Some people who drive expensive cars are so worried about their cars being dinged by the opening of doors of cars parked next to them that they park straddling two spaces. This is a serious violation of parking etiquette that can enrage people. I myself, though not prone to get upset over trivial things, also find myself highly irritated when I see someone do that, even though I know it is small in the great scheme of things. But like most of us, I do nothing except secretly despise such people.
But Neetzan Zimmerman links to a video, of how some people dealt with a co-worker, the owner of a Jaguar sports car, who did this on a daily basis in the company parking lot.
Apparently, it cured him of the habit.
I used to own a high end sports car and dutifully parked it the way you’re supposed to. Some idiot soccer mom opened her door into the side of mine, doing about $3,000 damage to the paint job. At that point, what do you do? Call the police and get an accident report? Make an insurance claim and have you premium go up? Beat the shit out of the soccer mom? It turns out to be an untenable situation. In the end, I ate the cost of the repair, sold the sports car and joined the other side by buying a beater tank (a 1995 jeep wrangler) and if someone opens their door into me, I won’t notice it and -- if they managed to enough damage that I DID notice, I’d just drive off over their hood.
I will say, the idiot soccer mom offered to pay for the repair until I explained that it was a pressure-formed aluminum door with a baked-on paint job and gave her an approximate idea of what it would cost. At which point she hopped in her car and got out of there.
I had someone ding my door as I was getting out, got their info and their insurance company paid for it. Their insurance goes up because they are a moron. I park away from the riff raff by at least 5 spots if not more. If you don’t care for your vehicle that’s fine but stay away from my ding free vehicle.
A friend of mine dealt with this by keying “I don’t know how to park” into the side of a car that was doing that. Dude was caught by a bystander -- who then saw what my friend was doing. Bystander nods his head, keeps on walking. I find the story hilarious, and fitting, although I don’t necessarily advocate others do it XD
I bet he wishes he’d bought the RHD version now. 🙂
Some friends of mine and I once dealt with a guy like this by carrying his car several spots from where he’d parked it. Sports cars can be remarkably light. 😀
In Boston (and likely any other city where parking is at a premium) the guy would come back and find his car had been none-too-gently pushed back into its spot — or out of the lot altogether.
In Texas, doing that can get you shot. In Florida, the shooter’ll get acquitted.
I’d definitely expect someone who damages my car to pay — mine doesn’t have such a superbly expensive paint job but I do like it a lot. Actually this should be covered by their third-party liability insurance anyway (though if not, I’ll try to keep the repair bill low as much as I can). Also, I don’t really see what’s wrong about asking the police for help in settling a case where someone just did $3000 worth of damage on your stuff and refuses to take responsibility… especially when it’s so clear who’s at fault?
Posting a pic on http://iparklikeanidiot.com/submit and leaving a note with the URL is fun, too.
I believe XKCD summed it up nicely;
http://xkcd.com/562/
I really don’t understand how people open their doors without any regard for the vehicles around them.
I’ve come back to my car to find whacking great dents in it, obviously caused by someone opening their door so hard it leaves a fucking paint transfer -- and I make a point of parking way the hell away from everyone else in the lot.
I guess the real question is, why are people such dicks? Either they’re so self absorbed that they don’t realize they’ve hit you or they simply don’t care.
Love this. I wish my employer would deduct $20 out of the pay checks of people who park like this. The garage near my building fills fast and there are always many unusable spots that are wasted.
The car is a form of transportation. Expect it to get dinged. Doors, rocks thrown up while driving, birds, and lovebugs are all going to take the shine off and eliminate the newness of you vehicle. Get over it. If you can afford to drive a glorified porcelain figurine you can afford to have it restored when those dings happen. If you can’t afford to repair it you don’t have the right car.
I drive a truck. Trucks look better with a few light dings and dents. It is a work vehicle.
Cool, I’ll bring my hammer.
Like I said, she left the scene. Seriously, what was I supposed to do? Chase after her (admittedly, I’d have been able to do that…) ? Try to file a claim based on a license plate? File a hit and run? Yeah, right. It’d be “hahahah rich asshole whining about a door-ding on his expensive toy” and I’d have wound up having to claim it against my insurance which meant in the long run it would have cost me more than just eating it myself.
Your friend is an asshole. Feel free to quote me on this.
I have a 14 year old car. I don’t mind accidental dings. But if I caught someone deliberately keying my car, I would go Old Testament on the moron (I apologize for insulting genuine morons).
Perhaps I should get a tattoo kit and tattoo “I’m an asshole” on his forehead? Yeah, that sounds about right. He scratches a message in my paint job, I scratch a message in his face.
The car in this picture is properly parked, but it makes a great example of how to get revenge or send a message without causing damage.
http://www.meh.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/meh.ro9079.jpg
Continuing with the theme of shopping carts, I don’t own a car, I ride a bicycle everywhere. One of the things that annoys me no end are idiots who leave shopping carts in front of bicycle racks -- or they used to, before coin deposit became almost universal. Other than Costco, I haven’t seen a major shopping place that doesn’t have coin deposit carts, but since I only go there by taxi, it’s not an issue…though again, you will see plenty of idiots leaving carts in the middle of lanes. Their attitude seems to be, “*I* don’t need it anymore, so it doesn’t matter where I leave it.”
Yes, because a willing assumption of risk is the exact same thing as welcoming vandalism. It’s a vehicle that you’ve taken out and left in a public area. Lots of people have absolutely zero consideration for the property of others, and if you’ve gotten to the point where you can afford an expensive vehicle you’d rather not have damaged you have no excuse for not being aware of this. If you want to keep your expensive shiny toy looking cherry, leave it in the garage.
It doesn’t matter if my car cost $1,000 or $100,000, if you’re the kind of person who goes around leaving $150 dents in it, you’re an asshole.
Good thing I’m the kind of person who conscientiously opens their doors because I don’t like it when people ding my car, either. I’m irritated but not surprised when it does happen though. What else do you expect when you park your vehicle in a lot shared by people who likely don’t give a damn about other people’s property?
I expect people to not be inconsiderate pricks (though it’s worth pointing out that I wasn’t accusing you of being the type of person who doesn’t give a crap about damaging people’s property), of course that means I’m often disappointed.
The odd minor ding I’ve come to expect, but the last dent I got was a 5″ crease where someone had opened their door so forcefully it actually transferred paint to my car -- and this is in Los Angeles which has gigantic parking spaces for the most part, I’m still not sure where the hell I got it, but you could easily see it from a hundred yards away it was that bad, there is no way whoever did it didn’t realize what they’d done.
I drive a big car with very long doors (it’s a coupe), so I’m extremely careful when entering/exiting the vehicle to make sure I don’t damage adjacent vehicles and will invariably park way the hell away from anyone else whenever possible.
(unlike most LA drivers, I won’t circle a parking lot for half an hour trying to get a space 30 seconds closer to the door -- what the hell is that about? It’s not like it’s going to rain).