Inconsiderate Parking, or Opening of Car Doors
 

I may be just unlucky but over the last month I've acquired a new crop of parking dings & paintwork damage.

1) Street Parked in Clacton taking my son for a day out, some :censored: other driver in a silver or white car used my rear bumper as a guide to how close they were to me, luckily the white marks polished out, but the underlying scratch remains. Nothing parked behind me on return to the car, nor was anything parked behind me when I parked, I left an ample space behind me for another car to park.


2) Took my son to Santa-Pod for the day, parked in a field so no marked bays, returned to the car to find a nice light blue mark on the passenger side door where the MPV that was parked next to me had obviously allowed somebody to use my door as a doorstop, Cars weren't even parked over close together but it was defo a light metallic blue car next to me.


3) Again with my son, parked at Stevenage Station, George said to me 'Dad let's park right over the back of the station on an end bay so nobody can bash your car' So we did, I even parked as far over in the bay as possible. On return a Red Nissan note was parked in the space next to me, my door was sporting a nice chunk of paint missing & somebody had obviously wiped off the paint as George spotted the clean patch on the door as we walked up to it. I'm almost 100% sure it the a child in the Note had done it as the height of the chip matched a clean patch on the Note's rear door.


Some people have zero respect for others, yes it may have been a child in 2 of the cases but Arrrrggggghhhhh.

It's infuriating.

I parked at Asda Brighton over the weekend and was encouraged to see spaces marked between each parking bay. It won't eliminate car doors being damaged, but it might reduce the frequency.

One problem is that most people couldn't care less about others' property. The other is that most parking bays are too small.

Mine got dinged first week of ownership. Parked well away but didn't stop some pillock parking right next bay and leaving me a ding to return to. Luckily door dent company sorted it for me.

I've bought a set of those magnetic foam protectors. Really good and luckily nothing since.

I'd had my (new to me) car for 9 days when I returned to it outside work and found a scrape on the front bumper on one side and a small scuff to the headlamp plastic and the bumper was popped out the other side. Never parked in that spot since and not issues there.

Yesterday I was sat in the car about to reverse out at a pub in Clevedon when some chump walks down the side and opens his van door into my car. I backed out the space to give him more room to get in, check my car and find two chips of paint missing and the tiniest of dents in the wing where he hit it. He drove off without a word. His van was filthy and missing a lot of paint and most of one wing mirror.

Some people have zero respect, its really depressing.

I always look for an end space if I can, just to try and reduce these annoyances.

The problem is that you cannot fit rock sliders to a Volvo. A mate fitted them to his 110 landrover, lots of people opened their doors into them, all received paint chips and dents and while his landrover carries battle scars none are from prats whom cannot open a door properly.

Agreed the width of parking bays does not help but I can park a Merc sprinter at a supermarket and exit it without hitting the car alongside and I'm no snake like biuld.

It's down to don't care and in today's me me attitudes doubt it will change any time soon.

Paul.

Yes, there does seem to be an escalating lack of respect for others' property generally today. In the case of cars, I think the current crop of 'cheap' deals which encourage some to regard their cars as disposable white goods does not help.

Neither does the fact that cars have generally increased in size while parking spaces largely have not. A modern VW Polo is larger than the original Golf, for example.

But it was ever thus. Back in 1978, I had had my new Mini for precisely two weeks before someone put a mark on it in the college car park. I was not pleased then, and I would not be pleased now.

One consolation of driving an old V70 is that I do not worry over much about damage to my car, although I would always show respect to another, regardless of its age or condition.

Regards. John.

I'd be inclined to agree there is an increasing level of lack of respect. As John W pointed out cars these days have become disposable white goods to a lot of people so they just don't care and can't understand that we might care. Car park spaces are also a bit of a nightmare, the trend to squeeze in as many as possible combined with the trend of cars getting bigger was never a good plan. We were pleasantly surprised however when we used the new multi storey car park at Central Milton Keynes to see that the lines between the parking bays were actually about 15 inches wide (and the bays are a reasonable size) which gives everyone a chance to get in and out of the car, and in and out of the spaces, without difficulty.

I must admit the spaces in the Station car park in Stevenage are a tad narrow hence whenever we park there (George loves days out in London) we try to get an end space as far away as possible from anyone else.

Due to it becoming far more common to pick up parking dings I always try to park as far away from everyone else as possible to minimise the risk but lately I seem to be attracting inconsiderate others.

Maybe trade my car in for this https://tanks-alot.co.uk/product/fv-...am-gkn-sankey/

One of the things that drives me nuts is to hear developers talking about car parking and advising that they mark the spaces to suit the govt spec. Well Sherlock the damned spec is out of date and if you can't see that then you should not be in job with responsibility. Some of the newer multi storeys I've been to have worked this out and they are a pleasure to use but the mainstream car parks you just know the chance of getting dinged are high. As for Costco, awards all round.

I went to the cinema last night, a modern Vue cinema (went to see Longshot, v funny and Charlize Theron is drop dead ........) and it was very busy due to the Avengers being new still. I reversed, quite beautifully :teeth_smile:, into the dead centre of a space but me getting out I had to squeeze out, hand on the door frame to manage it delicately and without causing damage. An overweight person, of which there are many, could not actually have got out, kids or inconsiderate people will just open the door normally and ding the car next to them. I was in the centre of my space, the car next to me was in the centre of theirs. Neither car was an excessive size.

The worst thing about dings is not necessarily getting them but the other person not owning up. I had a driver hit mine in a local supermarket. He waited, apologised profusely and was mortified. He paid the repair without question. No issue there. I have dings in my current car where people have just driven off and left the repair bill to me. A plague on all of those people.