Parking Dent!!

D

Darren C

A2OC Donor
I am always such a careful person when it comes to parking my car, similar in fact to a bird of prey hunting for that all important meal. If possible I always tend to park in an end bay with the logic that at least only one side of the car can get damaged by a careless owner. Today upon arriving at my office my options were limited, so I opted for a nice space between a smart looking A4 and a huge Merc, (not sure of the class or is that klass??!!). Anyway, I thought that I would be safe parked between two rather expensive motors, however upon my return I was dismayed to see that Mr A4 had decided to test the durability of the A4 rear door against the durability of my A2 rear door. :mad: A nice sized amount of blue paint gave the game away instantly and the blue paint on my rear door matched the colour of the air... trust me on that!! Anyhow, a quick application of some Autoglym polish has revealed that fortunately my paintwork is unmarked and even the lacquer coat is still intact. If you look along the line of the car, a very, (and I do mean 'very'), small crease is evident, but fortunately that is the only permanent damage. Judging by the amount of blue paint that had deposited itself on my car, I hope, and boy do I hope, that Mr A4's rear door did not stand up as well as my craftsmanship built A2.

The A2 may be considered by some ignorants as a poor man or woman's A2, but yet again, it would appear that this little car has seen off it's bigger brother and further supports our owner thoughts on the build quality of this little car. :)

Think I will park 'horizontally' taking up two bays in future... :D or leave the car at home and walk!!
 
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There's a new TT near me that always parks across 2 bays in the local Tescos (not the A2/Tesco thread again!!). I can quite understand his thinking and have thought about it myself many times.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Given the way that the A2 has stood up to some of the heavy impacts experienced by several A2OC owners; perhaps your aptly named "Tank" should have been the title given to this very car from the outset, eh Mike!! :D
 
Possibly Darren, but it does worry me how seemingly easy it is to write-off an A2 in a relatively low-speed car accident. I was thinking about A2_Sat on the way home tonight - his A2 wasn't that dis-similar to Tank and now it's languishing in a Scottish breakers yard!

Cheers,

Mike
 
That is a fair and valid point Mike and you are right, it is very concerning and alarming!!

It is pleasing to see that the safety cell is doing its job in protecting the occupants, but it appears that we end up paying a premium for the hi-tech use of aluminium and that all important space frame!!

No-one relishes the prospect of an accident, but A2 ownership could see a slight low speed incident result in a right off - worrying... I should say so!! :(

Cheers,

Darren
 
I too have a very very (anal) ding on the boot of my A2, that will be repaired next week. That ding was there from when i purchased the car, its not really noticable but everytime i look at the car i see it :(

I also park right at the back of car parks, to avoid pensioners and small children using their car doors as leaning posts against my car.
I now have to drop the angry wife off at the entrance to tescos, whilst i park half a mile away from the nearest vehicle.



The funny thing is, there is always one smart arse who likes to park right next to me even though there are about thirty vacant parking spaces within radius of my car :mad:
 
manhattan$ said:
I also park right at the back of car parks, to avoid pensioners and small children using their car doors as leaning posts against my car.
I now have to drop the angry wife off at the entrance to tescos, whilst i park half a mile away from the nearest vehicle.

The funny thing is, there is always one smart arse who likes to park right next to me even though there are about thirty vacant parking spaces within radius of my car :mad:
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A man after my own heart... I too park virtually at 'home' when we go shopping!! :D

My wife suffered a damaged wheel arch and scraping the full length of her previous car when parked in a... wait for it... "empty car park"!! :mad:
 
Happened to us about 2 weeks ago, My fiancee parked in a car park no cars next to her. when she got back the rear light was smashed and the bumper had come unclipped top of the bumper is now broke. No insurance details left and no car near by still. There was a lot of green paint on the bumper tho
 
alexwharton said:
Happened to us about 2 weeks ago, My fiancee parked in a car park no cars next to her. when she got back the rear light was smashed and the bumper had come unclipped top of the bumper is now broke. No insurance details left and no car near by still. There was a lot of green paint on the bumper tho
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I wonder if the CCTV caught anything? If the car park had any??
 
My first thought, apparently not looking in the right direction. And with no witness's i doubt we ll find out who done it.
 
Darren C said:
I am always such a careful person when it comes to parking my car, similar in fact to a bird of pray hunting for that all important meal. If possible I always tend to park in an end bay with the logic that at least only one side of the car can get damaged by a careless owner. Today upon arriving at my office my options were limited, so I opted for a nice space between a smart looking A4 and a huge Merc, (not sure of the class or is that klass??!!). Anyway, I thought that I would be safe parked between two rather expensive motors, however upon my return I was dismayed to see that Mr A4 had decided to test the durability of the A4 rear door against the durability of my A2 rear door. :mad: A nice sized amount of blue paint gave the game away instantly and the blue paint on my rear door matched the colour of the air... trust me on that!! Anyhow, a quick application of some Autoglym polish has revealed that fortunately my paintwork is unmarked and even the lacquer coat is still intact. If you look along the line of the car, a very, (and I do mean 'very'), small crease is evident, but fortunately that is the only permanent damage. Judging by the amount of blue paint that had deposited itself on my car, I hope, and boy do I hope, that Mr A4's rear door did not stand up as well as my craftsmanship built A2.

The A2 may be considered by some ignorants as a poor man or woman's A2, but yet again, it would appear that this little car has seen off it's bigger brother and further supports our owner thoughts on the build quality of this little car. :)

Think I will park 'horizontally' taking up two bays in future... :D or leave the car at home and walk!!
Click to expand...

Saw a white van parked like this the other day with a bumper sticker that read...."Only a fool breaks the two bay rule"!
 
Yes, dont risk stealing two parking spaces! You will probably find that some scum has keyed your car when you return.
 
I sympathise Darren, I know how anal I am about parking and any minor damage to my car (not had a good day today regarding scratches so the less said, the better).. the fact is, people just don't give a toss :(
 
Chris / Ian,

Thanks for your comments Guy's!! The impact area is virtually perfect having applied the polish and certainly isn't noticeable in anyway, unless you look along the car and even then you would really have to look for it. I really posted this thread because I was bl**dy angry that some members of society seem to be above moral values and respect for other people and their belongings.

Rant over!! ;)

Sorry to hear you have picked up some marks to your car Ian, hope this is nothing more than a bit of cutting polish wont resolve.

Cheers,

Darren
 
I have the fortunate luck of owning what we say in Sweden, "a lamb of sacrifice". We are of course talking about my winter road salt eater, the 1983 Saab 900. I can park this vehicle at the entrence of the local supermarket, in the middle of the crowd, without hesitation.
I sometimes look for nice cars of my taste, that unfortunately have been parked at an unsafe spot. As a friendly but very anonomous way I park next to it providing protection, atleast from my side.
 
Whilst washing Alphie at the weekend, I noticed several more scrapes. One on the bumper, a new chip in the rear door and some lovely green paint on the wing mirror! I always park at the far end of the car park, like so many of us. I do hate to pigeon-hole people but Mum's with kids - ahhhhg, do they have no sense? Just because the kids ruin every bit of paintwork in the house, do they have to revenge others?!? I apologise now to all the careful Mum's out there.

One tip I have is to park in a parent and child space!
 
It can't be that we are all anal? can it?
I too spend half my life looking for "decent" parking spaces that mean I can leave the car at least with half a hope that I won't return to some more damage.

Three things:
It seems that if options are limited, less damage happens if you park really close to other cars. It means they have less room to fling open their doors.
Always avoid 2/3 door cars their doors are just huge!
If supermarkets can provide large spaces near the door for parents and the disabled, then why not some large spaces in a far corner of the car park for people who actually value the second largest purchase (after houses) that most of us make?

Ahh feel much better now.

Jonathan
 
Hi Guys,
One day last year, I had to go to Ikea (Glasgow) so I parked in the empty "overflow" car park, on the far side of the usual access road. I worked out there were around 400 empty spaces between my quattro and the closest car.

Came back about an hour later to find the entire overflow area still completely empty, apart from an elderly Micra, parked (squint!) in the space next to mine. It had been abandoned drivers door to drivers door with my car; so close that neither driver door could be opened more than a few inches- certainly not enough for any normal person to get in!

AAARRGHH!!

ScotAlan
 
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