I always back into spots with mine, I just use the side mirrors, a habit I picked up from driving trucks. I don't angle down my mirrors or anything but the way I have them set is fine for me

You do if you don't know where the space is. Sometimes there isn't an opportunity to actually see where the lines are...

my feeling about parking is don't take any chance. if sticking your head out of the window works for you then do it. it's better to be safe than to be sorry :)

If you have the Nav system, get a backup camera kit from the forum... it works great as a guide for backing

I enthusiast park (azz in first) all my vehicles most of the time. In the 370, I angle my mirrors out to minimize the blind spots. Even with that, I can still see the rear wheel well bulge in the side mirror. I use that hump in the mirror to judge how far I am from the curb or from the lines. In my FX45, I use the rear door handle as a point of reference. You just have to find some reference point on each vehicle...to me the wheel well hump works.

I also just installed the same back up camera that Wheee! has, so that will help out too next summer.

one of my pet pieves are people like you. Whenever i see people do that, i park in the lane they are taking up, about 1/2 - 1 inch away from there door so they have to go through the passenger side. Then i take pictures of there plates and car incase they decide to do anything to my truck. Did it to one women at the base gym. Got a PA through the building about needing to move my truck, went outside, women started bitching me out, i told her to **** off and went back to the gym. Stop being a bitch and use one spot like your suppose to.

Well that depends, does he park far far away? If you do, then what someone else mentioned will happen; you'll either have some ugly POS park next to you, or you'll end up with ricers/other tuners (typically less mature) parking RIGHT next to you. Not in front, not two spaces away, but always on your drivers side.

Taking up two spaces is just unnecessary. Park five cars down from the densest area and you'll avoid having your car keyed, dinged, or boxed in by other cars.

I just back up or creep forward until i hear a thud on my car

thats my point exactly. If someone is that worried about there car being dinged, they should park far enough away from other cars. That being said, theres still no excuse for taking multiple parking spots, regardless if you are at the back of the parking lot. Not saying who, but someone on these forums was taking up 4 parking spots in a parking lot. If i didnt have such respect for others peoples property, i would have key his car myself. But like i said, i have respect for other peoples property, so i wouldnt do something like that..... but theres still no reason why he or anyone else has to take up 4 spots.

Hell its been -30*C lately, i go to the mall with my srt-10, i park at the end of the parking lot and walk to the entrence. And if i bring my ZX6R, i park at a "non offical" parking spots for bikes....its kinda like a side walk that devides the parking spots and the entrence to the lot...pretty much where bikers park so they dont take up spots just for their bikes.

Rear camera is great for gauging distance behind you. I love mine on my HU. Its a nice luxury.

But as far parking straight that's all drivers skill. Practice maybe ? Haha

I use my mirrors. Never had a problem. No angling or anything , not any different than any other car...

Kinda like just close your eyes and hope for the best? LOL

I agree with fullmonty that using your mirrors to back up all/most of the time will help you get more skilled at getting into those spots straight.

I also use the stick on blind spot mirrors on all my cars. You can see the lines of a parking spot easily with those.

A related pet peeve, anyone notice that MANY drivers don't try to stay between the lines when they park, they either just try to split the difference between cars (causing a domino effect of car after car parked right on the line) or favor the drivers side of their own car, parking too close to the car on the p-side?

+1, I always back in with my drivers door open and mind the line with my own eyes.

haha this thread was all about seeing if anyone else had done this. I do this somtimes and feel like an idiot if I think someone is watching. "Nice car and you have to open the door to see the lines?" but it is so effective and it feels neat to be hanging out the door feathering the clutch/throttle.

Thanks for all the responses.

and one of my pet peeves is people like you who drive those ugly land yachts and just have to park in tight spots. The width of the truck coupled with the usually narrow parking spots means there is usually less than 2 feet between my car and the truck. This, coupled with the longer doors of sports cars like the Z make it very hard to get into or out of the car. And it doesn't end there. The length and height of most trucks means that when I'm pulling out of the parking space, I can't see if any car is coming across, so I have to creep out very slowly and hope that no one hits me until I'm far enough out of the spot to be able to see the traffic.