New cars cause parking problems?? It’s official (maybe)

When I washed my car a couple of weeks ago I noticed its picked up 3 parking dinks on the NSR arch, and a hefty bump in the rear bumper


YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

....probably. Now that ive got that off my chest, I don't know how its picked up so many in a short space of time, the 3 dinks on the arch are clearly door opening knocks, one of which left a fair bit of red paint on the car, which T-cut off ok, so theres thankfully no paint damage. I'm driving a 'modern' now which is not only wider than a retro, its also a fair bit squarer than most, so takes up a fair bit of space, but its not a long car, the other problem seems to be cars and pickups that are farrrrrrrr too long for a parking space, so they park on the end of a row which might make it easier to park in, but it also makes it harder to drive around it! I'm sure parking spaces are smaller than they used to be, its not just the cars that are bigger.

I want to say CUV should be banned as wastes of materials but that would then span across to eco warriors saying lambos/exotica should be banned because no-one needs a v10/12. So I'll keep my mouth shut haha

I lose my MG ZTT in a car park now, it's lower and shorter than most modern cars (and some would say it is a modern car...)

Our new fiesta is virtually the same width as my classic range rover, the focus estate was wider and the same length.

Mx5 is a great fit in the spaces except some moron in a massive modern 4x4 which completely fills the space always seems to think it's the perfect car to park next to, hence every time I wash it I find more dents.

I've had three Jeep Cherokee's over the last 25 or so years. With the first one I had comments about the size of it. By the time I had my last one it was dwarfed by Fiat 500L's in car parks!
On the parking away from people thing, wifey does this in her Swift Sport (her pride and joy) and invariably an SUV the size of Essex will park right next to her. Always fun to watch them try to reverse them though.

I find that, generally, the people who park the furthest from the doors of whatever establishment they're visiting take more care than those that park the nearest. Same with people who are aware enough to reverse into parking spaces rather than drive in. It's not an exact science, but I'd expect someone who'd parked neatly, reversed in, at the far end of the carpark, to be the kind of individual that wouldn't bump my car with their door when they went to leave; so a reasonably safe bet to park next to...

Hmm, not sure I would trust that logic.
I used to have a housemate who was not exactly a confident driver, kind of person you could stand and watch them try to parallel park for an hour, and still be a foot from the curb. He always parked miles away from the door of the supermarket simply because he didn't have the confidence/ability to try to park next to other cars. Similar story with my elderly Dad who refuses to give up driving, he can't park anymore, and has terrible awareness of what's going on around him so will always park far from everyone else.
I wouldn't be in a hurry to park next to either!

Back on topic, huge SUVs in car parks are one of my pet peeves. I wouldn't mind so much if these bulbous objects were actually purposeful and spacious on the inside, but as most of them are no bigger than a fiesta in the cabin, I just don't see the point in them.

Early this century I was dailying a '78 XC Falcon wagon that I'd purchased purely because it was cheap and available and I needed something larger than my Civic for family hauling. It had a nice fresh coat of paint, I suspect to hide the fact that it had been assembled from parts off several different cars, so it looked okay from a distance but in truth it was a bit of a shitter. One day I was in a busy supermarket carpark in South Dunedin, just one space from the end of the row. As I was returning with my groceries I observed an older man in a near new vehicle (I don't recall what it was) attempting to park in the now vacant space between my coon and the raised garden bed at the end of the row. He proceeded to make an absolute cock of it, bumping his left rear wheel over the kerb and striking the front right corner of his vehicle against my left front door. Damage to his car, several broken lights, broken plastic bumper, crushed wing, and probably other stuff that wasn't immediately obvious. Damage to my car, a little crease in the door. After I finished laughing I told him what I thought of his driving skills.