Makes me so mad! Yesterday, we had an insane amount of wind in the Chicago area. I was parked, and seated in the passenger seat of my MINI while my husband was running into a store to pick something up, and this guy parks right next to our car (yes, there were plenty of spaces near us, but he chose to park right next to us), opens his door, and lets it swing out, hitting our MINI! I was thinking as soon as he started opening the door, "No, he's not going to swing the door open." Well, he did! I jumped out and said, "Why would you just let go of your door like that - you can see how windy it is!" He's very low key and says, "Oh, did the wind catch it?" Very unconcerned. When he sees how irate I am, he says we are parked close to the edge of our space (he had just pulled through -illegally- to park the wrong way right next to us!). I pointed to all of the empty spaces surrounding our car, and I asked him again why would just let go of his door with such high wind. He says, "I had to get my wallet." His girlfriend could have gotten his stupid wallet!! She was just standing there silently watching this exchange. I had him open his door again (while holding onto it tightly) so we could line it up to see where the contact was. Turns out his door hit the black plastic part at the bottom of the car and it was only slightly scuffed. Thank you, God! Why are people so amazingly rude and/or oblivious??!! If I hadn't been there, he would have just walked off I'm sure!

 

Obliviots

 

Great word! I'll be using that, thanks!

 

People as a whole are very inconsiderate!! I'm glad you got out and protected the MINI!! And glad the MINI didn't suffer any significant damage.

As for the parking thing it happens to my girlfriend all the time. We like to bring the dog with us in her Murano. When we go to a store we park very far away so nobody messes with the dog(cause he likes to bark at people) but it never fails that some jackleg will always park next to us. I'm sure they get an earfull from the dog when they do!!

 

your much more mannered than i am =[... i have a temper that often leads to being physical..

 

Wish you were there! It would have been nice to see him lose that annoyingly nonchalant attitude (and maybe run). Ahhhh, nice!

 

I was holding a ferret that I had just adopted at the time. I haven't had her long enough to train her to attack. I'll work on that though. hehehe

 

This is why I park at the very back of every lot I go to, reguardless of how long I'll be there. I'm actually going to buy a beater jeep after the summer as a winter vehicle, but mainly because I can't go to a busy resturant/store/bar/whatever without spending every second worrying about my Mini

My Mini will then only be used for driving to work, car shows, autox, and spirited driving. Anywhere else that involves parking will be the Jeeps job.

 

It's just a general lack of caring, and I agree, it's quite annoying. What can be done about it? Other than taking the law into your own hands, not much, unfortunately

 

Let me get this straight.
He dings your MINI. He goes in store. You are in parking lot.

Valve stems cost about $1.50 each.

I'm just sayin', is all.

 

with this kind of passion for the exterior this should be moved to detailing 101.

 

It's really not just about the exterior though. I just wanted to share this with my MINI community because I can't imagine any of us doing this to someone else's car (and besides, he's part of my family!). :D

 

Wish I were that bold!

 

WEASEL? Did someone say weasel?
I love new baby fuzzies

Weasels attack by their very nature...we're sneaky like that

 

Cutest baby fuzzy ever! And boy can she bite hard!! (yeah, I know, completely off topic, but we couldn't resist!)

 

Train the puppy to be an attack weasel. Your restraint in this case is admirable. If they'd dinged the door I trust your manner may have changed!

 

Absolutely!! I did tell him to wait right there until my husband came back. And I told him I would call the police if he left. He just leaned oh so casually against his door with a little half smile on his face. Ugh!

 

That happened to me once. My wife just bought a brand new chevy cavalier, brand new. Some idiot lets his door swing open, puts a nice ding in the front fender. I ask him for his insurance, license, etc. he starts giving me crap. I tell him I'll report him to police as hit and run. He starts yelling at me and I yell back that he hit ME. I finally got his insurance information but never acted on it.

The only way to counter this is to request their insurance. You have every right to go after them if they damage your property. You'll see how fast they'll change their tune when insurance, hit and run and the cops are involved.

 

Same thing happened to me about 10 years. Had just bought my dream car at the time (300ZX Twin Turbo). Parked in a fast food parking lot with no cars anywhere. Mom comes driving in with her beater station wagon, parks next to me, and 200 kids jump out and ding my dream car while I watch. I can't really blame the kid (or can I), but mom and I had a talk. Cost her insurance company $350. This was the first time in that car that I hadn't parked in Egypt and I got dinged.

 

My personal pet-peeve is people who leave their shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot on a windy day... and who watch 'em go flying across the lot and smack into someones car. I've intercepted one on it's way towards my MINI and a handful of others on their way to someone else's car.

I watched one a$$-hat who couldn't be bothered to push his cart 10 feet into the cart coral that was in the parking space next to his car.

 

One of my friends came up from Phoenix to see my Clubby Otto and wanted a ride. I took him to the post office to drop off a package. I saw another beautiful blue MINI that lives in town parked in the 4 spaces away from the post office near the drop off mailboxes. I parked next to him with one space between. No one ever parks over there because it involves a walk to the post office.

I came out after just running in and depositing the box in the dropoff--not even 60 seconds. I looked to see a giant, beat up F150 beater pulled into the parking spot between us.
Arrrghhh!
I ran to my car just as the redneck and his girlfriend got out of the truck. I held up my hands like WTF, why did you have to park between the two MINIs?
All I got was this look of "Duh!" I knew he did it just to be mean. His lack of intelligence was evident.

Of course my passenger did nothing. I was hoping Mark would protect the car, after all I left him in it for the ride he requested. Normally I never take Clubby to a public parking spot just because of this kind of crap.
Mark is pretty gay and although he is 6'6" I think the Redneck probably intimidated him. My husband told Mark later that he should have *****-slapped the guy.

Luckily Otto was not touched, but I will never take that chance again!

 

(p.s. I love greyhounds!)

 

Door ding people are one of my biggest pet peeves....

When I had my boxster a few years back I actually caught someone in the parking lot repedingly hitting my door with his door. It was one of those... Ooops, and then another Ooops...

I walked over and asked him for his drivers license and insurance information... He started to blow me off and get in his car...

I started yelling at him, he does know that I will call the cops for leaving the scene of an accident... He yelled back I'm nuts... I "nicely" reminded him that it's not a cheap car and the damage will be in the 1000's and he better like a new set of shiny bracelts as he is arrested for vandalism. He left, and I called the cops...

they took a police report and his license plate number. If the damage was above $500 bucks the cop said could go after him (the cop apparently had a nice BMW convertible and could sympathize)

Needless to say the damage was repairable by paintless dent repair so it was less than $200 bucks....

Most expensive and nerve racking starbucks coffee I ever bought...

Friends reminded me that the rear trunk in the boxster can fit a baseball bat...

 

Not to diminish the obnoxiousness of the ding, but-- it's illegal to pull through a parking space in Chicago? I've never heard of that being a law anywhere.

 

He pulled through and was parked the wrong way - that's what I meant.