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My solutions for preventing dings from dingbats are as follows:
1. If possible, park as far away as possible, away from any other cars. This works about 99% of the time. Unfortunately, in some cases, if you own a car that "the kids want to see" don't be surprised if a mini-van loaded with kids parks about a foot away from you. This happened to me once, and as the driver and the "team" were getting ready to bail out of their mini-van (and probably mark up the car) I gave the driver a glare....they moved! Parking far away gives you an opportunity to walk a little extra, so you'll get some exercise...good for the heart.
2. If you have no choice but to park in a crowded lot, try to park the car as diagonal as possible in a marked slot. Sort of like this:
|\| \=car orientation, |=parking marks
Why? I've noticed that a "certain" gender seems to like referencing the sides of other cars when parking...if they figure they're a foot away, it's OK...dings never hurt a car, right? By parking diagonally, as they pull into the space on your right they're immediately confronted with your tail end, so they try to avoid it and it forces them to look at the parking lines on the pavement. If they've pulled into the spot on your left, they will be referencing the car to THEIR left, so it won't really matter (NOTE: for countries with right hand drive, you will have to park like this: |/|). Parking diagonally within a marked spot will also increase the distance a bit between the sides of your car and theirs where the dings would most likely occur.
Bill Wagner
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