This is good advice. I'm doing this next time I'm at Wal-Mart. (The most crowded parking lot in the history of ever)

 

Just looked out my window at work and a big ass truck parked directly beside me very close too in the back of the lot with no one around arghh!

 

Had a guy at work that parked way out in the back row all by himself. The driver of the front loader used for clearing snow swung the bucket right into the car and totaled it. He didn't realize the car was there, afterall, he was way out back where nobody ever parks.

 

The S is an exotic and because of that fact every dick form miles around will be drawn to it.
My S is not my daily driver,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but over all there is not real solution to the problem.

 

I park as far away from the lazy parking spaces as possible.

I try to park in places where cars can only park on one side of me, then I hug the opposite side of the space.

I only ever park in ONE space and always inside the lines and straight.

I keep everything locked in the trunk or secret compartment with the glovebox locked.

I've never had anyone try to mark my car, though I've come out many times to find it surrounded by SUVs as they answer some herd mentality call-of-nature.

 

Annoying, but I have learned to just try to park equally in decent sized spots and not think about it anymore. I was actually parked about a year ago on the street visiting my business partner in Koreatown Los Angeles. He came back with me to drive to a meeting. Even though I try to park properly next to the sidewalk, the idiot in front of me seemed to have backed up to me extremely hard into my front bumper. My license plate is still bent from this. I told myself stay calm, don't look like a crazy person in front of my partner. So we took off, and magically all the paint came out of my white bumper. Yes the ugly red paint came from the ugly super beat up red car in front of me, and of course their rear bumper still had my plate etched into it. I talked to my other partner about this, since we are more similar in age and mindset, and told him I can't believe I didn't destroy that car.

After that I haven't really cared as much about where I park, unless I am on a road trip making a pit stop.

 

Just got mine... it ruins every damn thing I go to because its always on my mind. Haha paranoia? I would call it being one step from crazy. The only peace I get is when I push in the clutch and tap that red button... ahhh...

 

I'm not really that paranoid now days. I recently drove the s to my campus and to my surprise I left the passanger window open.... i had around 700 cash and a pasport 8500 just hanging. No one has stole a thing when I returned 5 hours later! The area has lots of movement too. Seems like my age group (college) has matured a bit and know common decency. And no door dings!

 

That reminds me of a time when I had an MG-B and lived in Baltimore city. I was out one Friday or Saturday night and when I got home I was too tired to put the top up (manual top) so I left it down. The next morning I'm getting dressed and looking around for my wallet. My jaw dropped when I realized that I left it in the car next to the gearshift. I was surprised when I went out there and it was still there...money, credit cards and everything. Maybe they thought "he's got an MG so he doesn't have any money".

About 5 yrs later with the same car, I parked in another area of Baltimore (Fells Point) and left the top down thinking no one is going to steal anything. Sure enough when I get out there, my 10 band EQ that was screwed to the side of the center console with self-locking nuts on the back was yanked out, breaking the center console.

These days, primarily due to concerns about identity theft, I never leave the top down when I can't keep an eye on the S. I always put the top up. Oh damn, that reminds me of another story with the MG. On one nice summer day, I left the top down while I was in the mall for a couple of hours. I came out and it was pouring down rain...had been for a while before I got back out there. I never left the top down again when I wasn't near it, on the MG or the S.

So yeah, you could say I'm paranoid about parking and leaving the S.