RE: Anybody else experienced parking lot troubles with your BMW?

[Compucepts@xxxxxxx]

>Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 22:47:29 -0500
>From: "John Ward" <jtward@domain.elided>
>Subject: <All> Anybody else experienced parking lot troubles with your BMW? 

>Hey everybody, well today I was minding my own business when I decided to
>stop at the local CompUSA to pick up some software. The parking lot around
>this particular establishment is rather large. As usual, to protect my car
>('92 E36 325i 4dr) from dings I parked at the far end of the lot, taking 2
>spaces. Since it wasn't busy I figured no problem - won't have to worry
>about some idiot opening their door into me or a shopping cart getting
>knocked into the side of my car. Upon returning to my car I find a red
>(faded paint, dented) '92ish Honda Civic 4dr DX about 3 inches from the
>passenger side of my car. Having the ENTIRE parking lot he naturally had to
>practically side-swipe me. I checked my car and no dents so I was lucky.
>Anybody else encountered behavior like this? Some may say it's my fault for
>being too careful, obessive, etc.... but it's a shame you can't have
>anything nice in this country anymore without some a$$hole wanting to tear
>it up. Strangely enough, my last car was a Honda Accord coupe and when I
>parked in the same fashion nobody noticed. I suppose he was just jealous.
>The general public must be generally ignorant since it's a 7 year old car
>with almost 123,000 miles on it. I just happen to want to actually take care
>of my car... can't say the same for his Civic. Sorry but I just had to vent
>a little of the frustration I experienced today to help regain my sanity.
>:-)
>
>Regards,
>
>John
>
>1990 750iL
>1992 325iA
>BMW CCA #150800

John,

In an effort to prevent yet another flame war on a digest that is slowly
recovering from recent battles, I will try to say this diplomatically.

I realize that you probably had the best of intentions in parking your car
away from everybody, but you mentioned that you double parked. I also know
that a 750 is a gorgeous car and you want to take care of it, but I understand
where the Civic is coming from. Whenever I see someone double-parked it
bothers me. It just seems like such an obnoxious statement. There is a guy at
my office park who double parks his Audi A4 in the lot. One day I came back
from lunch and as a joke two of my employees had matched his diagonal parking
and had parked about a foot from his car. To be honest it was amusing. I also
have a car that I cherish, but I realize that even though my intentions may be
good in double-parking it, others may view that as an obnoxious sign of
superiority. Like it or not, BMW's symbolize wealth and nuveau reich to many
people today, so you may be better off parking away from everybody but in a
single spot to avoid getting anyone else angry. Hope this helps.

David Koretz
'93 325i parked in the corner of a parking lot, but never taking two spaces.

------------------------------

End of bmw-digest V9 #526
*************************