While many of my outings will be purely for the pleasure of "the drive", I am realizing that there will be circumstances where I will have to actually PRY myself from the car, thus, leaving it parked and unattended. NOOOOOO!!!! How can I enjoy myself at an event, worrying about my MINI parked outside? I guess everyone goes through the initial paranoia of having a new vehicle and wanting to keep it factory showroom new, but the added attention this car gets is feeding my wariness about someone wanting to do harm to it. Anyone have ill-willed damage (key scratches, etc) done to their MINI? Am I crazy to worry about things I have no control over? If so, anyone know of a good shrink in the Milwaukee area?

I'm still looking for the "big" parking spots or at the end of a row after 8 months of having my MCS.

Thanks for the positive thinking, Pooky. I work out of my home... in other words I park in my own garage when I'm at work and also have no enemies that I know of so things are looking up already!

Ah, parking anxiety. Comes with the territory, I guess. After six months, I'm getting better about leaving Babe alone with those "other" cars, but there's always that bit of apprehension. Which simply means I'm still in love with my car.

Park in the wide spots or way out there where there are no other cars.

Andy's MINI parking rules

1. parkat the far, deserted end of the parking lot if possible. Extra walking is a bonus for your health.

2. Always park on the uphill side of a slanted PL. I saw a lady get out of her car at the post office without setting her brake. Her car rolled across the lot and smacked another car.

3. NEVER park next to a car with a car seat in it.

4. If you have to park next to another car, park next to a 4 door sedan. The doors are smaller.

5. Park next to curbs or parking fingers(?) if available.

6. Stay away from grocery carts, and always park uphill from them.

7. Park next to brand spanking new cars if possible. They share the same concerns as you.


I'm sure many of you have other helpful parking rules.

Andy

Good rules, all - or you could just drive it in wherever you were going. Couldn't you see a MINI in an elevator?

>>Andy's MINI parking rules
>>
>>3. NEVER park next to a car with a car seat in it.
>>
>>


I never thought about that. Good advice asodestrom. Ones that I always watch out for are the cars with the dents or ones that are so dirty you can tell that it has not been washed in months. That is a good sign that they don't care if their door hits another car.

I´ll add another one, when you have no option but to park besides another car.

Park besides a column (covered parking of course). That way you only risk one side of the car. Another thing I recommend is to park as close to the parking bump as possible (since other cars are longer, their doors may open behind the Mini, at least the back doors where kids usually ride)

After three months, I still don´t park my car on the street. It freaks me just thinking it´s all alone with the bad people out there

I join with asodestrom's recommendations - they are all good. I'll add one however: never, ever park at an airport overnight.

Good Rules!!
And I would add up one more.

When you park your "baby" at a parking complex like its floor is not level, always park at the highest side of the floor, if possible. If you have another car on the higher side of the floor level, doors of your neighbor most likely hit your "baby" very easily just because of the gravity.

This could be general rules, though...

Let's motor !

>>Andy's MINI parking rules
>>
>>1. parkat the far, deserted end of the parking lot if possible. Extra walking is a bonus for your health.
>>
>>2. Always park on the uphill side of a slanted PL. I saw a lady get out of her car at the post office without setting her brake. Her car rolled across the lot and smacked another car.
>>
>>3. NEVER park next to a car with a car seat in it.
>>
>>4. If you have to park next to another car, park next to a 4 door sedan. The doors are smaller.
>>
>>5. Park next to curbs or parking fingers(?) if available.

Andy,

Your list is top notch!

Red
>>
>>6. Stay away from grocery carts, and always park uphill from them.
>>
>>7. Park next to brand spanking new cars if possible. They share the same concerns as you.
>>
>>
>>I'm sure many of you have other helpful parking rules.
>>
>>Andy
>>
>>

>>6. Stay away from grocery carts, and always park uphill from them.
>>

Oh, do I have a horror story about that!

I went to pick my GF from her job at the Supermarket as they were closing, the cart-boys where rallying all the carts around and one kid pushed the carts up the ramp and left to get more carts.

Thank God i was sitting in my car with engine on! The carts sat there for a bit and then rolled back. Straight towards my door. I had split seconds to release the break and hit the first to move. As I did, several carts hit the curb behind me (Pow, pow-pow, pow!)

I thought to say something to the kid, but then my GF came out and I swallowed the enger at the imbecile!

Whew! :smile:

i hate parking my car... i was parked outside of my friends house and went somewhere with a friend in another car. we came back and she was going to park in between my car and another car... shes got a 96 taurus... and of course she backed up right into my car while parking.. she only hit the lisence plate but i was still really mad. its not fun to see your car bounce like that. i made her get out and i parked her car!

My rule #1 isn't working to well. The last two times I parked out in the far reaches of the PL, somebody came and parked next to my MINI. I think they just like to look at MINIs.

Andy

yes, it seems that if you park where there are no cars, when you come out there will be cars next to yours. some kind of magnet effect.

also, we are very cautious, but no matter what you do you can't protect against every moron. we left the car at the dog park last week, came back and some one had scraped up our bumper pretty good along with denting the metal by the tailight. don't know why or how but they did $1500 worth of stupid damage and left without a note or anything.

moral of the story: be careful as you can, but you can't protect against everything if you want to motor. minis are meant to be driven, not kept in a garage. have fun and don't worry too much!

that's why we have a low deductible. the first damage hurts the worst...

curt

>>My rule #1 isn't working to well. The last two times I parked out in the far reaches of the PL, somebody came and parked next to my MINI. I think they just like to look at MINIs.
>>
>>Andy

I noticed this too. I think I'm parking all alone way out there and when I come back two or three cars parked next to it :smile:

_________________


IB/W/W/W MCS, All packages, Space Cloth, Aero Kit, Driving Lights, Prod date 9/14/02. Motoring since 11/7/2002

After 4 months, I have gotten over the paranoia. The only special parking I do is at my office. The last spot, which is the least likely to be damaged by other vehicles also is the spot that is directly under the most popular tree of all the birds in the neighborhood. One hour under the tree is enough to cover my baby in poop. Now I make my own parking spot, between the first spot and the sidewalk. HARMINI fits perfectly there and stays much much cleaner.