Yep..

And when going out at night, there are certain places I just will not go.

I appreciate the friends that are willing to drive knowing the situation...
..but there are others who honestly do not get it.

'You paid 'x' number of dollars for a car you won't drive?'
No I drive it, but I'm selective where/when.
Like downtown when all the retarded drunk college kids are out... jelousy is a stinky cologne..

 

I was like that till Summer hit last year. Then I decided killing myself in the heat wasn't worth parking a mile from the store.
I give her garage concessions and make a point to park near mustangs- that's it!

 

I try to be as careful as I can; parking next to curbs, near nicer well-maintained cars, etc. But the door dings are unavoidable. I have 3 dings that are the result of other people's disregard and negligence. What can you do, except not drive it. Eventually I'll see about getting them repaired.

 

And people laughed that I wanted door trim put on , it does help but that line on the centre protrudes more than the dang trim so not sure how much they help, the most is road guck or stones flying about putting nicks in it. I used to not sleep but now that a year has passed I got over it and leave pc in the car with a camera set on motion sensor that when someone is in proximity it will record it. then if they do mess or I luck out and get something useable I Nail them !

 

My wife has already noticed I suddenly have new favorite restaurants and they are never crowded.

 

I've had mine for a year and a half now... I still can't take it to a restaurant because I quickly loose my appetite worrying about the car... no matter where I park it.

 

This obsession extends beyond the Mustang for me. My 1997 Mercury Mountaineer has 148,000 miles on it and if it wasn't for the occasional flying rock tricks, the paint job would be still perfect. Cleanest 148K beater that I've ever seen...

Then there are the evil bastards who take exception to your careful parking tactics. Someone keyed my '95 Canary Yellow GT within 6 months...

 

I'll drop her off at the door so that "she don't have to walk" and of course pick her up there as well (gives me time to check for any damage!). But eventually they catch on, and I've said to her... "Unfortunately some people have no respect for other people's property, so I need to park farther away to avoid door dings or whatever and it is just something you are going to have to deal with, because I am not going to change". She just shakes her head, but because she loves me, she prefers to walk with me, unless of course the weather is bad. Works with her and those before her. And if not, she is probably "high maintenance" and you are better off without her!

And you are right. "There is no getting over it!" I'd need too much therapy, and it wouldn't work anyway!

 

Yes I wont park it anywhere there is a chance of a dent. I wil walk two miles to get to the entrance of a place. I will circle a parking lot for 20 minutes until a safe place opens up.

 

I always try to park away from other cars, and near curbs when I can. If I park next to another car, I try to stay away from the beaters, and cars that are parked crooked. I avoid those lifted, rusty chevys with the 'calvin pee'ing on ford oval' stickers on the back window like the plaug.

On a side note, I was parked at the grocery store a few days ago, and I was leaving my car when a man and his young son (3-5 years old) walked by... The little boy kept saying "daddy! daddy!, look, a mustang!" I got a good smile from that. Youre never too young to like cars.

 

I just never drive her, I keep her in the garage, and no dings at all....just kidding...

Thanks God I have the second car, so I driver her only if there is no rain, I know where I am going and I know I can park her in a safe place....She never seen a rain in her life....

She is 2 months old and has only 700 miles. I know this is crazy but I just can't see her getting hurt....

So, I parked her once in the far end of a parking lot, no cars in a 100ft radius, I came after 30min and saw a pickup truck parked next to her, not even parallel but in 45 degree angle and the front bumper of the truck half feet away from my passanger door...No damage or anything but I just don't get the point. After that now I am even more paranoic.

 

Luckily no one has scratched, dinged, or keyed my car as of yet. (knocks on wood) I will always be worried about my mustang no matter where I park it. My friends at work know this and decided to tell me one day that they saw a long scratch down my drivers side door! PUNKS! They all got a great laugh out of that. The place I'm most afraid of parking my car is my College parking lot. I've heard too many horror stories involving campus parking. For example: My cousin on my fathers side bought a brand new Toyota Tacoma and it was keyed on his FIRST day of college! The day after I installed my front fascia, ducktail, and painted mirrors I had class at 6:40 p.m. I parked my car in the middle of the parking lot all by itself.(The parking lot was actually pretty empty). When I came out of class at 9:30 p.m. The only thing on my mind was meeting my buddies in Long Beach for some much needed R&R. Anyway as I'm approaching my car (the parking lot is even emptier) I notice a honda civic parked next to me on my passenger side! Of all the places they could park their civic, they HAD to park next to me didn't they. I look over my car to see if they scratched my passenger door, and as I'm doing that I notice 4 young guys with their pants down past their Bum holes, thay are wearing chains aroung their neck and are walking like they are the ...sh.t. All the while yelling profanities to each other are heading in my direction. Why couldn't this civic be owned by someone else! They jump in their car and head off. I know they saw me checking my car out and were probably talking bad about it but who cares. After seeing these guys I decided a more thorough investigation of my car was in order. I found soda bottles by each of my tires. ( they were probably hoping I would run them over as I took off) But as I see it, I was VERY lucky they didn't do anything else. Now the more upgrades I do to my car, I realize the more people are going to want to mess with it. So maybe I'm doing this to myself?! All I know is if ANYBODY touches my car I will go POSTAL .

 

Hey Jimmy you just reminded me what happened the second week I had my mustang. It still had the temp tag on. I went to a college party at a dorm. Got drunk hooked up with a "Friend" go out the next morning and the temp tag is gone and my front tires are flat. Someone had swipped the paper tag and let the air out of my tires. I was FUMMING. the tires had about 5-10 pounds in them so i drove VERY slowly to the corner gas station and pumped them up.

 

I do park my car far away at public places, but I wonder if that tends to attract vandals sometimes. Here in Arizona, its not so uncommon during this time of year to see more cars parked far away so that they can park under a tree for the shade. So for a little while I'm not so conspicuous.

I'm pretty lucky at work. I work downtown and one of my ex-coworkers who still works downtown has a new Mustang also. We park next to each other in the multilevel garage on level 3 where nobody hardly parks. There was a third guy who had new Mustang also, so I invited him to start parking next to us up there, out of concern. He was parking on level 1 - the bottom level with all the 'haters' who don't think twice about their vehicle, or yours. We're starting our own "Mustang Row" !

 

Almost 2 years and I still park like most of you... Glad to see I'm not the only crazy one. (dingus-parnoidus)

 

Good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't drive in the rain.
That's what trucks are for.
I've taken to only parking where I can see the car from inside the building.

 

I used to park my beater with a group of cars, because it's just that, a beater. Small ding? Oh well, it drives and gets great gas mileage. Until I find some ******* not only just scratches the car... but not the paint... ON THE REAR WINDOW! And it wasn't anything small either. THAT pissed me off. At work there's a spot I tend to park and I find nobody else parking there. Works for me.

 

Rules of Eleanor;
garage- ALWAYS:
Park next to other mustangs and where cars can only park on one side whenever possible.
When eating out- park where you can see her when eating.
She doesn't as a rule go to the mall. Thats what my POS is for.

As far as for parking at the end of lots- that lasted like 4 months before I got bored with it.

 

Yeah I'm sick like the rest of you. Wife was griefing me at the theatre the other day, she knows how I am so I have no idea why she complains. Were both in our low 30's and while not huge, certainly wouldn't hurt to get a little walking in. Just drives me up the wall as she knows I'll rant to holy hell if I catch a ding because of her.

I practice the same parking mantra as the rest of you though, hopefully this one says good. My Mazda 3 has 4 dings in the same door in roughly the same spot including one GOUGE. Just pisses me off, I see it all the time here too, people just flinging doors open, parents pulling their SUV's into tiny spots to get 4' closer to the building and then letting their 4 year old bust out of the truck like it was on fire flinging the doors wide open with glee.

We also have a high ethnic population (sudanese, E Indian, chinese etc.) and they by and large just don't give a flying f about your property so I try to avoid any cars that blatantly appear to be one of their wagons.

I'm pretty sure my Mazda was dented at work though, I couldn't figure out why I kept getting them in the same spot. I finally figured out that the spot on my left was a "temp" spot were other IT people would occupy it time to time. There is this one honda Civic that parks in there backwards (the only car that does) and the car when backwards lines up perfectly with their drivers door and where my dents are. I can't prove it so nothing I can do aside from parking 4-5" farther over in my spot, thankfully the passenger side is wide open.

 

I've had my car for just over 5 months now, and when I do take it out (its my weekend vehicle, my "toy"), and go to the mall, or to the bookstore, grocery store, etc..., I will always park my car away from everyone else. I don't mind the longer walk. The way people in my area park their cars just boggles my mind. They all don't give a rats A() about anyone else's property. There are certain places that I go to, where I always park REAL far away. Costco, for example, I will park at the far end of the lot, and uphill (if I can) and next to an island.
At Costco, a few years back, I had my Escape company car parked in the 1st normal spot. I went in for 5 minutes to get a pack of Crossiants. Came out, and saw one of their carts (the heavy, metal ones), directly against my rear fender of my Escape. Left a nasty crease on it. Went in, and got them to pay for the fix (even though, they wanted to refuse it)That showed me that they don't have their employees doing cart duty, so my Mustang gets parked way far away. Just yesterday, I went to Acme, and saw this guy take his cart, and lift it and put it on the island infront of where he parked his car. Now, the cart return was only 3 car spaces to his right. He was too lazy to walk the cart up there. Amazing
It always happens though, when you do park away from everyone, that some *&^%(*&^ had to park his car right next to you, when they have 50+ spots that are closer. So far though, 0 dings, but I do check when I see a car that parked real close.