the stall, figure out which gear engages “drive” / realize that when the vehicle is in reverse that the steering works opposite.
Now that the hard part is over with, (lol) for them, all of a sudden the d-bag is in a big fat hurry to get out and arrive to their final destination, they cannot take the care and consideration that a normal citizen can handle while holding a coffee, having a detailed conversation on the cell, and checking out the cutey in the jetta, with no issues.
Disclaimer: I dont drink Coffee, and I have a CA legal blue tooth / hands free device.
Hi Micah,
Welcome to the DLG community! What an excellent comment!!! ROTFLMAO!!!
You have captured so humorously and eloquently the “human condition” for so many around us, who insist on dinging our cars… out of malice or ignorance or lack of awareness, the cars are dinged either ways in the end 
. Strange combo of sad and funny? 
I’ve seen people, with my own eyes, in real time, not on YouTube or on TV, reverse an SUV and literally run over a parked Civic (they got the SUV as far as the roof of the Civic, before realizing what happened, then they fled from the scene). I’ve seen people reverse, when they meant to go forwards, and fall into ditches (from a parked space). I’ve seen 2 people reverse out of opposite parking lots into each other, etc
. It’s a scary world out there! 
Drive safe and park safe,
Take care
Nazmul
Izabel, I am beginning to believe that the boaters have the right idea. They use what they call fenders to protect the sides of their boat. They are air filled rubber bags essentially and hang off the sides of the boat. By putting them at the widest parts of our cars PERHAPS the mentally challenged drivers that park next to you will realize and leave more room.
Hi Scott,
Thanks so much for posting
. I think this is a great idea, external bumpers..i like it. Perhaps if they could deploy like airbags, but on the outside. So when you hit a button they come out all around and they can be equipped with spikes or even small explosive, lol!!!
BTW, i saw your email where you said” I race a 964, and coach racing and high speed driving in everything from a Cup car to a 914/6.” I would love to hear more about your racing and driving stories!!!! I love hear stories from racers…i think they are the most exciting
. Do you think you could write a post on the site and talk about some racing experiences?? 
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Izabel
Hi Scott
LOL!
That would be a good idea to have airbags around the car. Or make the panels susceptible to dinging from some material that can withstand the dings?
Take care
Nazmul.