Nissan 370Z Forum - Parking your Z....straight... in the lines.

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- - Parking your Z....straight... in the lines. (http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-general-discussions/30233-parking-your-z-straight-lines.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 370Z Purist (Post 895673)

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 can definitely attest to that. Haven't had any experiences with ricers, but there's always a 20 yr old rusty piece of junk just waiting to park right next to you even if the entire parking lot is empty and even if you are parked far away. It's like they do it on purpose or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by djpathfinder (Post 895591)

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.

+1 for using wheel well bulge as a reference point. This seems to be helpful

blind spot mirrors on both sides that show the lines.....

I usually do 2 things when backing into a spot:

1) Use my side mirrors to get inside the lines with room to spare on each side.
2) Once I cant see the lines anymore, I go back and forth looking at the parking spot across from mine to make sure I am straight (usually they line up perfectly) and to the spots next to me to make sure I back in as far as I want.

It helps me back in perfectly all the time :tup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfessorDave (Post 895845)

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?

why is this a pet peeve? If someone is parked off centre and close to the line, and if you then park right in the middle of the spot, it will be impossible to get out of the car. Not to mention the huge risk of getting scratches and door dings. Yes it leads to a domino effect, but you can't control it. Its all the fault of the idiot in the first spot who parked off centre, or sometimes in winter snow accumulation can block part of the first parking spot, which then forces the first car to be parked off centre.

Too many people are afraid of walking a couple of spots - I park a few spots off when I can find room.