Couldn't disagree more. Have seen dozens of SUV mommies who have a kid under each arm, cell phone in one hand, Starbucks in the other... who don't give a crap about anyone on the road or in the parking lot... opening doors with their hips and flinging them wide.

Sometimes if I have to park next to a car on my driver's side, I'll look inside. If it looks like they have passengers or children, I may pick another spot. Sometimes no matter how careful the OWNER of the nice car is, the kids/passengers are an entirely different matter. And SUV rear doors are the worst. The pointy part of the door that's over the wheel well is high enough that it misses all body cladding and puts nice sharp dings into adjacent cars. You've all seen them... the deep, sharp gouges towards the back of your cars....

I HATE DINGS!

This is my grocery-getter, no worries about ding-age (and I am VERRRY careful with my doors).

 

I take a quick look at the edges of the doors of the cars next to me while I'm parking. If one of them has dings along the edge then I park as far from it as possible. If both then I park somewhere else.

Of course after all this careful parking somone will then back into the front of your S2K with their towbar

 

While parking away from other cars, put it where it is visible by a lot of people, now that the car is in the middle of no where where it can be seen from everyone, it'll be highly unlikely that someone would walk up to it to vandalize or steal it. Also try to make the parking time as short as you can and try to avoid ghetto areas. Make sure you park right in between cars or as far as you can from the car next to you if you park in a corner, if you park like crap, they're not gonna put so much effort to squeeze into their car. In Hong Kong where parking a car is like putting a book back in the shelf of a library, I've seen people wacking the mirrors of the car next to theirs out of frustration to fold it because the guy parked too close to him.

 

just give a dollar to security to look for ur car ...

 

Avoid SUV's like the plague.

Park far away backed in a end spot with the Passengers door the only one "at risk " since most people don't back in and most cars don't have passengers you lesser the chance a door will even be opened next to you.

If you have to park next to nice expensive cars, not SUV's, with other sports cars if possible and other convertibles are good really good too.

Far away is better than up close to the door so less foot traffic passes your car.

At clubs or events try next to the Cop's or security stand.

 

I try to hug close to the handicap spaces when there are alot of them and the chances of 10 old folks pulling up with disabled tags is small. That's almost like getting a corner spot and it puts you up close to the store/bar/whatever. Also if there is a spot with a painted median next to it, I usually pull halfway across the spot and halfway into the median part.

Parking next to expensive cars is ok if it's an enthusiast car. I've seen plenty of high $$ cars with dings all over b/c some guy got it for his wife who could care less where she parks or how wide her doors swing open.

Parking next to some vans is ok as the doors slide in the back, but there's always the possibility that mommy has that one kid that has to sit up front and they ALWAYS open the door by kicking it open with their feet. For that same reasons, big SUV soccer mom type vehicles are also bad.

As mentioned before, don't be a jerk and take up more than one spot or park in a bad way that prevents other people from parking. That will make some people mad and put you up for voluntary key marks or scratches. I know I hate when some Jacka$$ takes up two spots with his corola just b/c it's new. I know he's trying to look out for it, but you don't need to be a jerk and take up more than one spot. Even if you're 50 spaces from everybody else, some people just get mad that you took up more than one spot.

Whenever possible, I park in front of the lamp post. That keeps the chances down that the person in the spot across from me will pull into my bumper.

Also, if you park far away next to someone that is trying to do the same thing like a vette or something, leave a few spaces in between anyway. I hate when I park far away and someone else just pulls up next to me. I know they might have a nice car too, but atleast one space makes me feel better.