Parking Lot Door Ding Avoidance: What's your strategy?

vazbmw wrote: end spots and park as far over to the non-parking spot side as possible

If possible, park on the right-most end spot, not the left: a car parked to your left will be less likely to ding you because it'll be less likely to have a passenger.

Generally speaking, if choosing between parking to the left or right of someone, choose the right; newer car vs. old, choose the new (unless the old car clearly belongs to a car guy); clean vs. dirty, choose the clean; car sold to young vs. sold to old, choose the old.

Orange cones. Park car in corner or next to an island. Place cones in adjacent parking spots. Odds are in you favor that no one will mess with them.

I've given up. Dings happen. As much as I tried to avoid it (ok, I hardly tried at all) I have a few already on my 2 year old car, as well as a broken rear bumper support courtesy of a careless and/or oblivious driver.

My cars tend to go to the track eventually - so even my nicest car (well it was when I got it anyway) has gravel dings, chips and those hard to remove black rubber streaks all up the hood, mirrors and behind the wheels.

When I take the 70 Chevelle I try to find the other guy who doesn't want any dings in his cool car and slot in next to him. It does us both a favor on one side.

There is no avoiding dings unless you put your car behind locked doors. If you take your car out in public, wear and tear will happen.

Parking at the end of the rows is a good plan unless they happen to be the shady spots during the summertime. Shady parking spots beat front row parking spots when it is over 100F outside.

Whatever you do, don't take up two spots. It tells everyone that your're a jerk don't care about the accepted rules of parking lots (one spot per car). It is just inviting someone to park right next to you, even if you do park on a diagonal.

MANY years ago I used to go to university with a mad scientist type who owned a Morris Minor. He got so pissed off about people with higher bumpers (which was just about everyone) that nerfed his car when parking behind or in front of him in the university parking lot, that he contrived a way to at least take revenge.

He got a couple of bicycle water bottle holders and affixed them to each end of his car, and put a plastic lab bottle (the ones with the long thin nozzle on them) in each, filled with some chemical that removed auto paint.

He figured if everyone left him alone there would be no problem, but that anyone that nerfed him would cause a spray of paint remover that would (hopefully later, after they'd left) cause their paint to bubble and run.

Amazingly, this seemed to work and no one ever noticed anything in time to put the boots to his car (you didn't want to mess about with the engineering students).

Bed liner the car?

My POS impala was all red oxide primer. Get a ding no problem just add paint. LOL

When I was in high school I had several copies of a little piece of paper that had mickey mouse with his middle finger up saying "Next time you park this %!&#ing close to my car leave a %$#!ing can opener!". I kept them in my glove box and used them often. A few people actually learned to park right after a while.

Another high school story: Borrowed my girlfriends car when she was at work. My truck gets horrible gas mileage. This was 2004 and it was a 2003 Mazda 6. She still drives it too. (She has graduated from GF to SWMBO) Anyway, I did some errands and came back to pick her up. She worked at the mall. In between the time I went in and walked her out someone had managed to put a two foot wide blue crunchy streak from above the front wheel all the way to the tail light. Pretty noticeable on a perfectly straight bodied white car. How someone manages to do that on accident is still beyond me. It took alot of bodywork to fix that one. Luckily, her dad was still willing to help out with the financials back then. My only comment when we walked outside was "I swear to God the car did NOT look like that before I walked in!"

I tend to park my car WAY out in the middle of nowhere at the end of the lot. Most people dislike walking long distances to the store so usually if you are willing to do some walking most people won't park near your car.

However, If I have to park in a small lot and can't make my car its own island I will switch strategies and try to park next to a car that is significantly more valuable then mine. Valuable sports cars first (greater chance of a gear-head) followed by expensive luxury sedans. I figure that someone who can afford an expensive car is more likely to actively avoid dents and trading paint with other vehicles.

Of course you could get unlucky and end up parking next to some trophy wife who is too distracted by her phone to pay attention to anything else around her.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: My cars tend to go to the track eventually - so even my nicest car (well it was when I got it anyway) has gravel dings, chips and those hard to remove black rubber streaks all up the hood, mirrors and behind the wheels. When I take the 70 Chevelle I try to find the other guy who doesn't want any dings in his cool car and slot in next to him. It does us both a favor on one side.

Ah ha! This explains everything. See cool car, instead of leaving cool car be cool by itself, park next to it because "my car's cool too".

I avoid tree shade because that's where the birds hang out. I also want to avoid the groundskeepers in summer.

As for tracking the car, I see a distinct difference between "patina" and "wear and tear." They might look the same but one is cool. Neither can be avoided entirely, but they can be held to a minimum.

One thing I never resorted to was nose bras and other protective measures that screwed up the looks of the car.

Oh, one other thing... I look out for the guys who, like me, park way out there. I try to park next to them figuring that I'm stopping their car from getting dinged, and they're stopping my car from getting dinged.

mtn wrote: Oh, one other thing... I look out for the guys who, like me, park way out there. I try to park next to them figuring that I'm stopping their car from getting dinged, and they're stopping my car from getting dinged.

Oh nooooo, not another one!!! People are such followers. Well, I guess here at least is another guy who's explaned why you can never avoid people in parking lots....everyone thinks their car is cool so they want to do you a favor and park next to you... speaking for I think a lot of people (if not, maybe just for a few loners like me), please don't do us any favors, find your own out-of-the-way spot. If I make an effort to stay away from others, please just respect my obvious wishes.

huge canoe

Handicapped placard. That two feet of striped yellow lines helps a lot.

4eyes wrote: Handicapped placard. That two feet of striped yellow lines helps a lot.

my EXACT thought

I park next to cart corrals. its amazing how people that can't park or do leave carts in spaces magically have no problem missing your car completely when its parked next to the cart corral. weird.

Multi shades of primer and exposed bondo, everyone stays clear of that car...

I drive a 500 dollar truck. I'm almost certain it would do horrible things to the cars of people who park near it if it had free will. Luckily, driving a pile means nobody parks too close, and having sturdy metal doors means any one who does ding them is going to get worse than they gave.

mtn wrote: Oh, one other thing... I look out for the guys who, like me, park way out there. I try to park next to them figuring that I'm stopping their car from getting dinged, and they're stopping my car from getting dinged.

I do this. I know dings are inevitable, but they are minizable. You can tell the guy who cares about this car. Not by the type of car, but how it is cared for. At work there is a pack of us that park pretty far out. We all park next to each other, but I know them. They have classics (66 T-Bird) preseved good cars (E36 M3) and nice stuff (2 Vette Z06's) along with a Mazadaspeed 3, Mini, Toyta P/U and F350. Haven't had an issue, plus it forces me to walk. I do the same shopping. Still have gotten a couple, and I chalk it up to an ownership tax.

I didn't plan it this way, but it seems that the cheap paint on my SE-R has some unusual quality where if someone dings their door on my car, THEIR door ends up with cheap white paint on it, and mine is fine.

White_and_Nerdy wrote: I didn't plan it this way, but it seems that the cheap paint on my SE-R has some unusual quality where if someone dings their door on my car, THEIR door ends up with cheap white paint on it, and mine is fine.

Ha. The same thing happens with my white dodge truck. It takes a big hit to scuff the paint, much less ding the door.

I try to avoid parking downhill of a cart return. Ive seen too many have a mind of their own and roll down a hill. When I was 15, my job was at a Kroger that had a steepish hill going away from the store. Any cart that got lose would end up next to a car at the Taco Bell that was nearly a 1/4 mile away.

Cole_Trickle wrote: ...I try to avoid parking downhill of a cart return. Ive seen too many have a mind of their own and roll down a hill. When I was 15, my job was at a Kroger that had a steepish hill going away from the store. Any cart that got lose would end up next to a car at the Taco Bell that was nearly a 1/4 mile away.

That sounds like an awesome beer fueled race

Pre-dent. I would applaud anyone who could do more damage to my escorts drivers side door.

Tyler H wrote: If I drive a car I care about, it doesn't matter how I park - it still gets dinged. If I don't give a crap, it never gets dinged. I don't get it.

I noticed this too. I don't take my RX8 to the store, and it still gets dinged by the girl who's garage spot is next to mine. The same girl takes 3 minutes to park sideways with 2 spotters helping out.. I drive my old van to the store (more space for buying stuff) and park next to demo-derby looking cars all the time, and i've never gotten a ding. OTOH, the steel on an old econoline isn't exactly thin- I had a wooden pallet fall over on it on the side once. HUGE bang noise, no dent.