<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Emma @ Apr 27 2006, 12:22 PM) [snapback]246145[/snapback]</div> Me too. I'll have my Prius in a couple of weeks, but my 10-year-old Jetta still has barely any scratches or door dings because of the careful way I have always parked it.
If I can not find a place without cars next to me I try to look for a spot where the other cars passenger doors are next to me. (on one side one car is parked in and on the other side one pointing out) I figure that the vast majority of cars are driven alone without a passenger. Today I parked way out in the Walmart lot with no one near. When I came out I could see another car on the other side of mine. As I walked toward it I muttered and sputtered . . . . "why does this idiot have to park there!" To my surprise it turned out to be another Prius!
I can't stand the supense.....someone give me a ding so I can get it over with. Your car WILL get dinged...just a matter of time. Actually, my first ding came a month or so ago when I was parked at a car dealership buying a truck. Ziebart got everything out but the small dent. Now my car is "broke in" and I don't worry anymore.
I park and walk like some of you to help me feel better about keeping the car nice. If there is not a protected spot available and I have to park in between others, I slightly angle my car in the parking spot. I'm trying to force the other SUV or truck to swing a little wider to leave or enter their spot. Anyway, so far it seems to be working. If I park on an end spot, I angle the car in and also turn my front wheels toward the other parking spot. Again, I'm trying to give the illusion the car is wider than it really is. Maybe the other driver will park just a little farther away.
I've never worried much about where I park, but I do have to admit some changes in my behavior. We have a black Prius, and I have already washed it more times than its predecessor, which we have owned for 11 years. Last week I had just washed our black dirt magnet before driving to a neighboring village. I parked on a side street just off the main road and went into a store. I usually park and then walk everywhere in town, but when I came out of the store I discovered, much to my horror, that a landscaping crew was working the yard adjacent to my Prius. Big clouds of fine dust were swirling into the air from the tractor mounted thatcher and backpack leaf blowers. I thought about this for about a half-second, then jumped in the Prius and moved it to a differnt block. Tom
