I pulled into my drive last night and parked behind my friends car. Pulled up close. What i presumed was a foot clearance ended up being 1/2 an inch!
Anyone else notice this...I do sit with my seat ask the way down....but never had this issue in any of my previous MINIs...

 

Now that's what I call precision parking! I daresay your friend was impressed with your skill Thanks for the warning.

 

Maybe you having had a previous MINI is a disadvantage here, now that the nose is longer but you're accustomed to the shorter length in the past? Or is the angle different now from the front of the hood to the slop of the overhang?
I've had the reverse problem, where I think I'm close to things and end up feet further away than I expect! But I'm coming from a car with a much longer front end.

 

We'll get you some of those springy thingys to put on your front bumper to judge how far you are from stuff. All the old folks have them on their Ford Galaxies.

 

I always imagine the car is an extension of my body.

I get in a new car and look around until I feel the right rear corner is in my back pocket, or I have a tail if it's long enough. The front bumper is just ahead of the gas pedal, or in my beard.

 

Yeah, I have found it difficult to stop exactly where I would like to be in relation to a parking lot bump stop. What I've done is decided to make sure I leave much more space than I think is necessary and I find the problem eliminated. The car is short enough that the rear of my car doesn't stick out nearly as far as surrounding cars do even though I might leave up to a foot clearance in front.

 

Didn't MINI used to have a parking etiquette blurb about not parking all the way in so people didn't think the space was open?

 

I have a different car which supposedly doesn't have the added 2" of front overhang that the F56 has but I too tend to pull up closer than I thought I was. It's a different bumper/splitter on this car and the windsceen rake is different and the seat is different.

 

Yeah, I remember that. I think about it every time I park.

 

Exactly this^^^^

 

That is really good parking etiquette. Always irritates me when I see a Civic or Corolla pulled as far in as possible -- as if they're driving a '70s Cadillac.

With my MCS, I try to pull in only far enough so that my car's back is roughly even with the backs of surrounding cars.

 

I personally tend to park forward when parallel parking. I would rather have my front licence plate hit the back of someone else's rear bumper than the other way round. I just hope the overhang at the front is not misleading to a reversing car as it is for me driving it.
Another note is that I find the windshield wipers obscure the road a bit too adding to the problem...I do sit low though.

 

Fortunately, parallel parking is much less common than it used to be. Frankly, I'd never parallel park my MCS unless the space is really large -- best way to avoid f/r damage. Used to be that if a space were too small, you'd use your bumpers to push the car in front or behind to make it large enough.

 

I remember doing that! I had a Honda Civic that I used like a bulldozer!

 

I find that I actually try to line up my back end with the car next to me. This way I have plenty of room in front of me and people will not speed pull into my spot and not see me. No one wants to be rear ended in a parkinglot spot right? I find with the shorter car this works well.