[darkcloud]

Originally Posted by Coder335i

Just curious: Do you wear nice driving gloves too?

Prolly, he did make ///Matt wear gloves to install the ipod wire. Oh and Matt was nice enough to do this for free as the 2nd blazing sun stood over his shoulder to make sure he didn't mess anything up

[Coder335i]

Originally Posted by darkcloud

Prolly, he did make ///Matt wear gloves to install the ipod wire. Oh and Matt was nice enough to do this for free as the 2nd blazing sun stood over his shoulder to make sure he didn't mess anything up

Why did i know this was the case??

[coolcamden]

Originally Posted by Gig103

Wow, it's people like you that give Bimmer owners a shitty reputation... Get over yourself, it's a 3-series, not a Ferrari.

I'm glad those people parked your stupid ass in like that, maybe one day you'll learn your lesson.

+1

I HATE people like that. Sometimes I wish I had a spray can, I'd paint all over the POS. In BIG LETTERS: I AM AN A$$HOLE.

[coolcamden]

Originally Posted by BMWCali

WOW! This thread exploded. I come back and there's over 100 replies.

Anyway, I ultimately agree with you LEDZEP but as for your advice on finding an end spot, I did just that at LAX airport. I flew to Chicago, came back 36 hours later and what do you know? Someone ran a luggage cart into my rear bumper (how? I have no idea; I was even parked uphill) and it cost me over 5 hours of my time to fix and $500.

Sweet justice. Now go hug and cry on your flawed car, a$$hole.

[coolcamden]

Originally Posted by BMWCali

Your cool. As upset as I have gotten sometimes, I've never done any damage to anyone's car. Doing so would only put me in the wrong.

YOU ARE IN THE WRONG FOR TAKING 2 SPOTS. JERK.

[garyhgaryh]

Originally Posted by Master Deep

lol the other day I went to Meijer with my family so I dropped them off and went to park. I spotted another JB E90 325 parked all the way on the outer lane by itself. So I go to park 1 spot over from it and I realized he took up 2 places. WTF....there isn't another car near him for like a mile, yet he still needs to take up 2 places...

JB E90 325? How could you tell?

[SJNESH]

LOLZ

[iPodAddict]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Here is my thought on the parking issue: Taking up two spots, or parking horizontally across spots immediately draws attention to your car. Now, I know this depends on where you live and places you go, but people generally don't like BMWs or their owners. So what you are doing is actually making them take notice of you - and saying "don't mess with my car, or park your POS near me". That makes people want to challenge you. You're lucky that so far they have only made a point by boxing you in... it's only a matter of time before someone keys your car or dents in deliberately.

My advice is to find an end spot, preferably the right end (50% chance they won't have a passenger) and hug the edge of the space. This will help protect you from door dings without putting flashing neon lights over your car that say "I think I'm special". When ends spots are not available, I try to find other high end cars that are pretty new and park near them.

There is only so much you can do - but I think your method is antagonizing, and will ultimately lead to the very type of damage (or worse) that you are trying to avoid.

I do this very often. But it's backfired on me a few times.

Some old loooong ass boat of a car (usually some kind of beat up cadillac or similar in size) will take up his spot and get over the line well into my spot!

This leaves me with a very very tight spot to get out of.

In an underground parking lot where the distance between your car the car straight in front of you (the gap of the driving area to the parking spots) is typically tighter underground. This same situation happened to me. I parked really close to a pillar in my old car. Unbeknownst, I didn't think twice about the situation as I 'expected' to have enough space to move forward and reverse back into my spot giving more space between my passenger door and the pillar to get out of the spot making a right-turn (I almost always reverse into a spot).

This monster sized vehicle of a car came over into my spot and was about 2-3 inches from my driver-side view mirror. I tried to go up and back into my spot to get space to clear the pillar when I hooked the right. When I thought I had cleared the next thing I heard was a sound that'll haunt me forever... even the damage was pretty bad IMO...

To this day, I've never done damage to my cars or anyone elses vehicles until that moment I hit the pillar because some jackass thought he could take his spot and mine too

Lesson learned: You can't win them all; Most, sure.

[iPodAddict]

Originally Posted by BMWCali

You guys need to understand something. There's a big difference between the owner of that Veyron and me. If he gets dinged and has to pay $2000 to fix his $1,500,000 car, he won't give two shits, which is why he parks wherever he feels like it. On the other hand, I'm not rich and it hurts when I have to pull $500 out of my pocket to pay for someone else's ignorance.

The reason why the rich guy who owns a veyron forking out $2000 won't care is because it's only 0.001% of the car's value!

That'd be like us paying around $75 to get our door dings taken out. Way more affordable then $500, but still annoying having to pay for other peoples ignorant and ill-willed doings.

[FirstClass]

Originally Posted by BMWCali

You guys need to understand something. There's a big difference between the owner of that Veyron and me. If he gets dinged and has to pay $2000 to fix his $1,500,000 car, he won't give two shits, which is why he parks wherever he feels like it. On the other hand, I'm not rich and it hurts when I have to pull $500 out of my pocket to pay for someone else's ignorance.

So your $500 is worth more than his $2,000? What bizzaro world are you living in. Just because he has the money to fix it doesn't mean it's ok when it gets fucked up. When someone working a min wage job dings your they'll just think, "Oh he drives a BMW he can afford to fix it no big" and then you'll realize what a dumbass you are. Also, I doubt you can fix a Veyron for $2,000 no matter how small the damage is.

[nub340]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

Also, I doubt you can fix a Veyron for $2,000 no matter how small the damage is.

Na, these guys will hook you up for cheap:

[Couch]

Honestly, if you're that OCD about your car don't buy anything nice. I mean, you seriously get up during dinner to check on your car? It's a fucking car.

I park where ever a spot is. If it's between two vehicles I make sure they know how to park. If a lot is fairly open and there's another nice car, I'll park next to them. Although one time I parked next to a 350Z, was only in the store for 5 minutes later. Came back out and he had moved his car. I thought, wtf I really would have liked to have a convo with him to see why he had to be such a baby asshole.

One guy in high school decided to put a car cover on his Z28. Needless to say he had the shit keyed out of it. He never covered it again. Everyone talked shit about him doing it anyway.

I would love to keep my car as clean as the next guy, but shit happens and it's not worth worrying about. If I have any exotic car, I'll park just as I do now. IMO, if you park with everyone else you're less likely to have someone purposely do something to your car.

[Kruz]

Originally Posted by Boost_Nation

i agree.

Your method isnt smart at all........pretty lame actually, and yes, I too hate people that park like you.

+1 You might as well put a sign on your hood that says...."Please key my ride or park next to me".

Just park a dozen open spots away or grab an end spot and snug up to the curb.

[NU2BMW]

I park as far away as I can and next to a divider/wall or something and never park next to a truck or a minivan. I wonder how the OP prevents/psychologically handles rock damage to the front bumper? Much more likely occurance than side dings.

[Crazy Bimmer]

Only time i have OCD with my car is if im parking at a hotel overnight.

I will sometimes move the car a few times till i feel that its in a safe spot.

Never double park it since that draws unwanted attention. I just keep it near curbs and such.

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by Crazy Bimmer

Only time i have OCD with my car is if im parking at a hotel overnight.

I will sometimes move the car a few times till i feel that its in a safe spot.

Never double park it since that draws unwanted attention. I just keep it near curbs and such.

Yeah, hotels are the worst! 99% of the people there are driving rentals and couldn't care less. I'm equally paranoid of those.

[DBville]

Thought this photo would go well with this thread. Found at HHGregg in Trussville, Alabama this afternoon.

[Year's_End]

Originally Posted by BMWCali

Okay, I know it's not always the most ethical thing to do but sometimes when I get paranoid I'll take two parking spots. I'm sick of having to get up in the middle of dinner to go check on my car so taking two spots puts my mind at ease. Funny thing though (actually it's more ironic than funny). Two times that I parked taking up two spots in the past month it has backfired on me. One time I parked late at night at a restaurant with about 30 spots all around and when I come out, so asshole decided to share the 1/2 spot next to me parking super close. Then of course I have to break out the flashlight and spend 10 minutes checking my car up and down on that side.

This evening though was the ultimate in backfired parking. I take up two spots in a parking garage as I go into PF Changs to eat at 10:30PM. I come out 45 minutes later and two SUVS are on either side of me and wedge me in like jelly in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They both thought they'd join me in the two parking spots I was taking up. Being that both sides of my car was in danger I was probably in that parking garage 15 minutes checking my car at all angles. AMAZINGLY, even though both cars were parked mere inches from mine, I wasn't even dinged. Obviously, the driver of the SUV to my right had some mad skills getting out and the one to my left probably didn't have a passenger.

Anyhow, that's my rant for tonight. I'm thinking the next time I take up two spots I'm just going to park horizontally. Then, maybe just then, the idiots will get the message. I think I'm going to start to carry some pre-made post-it-notes in my trunk too.

No offense or anything, but this is the stuff assholes are made of. If I ever see someone doing this, I might feel like leaving a note somewhat like this one. Or I may just spit on the car, depends on the mood I guess.

[Herknav]

For those of you who have issues with parking, just be glad you don't live here in Europe, as the parking is very very close. And if you took two spots here, you can expect trouble...

[flipmde786]

The fact that 2 times your plan backfired and had people parking next to you really close, and still didn't have any damage, should boost up your confidence in parking normally.

Just park normal, and nobody will think to do anything harmful.

[slant83]

Originally Posted by ArmyBimmerDude

I double park too. You'd be surprised how many people would love the chance to key or ding a nice looking car if the person doing it drives a beater.

I find parking further away from an entrance is the better option. Americans are too lazy to walk that far. lol

agreed

[demosthenes]

Given the extremely negative reaction to taking 2 spots shown in this thread by BMW enthusiasts, I can imagine how negative it will be among "normal" people. It's pretty clear that doing so puts our cars at greater risk than a door ding.

On one trip to a Lake Tahoe hotel, I parked next to a large lawn area to avoid having anyone park next to me. When I went out to my car the next morning, it was soaked by their automatic watering system, which left hard water spots over half the car. Plus, how many of us try so hard to get close to a curb to leave space on the other side of the car that we scrape our wheels! So it seems that we can go too far.

The best strategy seems to be to park as far away from the tight areas as we can. Most of us need the exercise.