After my car was severely damaged in 1981 by a passing car when parked by the side of the road in a 30 limit I only park on the road as a very last resort. Is anyone else this choosy about where they park?
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L\'escargot.
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Due to the houses i've owned being terraces with no off street parking i've parked on the street for the best part of 5 years. Never any damage from other road users - it's usually pedestrians who cause the dents and scratches whilst walking on the pavement.
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Yes, very choosy. Consequently I get slightly more exercise by walking to and from the extremities of supermarket car parks!
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My old man makes me laugh, he drives round and round empty car parks fretting and worrying and muttering and replaying scenarios in his head about what might possibly happen depending on which bay he were to leave it in.
My wife likes me to park close to a trolley bay so she doesn?t have far to push it back.
I like to park close to where the guards patrol (many supermarket car parks have security here) or in the special "wealthy person VIP" area where the bays are extra wide and security is really tight.
I?m currently parked on the pavement on a large mound of ice with about a 20 degree yaw and idly wondering what will happen if the ice melts.
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I like to park close to where the guards patrol (many supermarket car parks have security here) or in the special "wealthy person VIP" area where the bays are extra >> wide and security is really tight.
Wealthy person VIP area ? There's no such thing.
The bays are extra wide because they're for disabled people. Instead, they're used by the owners of Mercs, Jags and other expensive cars - they're rich so no one will argue. They pay some cash to the guard to watch their cars & that's why the security is really tight.
Besides many rich people have a special sticker (that says "I'm a disabled person") on the window just for that purpose so they can park nearby the entrance to the supermarket.
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I am the only Pole over here.
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Normally park on the main London road outside my house, where there are residents' bays, although a car I owned was once written off there by a gung-ho youth in a Toyota Supra. I try to park at the end of a residents' bay, preferably with the car overhanging the end of the bay but the wheels inside it (some local authorities regard this as illegal, but it's well worth arguing about it: I particularly loathe those who park several feet from the end of a bay, taking up a lot of space which then can't be used).
There is often pressure on parking spaces in the area. When pushed I will park almost anywhere, but not quite. In one of the side streets close to where I live I have had a car broken into and tools stolen, and another car stolen and never seen again (a lowish-mileage Peugeot 205 diesel). I am therefore superstitious about parking in that street.
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"although a car I owned was once written off there by a gung-ho youth in a Toyota Supra"
Lud, you?re not in Wood Green are you? I witnessed that accident - he destroyed seven cars on my street. Mine was the first one in a long line that he didn?t hit.
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"although a car I owned was once written off there by a gung-ho youth in a Toyota Supra" Lud, you?re not in Wood Green are you? I witnessed that accident - he destroyed seven cars on my street. Mine was the first one in a long line that he didn?t hit.
Bit more Inner City than that BBD... North Kensington I think they call it.
I wonder if the Supra boy did my Skoda and then came to Wood Green for a bit more fun? Clearly that particular Toyota was not meant for unaccompanied beginners...
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"Clearly that particular Toyota was not meant for unaccompanied beginners..."
He was lucky to walk away from it. I took a day off to lay floorboards and turned to look out of the window as I heard an engine red-lining in a low gear. I kid ye not this lad was doing motorway speeds on our tiny road when he lost it, you would have thought a bomb had gone off. As well as a string of modern cars that he destroyed, he crushed in immaculate old Wolsley (whatever they?re called) - a clear demonstration of the importance of crumple zones - the boot and engine bay met in the middle and the cabin was flattened. The owner was hysterical unsuprisingly.
The mangled Supra came to rest on its side and the young lad climbed out as fresh and unshaken as you like. It was all very surreal to be happening on a quiet little road, I remember just laughing when I saw my car unharmed amongst all the wreckage.
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""although a car I owned was once written off there by a gung-ho youth in a Toyota Supra"
Firstly, it wasn't me!
You don't usually get youths in Supras - unless it was stolen?
Anyway, although lamenting the demise of a Supra, I rejoice to note the miscreant was personally undamaged. I will now feel really safe in Toad.
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Firstly, it wasn't me! You don't usually get youths in Supras - unless it was stolen?
I never saw my miscreant who drove off, but I think the car was probably his dad's... Sounds as if BBD's one might have been his dad's too. Of course young fellows often borrow the old man's car without permission.
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"Of course young fellows often borrow the old man's car without permission"
Difficult to say, it was one one the mid 80s kind, 3 litre turbo jobbies. The ones that look like Knight Rider, probly dirt cheap by the mid 90s when it happened. Chap was Greek I seem to remember. Completely unperturbed. Reversed baseball cap, and "wicked innit".
We had a decorator in at the time who lost his escort van in the crash and never got paid out because it was untaxed.
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The ones that look like Knight Rider,probly dirt cheap by the mid 90s when it happened. Chap was Greek I seem to remember.
Mine was a bit newer and the guy lived in Southall, if that means anything. Have to say his or his dad's insurance paid up decently.
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Last time I parked outside my house my car was hit by a young lad in an Astra who must have been going very fast. My car (a Senator) ended up in a garden 50 yards down the road and was a write off.
He had been drinking and kept repeating "the guys in the other car ran off down that way"! This was at 1am on a Sat morning and I had been asleep.
Ambulance came and took him away. The police arrived at 4.30 am. I was still there in the pouring rain with a torch and an umbrella directing traffic (it's a busy road).
No action was taken against him.
I'll only park in the road again if I want to get rid of my car!
Regards DougB.
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I'll only park in the road again if I want to get rid of my car!
I'm pleased it's not just me that thinks this way. I was half expecting to be called neurotic!
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L\'escargot.
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"Wealthy person VIP area ? There's no such thing"
Well that?s probly not its proper name V de M but you know the fenced off areas of the car park that have barriers and a man in a box... Tescos certainly have em. Geant don?t have them. Promenada shopping centre has them on the second level of the new section. There are two bays between concrete pillars as oppsed to the usual 3. And they have them outside the Cinema complex in Promenada too. Only costs a few pence extra but it?s peace of mind.
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where are you BBD? Poland?
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Yeah but I?m sure many other countries have them - a little enclosure for maybe twenty or thirty cars that guarentees a little extra security.
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Yeah but I?m sure many other countries have them - a little enclosure for maybe twenty or thirty cars that guarentees a little extra security.
First Class Parking: the result of decades of scientific socialism.
In big African towns boys and youths used to offer to look after your car when you left it in the street. Didn't cost much, and a lot of people felt it was prudent to accept.
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In big African towns boys and youths used to offer to look after your car when you left it in the street. Didn't cost much, and a lot of people felt it was prudent to accept.
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Sounds like the system in use near Anfield and other football grounds; 'Watch your car for a fiver Mister?'
The trick is of course to tear the fiver in half and supply the second half when the car is unharmed!
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I never leave mine out after dark, toerags like the cover of darkness to do a bit of vandalism 'en passant'.My nextdoor neighbour often leaves his in the road all night even though his drive is empty,but then he is not the sharpest knife in the draw.
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>> Sounds like the system in use near Anfield and other football grounds; 'Watch your car for a fiver Mister?' The trick is of course to tear the fiver in half and supply the second half when the car is unharmed!
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Friend of mine from the Wirral once parked up for shopping in Liverpool & was asked the same thing "Watch your car etc......."
Wherupon he pointed to his large dog that was asleep in the back
of his estate car and said - No thanks, no one will try to steal the car with him in there - to which the scallly replied " yeah mate - but can he put out fires!"
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