Porsche 911UK Forum

Welcome to the @Porsche911UK website. Register a free account today to become a member! Sign up is quick and easy, then you can view, participate in topics and posts across the site that covers all things Porsche.

Already registered and looking to recovery your account, select 'login in' and then the 'forget your password' option.

Defensive parking and keeping a car ding-free

windflowers

Member
Joined
23 Nov 2016
Messages
22
The other day I drove my wife's Mini Cooper to the supermarket and parked in a marked slot. Fifteen minutes later I came out to find a samaritan had put a note under the wipers to the effect they'd seen a car reverse into the front of the Mini. The reg number was included. Fortunately there was only a surface mark so no action needed.

Years ago I had a show car which got admiring looks wherever I went. The problem was, it was a magnet. One evening I parked at a sports club to play a team match. At the rear of the premises was a massive car park with only one car present (the rest were all parked at the front). After the match I came out and guess what? There were two other cars in the rear car park each side of mine! What the hell?

Further back when I had a newish MG I always aimed to park defensively but still got door dings and one ar$e put a dent in the rear. Now as a new Porsche owner as of March '17 I have stirring memories of parking pitfalls. To hopefully avoid dings and dents from careless or deliberate oiks I have this to offer, but would appreciate any tips others may have:-

1 - Aim to park at the end of a parking row of so there is only one side of your car potentially vulnerable to damage.
2 - If you have to park between vehicles always choose the nicest ones because those owners will probably take care of their car and not open their door/s on yours.
3 - As with 2, if you have to park on the street aim for an end space rather than being sandwiched between two vehicles.
4 - Notwithstanding 'magnetic' attraction, park in the farthest space available from the shop/place you're visiting. Most folk going shopping have an aversion to walking and are unlikely to park far away.
5 - Avoid parking next to people carriers full of kids that will think nothing of flinging open doors / bouncing footballs / having a skirmish, etc. next to your car.
6 - I've seen this done several times but only ever once myself:- Take a photo of your parked car and the adjacent ones before leaving it.
7 - If you're eating out or stopping for a coffee, leave the car parked in view and watch when folk arrive and park close to it.

Am I just being paranoid?! Periodic dents and dings suggests not. And over the years I've witnessed several instances of people parking and shunting the car in front or behind. Duh.
 
no you are not being paranoid, you are living in a chav filled society.

I park right at the empty end of the supermarket and walk miles to the shop, never park near the trolley dump either.

I actually find myself avoiding people more and more, the older i get, not good i know, but most people don't give a fk about other people.


Now if i am in my van, i park anywhere, but i am mindful of other cars and squeeze my way out and make sure the wind doesn't blow the door onto someones car.
 
As I make my living from repairing those little dings and dents I should really encourage you to just park where you like and not worry about them :hand:

But I share your paranoia. I am ultra fussy about where I park. A small ding may not worry me too much, yes I will be pee`d off but the real worry for me is paint damage. I just hate having my cars painted even though I have spent most of my working life in bodyshops.

I take all the same precautions as you, park at the far end of the supermarket car park, end of a row of cars etc.
 
Number 4 and the magnetic attraction thing. I have on numerous occasions parked nowhere near anyone else to find a car either side and a million free spaces. I don't get it
 
FZP said:
Number 4 and the magnetic attraction thing. I have on numerous occasions parked nowhere near anyone else to find a car either side and a million free spaces. I don't get it

Yup. I call it the politics of parking. Its just crazy. Look on it this way, your car is so great that others want to park next to it to get some reflected glory. Or they are *****$. :nooo:
 
Yep - over flow car park at a local boozer and the normal car park was half empty. Parked on the empty over fill, come out an hour later to this:

20150509_175651_zpsrsyp641q.jpg
 
If you go to the corners of car parks, they typically try and fit in weird parking spots which are usually massive - you can park in the middle of them and quite comfortably open your doors fully. I used these spaces 90% of the time as they're too far away for most people too.
 
alex yates said:
Yep - over flow car park at a local boozer and the normal car park was half empty. Parked on the empty over fill, come out an hour later to this:

20150509_175651_zpsrsyp641q.jpg

That's just typical isn't it ....I find this happens wherever I park !

You can be miles from anyone , come out and there is some knob parked right up next to me...!
 
Paranoia? We all suffer from it We're planning a road trip to Europe in May and are forever researching the parking facilities via reviews and google earth before booking anything.... :thumbs:
 
here the answer :grin: :grin: unless you have a very big dog :thumb:
 

Attachments

  • front_bumper_protector_119.jpg
    front_bumper_protector_119.jpg
    65.3 KB · Views: 8,308
  • rear_bumper_protector_blocker_176.jpg
    rear_bumper_protector_blocker_176.jpg
    67.4 KB · Views: 8,308
911TEL said:
alex yates said:
Yep - over flow car park at a local boozer and the normal car park was half empty. Parked on the empty over fill, come out an hour later to this:

20150509_175651_zpsrsyp641q.jpg

That's just typical isn't it ....I find this happens wherever I park !

You can be miles from anyone , come out and there is some knob parked right up next to me...!

Another possible explanation: people are lemmings, and the British love nothing more than an orderly queue (or neat parking)... I have to admit, I do the same if there is an empty car park. Must be an unconscious insecurity thing? :dont know:

I am equally as paranoid and take all these measures. I left my mum in the 993 'on guard' once in a tight car park - just had to pop out for 5 mins - and came back to a big ding on the passenger side. Some lady in a banged up 4x4 had swung her door open and just walked off without apology or even acknowledgement. Drives me mad... it's been de-dinged since.

Every time I return to the car, I'm on the search for dings... I've been known to walk away, spot something I thought I saw, and go back and peer at it from every imaginable angle. The neighbours have seen this behaviour rather too often, and must think I'm OCD or something :D

I once saw in a sailing magazine, on the letters page, a picture of a car with boat fenders hung from both doors... made me chuckle...
 
Phil 997 said:
This is good as its magnetic and fixes inside the car to stop it getting knicked

https://www.amazon.com/Door-Shox-STANDARD-Removable-Protection/dp/B000XEFKEE

or this

https://tinyurl.com/mrzpzo9

Great as long as the car is nice and clean, otherwise you'd get scratches putting it on and taking it off?

I think I'll have to design a robot car defender. It'll probably take the whole boot up, weigh a tonne, but it'll move in the way of any car that tries to park next to me. It'll look scary so kids get out the other side. And it'll kick any ding offender in the shins as they get out, and run off. Might need a big legal budget...
 
All over this! Defensive parking is a skill, where my mum lives one of her neighbours banged my car with his door whilst I was standing next to the car. He didn't batter an eyelid. When reprimanded, he had the gall to say that my car had banged his. It was stationary and all the doors were closed.

I put a parking cone beside it when I park there now, he is a miserable 'bathtub' to say the least.
 
My wife recently had cause to park our Kuga in a local Hospital where parking spaces are in very short supply - 2 hours later someone had not only managed to scratch and dent the front passenger door but just to be sure they had done the same to the back door!

In this day and age you really need a sacrificial car - an old dented rust bucket you can comfortably park anywhere without worry.

*
*
Del.
 

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
124,350
Messages
1,439,410
Members
48,705
Latest member
Scratch
Back
Top