I decided several years ago I will park my cars way back in a parking lot. And if it's underground, it will be in the depths of the garage, where there are fewer cars so no one will be beside me. Or I get a spot where only one car can park beside and leave ample room for their door to swing wide open.
One time in a CT lot, I parked in the very closest spot. It was a windy day and the wind caught the door while I opened it. Swung it fully open. But I had left enough room for it to not smash the car beside. Learned my lession that day.
I just had a $6k repair on my Mazda that was two months past powertrain warranty. Mazda Canada declined any goodwill. Anyway, I reported my situation to multiple auto news sites and class action law firms so I can help get the ball rolling on a recall. One site said they are going to run that in their next issue.
While it was at the dealer for a month, they always parked it near the service door. Meaning multiple people were coming and going. When I went to pick it up, there were multiple scratches and dings. This dealer has a huge lot and tonnes of room to park my vehicle far away. It was in one spot close to the door for three weeks the guy told me. Anyway, I brought it back and their body guy fixed it. They also left the undertray hanging a cm down and the bolts were clearly not secured. They left grease handprints all over the A pillar and they disconnected the dashcam from the wires and didn't put back, just like the last time. My dashcam is behind my mirror so I didn't notice at first. The easiest thing to do is just disconnect from the 12v which is clearly visible.
When I had a new Fusion with all tan interior, multiple Ford dealer mechanics would sit on my seat in their greasy coveralls and leave stains and hand it back to me. Really? You thought I wasn't going to notice that on my new car? You've been in and out of hundreds of cars before, many with light interiors and it never dawned on you to drop plastic? The only dealer that regularly did that was White Oak in Sauga and I commended them for having that common sense. Anyway, multiple times I had to point out the stains and said can you please go clean that up?
Last year there were two examples of dumb fuckery. At Bronte Creek PP there were maybe 15 cars and they were parked along the edges. I knew more people would be coming so I decided I would park in the middle of the huge gravel lot. There are no lines but surely given the huge lot, people would leave ample space if they decided to park around me. Nope, I was still in the car and dude with family of four pulls right up less than two feet from me and starts unloading his family while I watch nervously. When he was done, I immediatley reversed and parked again with lots of space. His wife noticed me do this and gestured to her husband. Don't know if she was calling her husband dumb or thought I was doing something dumb. In the first pic, that is a good approximation of what it was like that day and the white car with sunroof would have been me. Notice the cars in the middle left space. Well not the day I went.
Then at Food Basics up north. Parked in the overflow lot close to the road. An F-250 parked there and I parked beside him but with one space in between. We were the only two and tonnes of room in the primary lot. I come back and some minivan is parked right in between us.
I've also twice parked my beater car close to the store in a suburban lot because I didn't care and had a pickup and a minivan park so close to me that my passenger couldn't get in. And one of those times I came out the same time as the other driver and talked to him. He was kind of laughing it off and saying "oh okay". Not even apologize.
People are sheep. Hence the term sheeple. Mind you, we all are to some degree. But do you mature and learn as time goes on. Plus, we are human. We make mistakes even if we are generally sensible. If you do park beside others in a lot and you have a nice car, that's fine. It's more convenient. But it's a risk. And don't complain (or at least don't get too angry) if you come back with dings to your door because 30 seconds of extra walking would have avoided that. And you can't rely on everyone to always be sensible and spatially aware. And there are kids getting in and out of cars. And there are windy days. It is inevitable. Also have to look out for loose shopping carts on windy days. Scout the lot before you park. Last year I saw someone sitting in his new Civic and it got banged by a cart that some lazy person didn't put in the corral or at least hitch it up on a curb/island. He was pissed off.
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