Everyone has confirmed that I'm quite normal..to all here anyway.
The rest of the planet , stay away from my P.

Rika

SoCal, is that your sleeping bag on the car?

Do you use the mirror for a pillow or what?

Life is short and you guys are taking years off worrying about things you can't control.

Drive smart, park smart and enjoy what you have while you can.

At first glance, I thought for additional protection you were sleeping on the fender as well. ;) The mirror makes it look like a person in a sleeping bag.

There must be a term for this phenomenon. I used to have a gorgeous BMW 318ic--my first nice car, in perfect condition. Whenever it was not in my control (for things not happening to it), it would get dinged or damaged. It was incredible that it always happened when I thought it would. I was once sitting in a Best Buy-garage traffic jam waiting for the light to turn green, and I see some movement off to my right periphery. I look over and to my disbelief/horror ther is a shopping cart gaining speed toward my passenger side door. Bam! I was so enraged that I almost picked up the cart and threw it like the Hulk would. Then once in Ocean City, MD some stupid hick keyed the hell out of it. I was all too exhausting to own anymore so I got rid of it!

In a busy parking lot I always keep an eye out for the "ultimate" spot - the spot between two passenger side doors. While this is far from a guarantee, there is the magical hope that NO ONE is going to use those doors....

My happiest parking lot moment came last summer when I was forced to park on a slope with my entire flank exposed to (gasp!) a minivan, positioned uphill from me. I could almost see the future: busy grocery-laden housewife turns head to scold children and WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! - my Porsche get bumped, I punch out a soccer mom and end up in jail.

Imagine my happiness when I returned to my 911 to find an 8 year old girl clutching her (passenger side) door from moving even an inch closer to my car. As she identified me as the owner she said "I think your car is the coolest car I've ever seen".

Finish My Story Pelicans
 

I am not as paranoid as other are but I do watch were I park .
Christmas time is the worst time to find the best parking place at the mall.
Some of you guys know where the Pacific View mall in Ventura, Ca, is . I had to do some last miniute shopping on the 24th so I took my P-car and was determined to find a good space .
I found an almost empty lot next to Mimi's resturant , a crappy Denny's lookalike where I took two stalls. This was a good 1/8 of a mile from the mall. Believe me there was no one for at least 20 spaces around .My 18 year old daughter was with me. We shopped for about an hour .
To my surprise when I returned from the mall I noticed from far away that a SUV was parked very close to my car on the driver's side . By the way there was still 10-15 empty stalls all around where people could park .
When we approached my car a guy in his late 30's was standing on his driver's side running board looking over the top as we approached ( new Ford Expedition)

Soon as I got in range he looked at us and said " Just wanted to see what kind of A-Hole parks like this !"

I told my daughter to get in the car and wait .

Finish My Story Pelicans




http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1136417897.jpg




Vinnie From Ventura
1989 Silver Anniversary

I'm afraid I've got to side with the guy in the exp--- . I get very irritated when people take up two parking spots. With parking at the premium that it is around here, no one deserves two spots, no matter what kind of car they have. Doing that is just plain selfish. Besides, if you were parked that far away, you didn't need two. Don't know if you're just tweaking our chains, but that's my .02.

ianc

I must agree with ianc above, you just gotta park and pray. Nobody deserves two spots in this world... even the Pope had a single seater coffin....

Every ding gets you closer to a glorious respray - or a new toy.

Danl, I have to disagree with your strategy. I almost never park the Porsche between two cars. I always look for a spot far off from the traffic where my passenger side is against a curb. And ideally I'd be uphill from the parking space next to me.



How can you be forced to park in such a position? See, I would circle the parking lot for another 20 minutes before taking a space like that. With my daily driver VW, I took a space like that once in 10 years of ownership and it was the first and only time I got a door ding. I knew better when I took the spot. The spot even gave me the heebie jeebies but I parked there anyway because we were late for the movies. I'm glad the girl appreciated the 911 though.

thanks Anthony, you crack me up!

I spent the last ten years watching my pefectly restored 1965 Microbus accumulate a vast collection of parking lot scrapes, so I guess I've become immune.

My Porsche was keyed after two days of ownership, maybe it's best to get the pain of first damage over with quickly and try to live worry free from then on. Stuff gets scratched if you take it out of the garage, it's a good trade if that involves driving a Porsche.....http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1136421472.jpg

Are you guys really unable to find spots at the far end of the lot?

I just figure I need the exercise anyway. If I'm buying something heavy, I'm in the Honda Pilot...

I have a new Accord. I can never catch the bastards who bang my doors in the parking facility. Whenever I do see a car parked close to me , there is no ding! But I know that one day I will see a car in close proximity with a corresponding ding. That day, the heel of my hard-soled shoe will be buried nicely into the driver's side door.

Well, you could wire up a camera to come on when you lock the doors... put one on each side of the car angled out a bit.

Kalifornya is not Orygun...

ianc

Hey kilodawg!

No damage to the baby was there? Will it be visiting me any time soon?

(Let me guess, Charlie & Jake's?)

AFJ

Like that would even make a difference! I don't know about anywhere else but in SoCal parking waaay out at the other end of a parking lot; or worse, in the MIDDLE of the hinterlands of a huge parking lot is GUARANTEED to make some moron bring his hump of a car over and park it as close to your Porsche as possible as though it was magnetic :eek:

I totally "get it" that people generally don't care about their cars like we do, fine...really. Just leave me alone. If you admire my car, wonderful, I am flattered...don't touch it!

P.S. ALWAYS park uphill from everything you can, ESPECIALLY at a grocery store. Personally I avoid grocery store parking lots with the stray carts rolling all over the place like the plague.

Kilodawg? Can a "citizen" buy a Vicky like that? Cop equipment, ordered in black or white? If so, I may have a bead on my next daily driver. :D

SoCal911SC,
are you in SCal? Show some pics of your car please

kilodawg,
maybe we should have those on the rear bumper of our car :lol:

Dam parking lots are the bane of car ownership, my kids dont even comment "Dad why are you parking so far away" anymore. In Colorado it seems like every parking lot has spaces designed for small cars, but everyone here drives a truck, van or suv. My Audi (that I had to park in a crowded work lot) really took a beating from door dings.

Let's see, Mike the baby is fine!

pwd72s: You can't buy 'em brand new but you can get them with anywhere from 5-10 miles all the way up to 150,000. All the lights are generally removed but even that depends on the seller sometimes. They are supposed to last a good 200,000-300,000 miles depending. I'll let you know how mine make out.