I have a nice car, and I take care of it. When parking in a public lot, I always choose a spot far away from the entrance of the venue-I like to keep away from other vehicles (because I see what other drivers to with their doors).
Invariably, some clapped out, junky old pickup truck will park next to me!
I don’t get it…its like I attract them.
Your car is obviously a “hot young chick”. Junky old pickup trucks are “random middle aged dudes” out catting around while their wives are away visiting their mothers, feeling it can’t hurt to ask! 
…or maybe the owners of the trucks wish they had such a nice car and parked nearby so they could get a better look at it?
I should have used your strategy. I parked reasonably close to the front door last week, and came out to find a crease in the driver’s door that will cost just over $1000 to fix. It looks like a bumper scraped along the door panel, and it’s high enough that it was probably a truck. Sigh…
They like to fuck with you. If it mattered enough for you to park away from others, someone will do it just to mess with you.
I’ve done it a bunch of times.
While I wouldn’t do this, because I am a lazy fatass who doesn’t want to walk that far, I’d do it if I were fit. If you take more than one space (not implying that YOU do), I’d likely just scrape your paint and drive away.
Joe
Park away from the others? Is there a rule that you have to fill spots in order from nearest to farthest? Maybe someone just wanted to get some exercise by walking across the lot.
Do people really make assumptions like this? Is this something people even think about?
This is one of the reasons I’m glad I drive a Highlander now instead of a BMW 330–I don’t give as much of a shit about it getting dinged up etc.
I warned you bro! I told you about trucks!
Well, the joke my mom and I crack any time we end up parked by a very nice car, is that our car is now far less likely to be stolen. Car thieves will looks at our car and the nicer car, and take the nicer car.
My thing is that no matter what two cars I park between, when it’s time to back out of the parking space I will be between two SUVs.
This even happens when I’m driving an SUV, but it’s easier to get out then. This makes me more likely to pick the SUV, just as a way of staying even.
(Note: Don’t hate me. It’s a KIA Sportage. Its turning ratio, whatever they call it, is less than my Saturn’s, which means you won’t have to wait for ME to maneuver through the parking lot.)
Ok, that’s funny!
Now I will have to check out how that works for me. What ends up parking next to my ugly-ass desert toad, that is.
I’m always surprised when very nice vehicles cut me off; aren’t they scared? I could cost their insurance company more in rear-end damages than any 12 cars I’ve ever had were worth put together! But still, they trust that I will brake for them.
one of these days, I swear…
People who own trucks frequently need a bit more room to get in and out of parking spaces. Trucks are big. So we park them farther from the door.
Amazingly enough, most people who drive trucks are just like people who drive cars. Imagine that! We don’t smack our doors into other people’s cars; we don’t scrape our bumpers against them as we park; we don’t get truck cooties all over you. In fact, those of us who drive large pickups tend to be pretty good drivers, because we have to learn to maneuver our vehicles (and sometimes the trailers we pull) in and out of tight spots.
You know, I don’t really care if you park by me – why do you have to get so snobby about me parking by you?
Because when you do, there are typically five empty spaces to the left and right that you could’ve parked in and given yourself more space too.
If someone is parked 50 ft from the nearest car, it’s a safe bet they expect you to park 25 ft from them.
Precisely. It’s not just 4WDs that do it, either- there have been countless times I’ve parked in an area of a carpark with few cars in it, and still almost had my door taken off when I open it by another vehicle suddenly pulling into the park right next to me, despite the dozens of other empty parks all around.
It’s like the urinals in the men’s room- if there’s not many people using them, you keep at least a one urinal gap from other gentlemen using the facilities. And if there’s only two or three people using said facilities, everyone must keep as far from each other as possible. That’s just how it works.
The same is true of carparks- you don’t park right next to another car if there are plenty of other empty parking spots nearby. It’s just not the done thing.
The reason for leaving a gap is that if you’re in the middle of a lot of empty spaces anyway, I (and I assume others) find having an empty space gives them a bit more room to open the door, etc, and reduces a low-risk of a bump to no-risk. So although you don’t have to, if choosing between many parking spaces, choosing the next-but-one to an existing car is better.
Question: do some people NOT agree with this and specifically prefer parking adjacent?
However, even if not, I think SOME people will do it for weird psychological reasons. I think my and many people’s brains shut down when given too much choice, and rather than just pick one of the non-adjacent spaces, they end up just automatically parking next to the other car because their eyes focus in on it. shrug
It’s some sort of magnetic attraction. My best defense is to park in a far-away parking spot as close to a curb as possible. That way people can only park on one side of you, and unless they park across the line INTO your space, they shouldn’t be able to door ding you.
But the main problem is you love your car too much. The world does not like you to have perfect shiny things. I used to baby my cars, wash them every few days, keep them spotless. And something would ALWAYS happen to them. A tree branch falling on it. A van backing into it. The hood flying up at 55 MPH. My first new car I bought in 2008, 4 months later the top of a Maple tree fell on it, numerous dents and scratches, $8000 worth of damage.
There is a girl around here that I often saw in her bright red Mazda 3. She always had that thing spotless and shiny. A few days ago I saw it parked in her driveway with a tarp covering the trunk that would not close because the car had been badly rear-ended. I know that had to hurt, mentally as well as physically.
That’s what I was thinking. People look at your lonely car out there and think “This must be the place to park.”
They park that way then go right into the movies and sit right in front of you even though there are plenty of seats elsewhere.
Why? As long as they didn’t take up the last space so you couldn’t park, what is it that justifies vandalizing someone else’s property? (Not that that would be a valid reason even if they did.)
Do you generally go around committing crimes just for the heck of it?
Oh, I never park immediately adjacent to another vehicle if there’s room to leave space, but the OP never said a word about that. He just said, “I have a nice car, and I take care of it. When parking in a public lot, I always choose a spot far away from the entrance of the venue-I like to keep away from other vehicles (because I see what other drivers to with their doors). Invariably, some clapped out, junky old pickup truck will park next to me!”
Translation: “My car is better than yours. Keep your distance.” Or if you prefer, it might translate as: “Your car isn’t as nice as mine, therefore you damage other people’s cars with your doors.” Logical disconnect. It’s a snobbish attitude that I don’t understand. Like the neighbors who think it’s fine to park a clean Maserati on the street in front of your house, but they’ll complain if you park a dirty Jeep there.
DISCLAIMER: I am not the person you were responding to, and I’ve never vandalized a car. That said, I’ve experienced the anger of seeing a car parked taking up two prime parking spaces in a crowded parking lot, and having to park hundreds of yards farther away because of it. It’s a phenomenally rude thing to do, and although I wouldn’t vandalize your car if you did it, I’d certainly have a few choice words for you about it.