people that can't park & have no respect for other peoples properties!

[wai]

I should fess up.

Around 1989, I was driving home from work, and a moment's inattention saw me run up the back of a Camira wagon in my Torana at around 30 km/h. My fault, but fortunately the Camira had the bumper integrated into the tailgate so was extremely strong. Also, my bumper bar and its were a perfect match for height. My bumper bar did its job and was quite flattened. The Camira had no damage at all, except for a couple of rubber marks from my bumper which rubbed of at the scene.

A couple of years later, I had bought a new bumper but just did not have the time to fit it. I was parked on the street near where I worked, and one day on my way home I noticed a little note flapping under the wiper. When I retrieved it, it was an apology in very shaky handwriting admitting to having accidentally rolled back into my car (it was on a slight slope). The driver (female) got out to survey the damage, and was quite horrified to see what she thought she had done!

Anyhow, I called the number on the note and her brother answered and I told him what had happened, and that if she had actually done any more damage, it would be hard to tell. He said he would pass the message on "after he had some fun with her as she always told him how good a driver she was".

So, accidents do happen, and you have to be on your guard at all times. As a minimum, every car should be covered by what used to be called "third party property, fire and theft" insurance. With that comes the responsibility to do the right thing.

On the issue of driving standards, my current client has a system of 6 monthly driver checks for all its salaried employees. Every 6 months, every employee must undergo a driving check. That's everyone from the CEO down. They are assessed by other employees, however there are no favours asked or given. Employees (all levels) have failed and have had to undergo formal driver training before undergoing a fresh driving check.

It might sound a bit much, but their argument is that as an employee you might have to transport other employees around and so you need to meet a minimum acceptable driving standard. Until you pass a drive check, you cannot drive any other employee or client around.

We all need to undergo periodic testing.

On the issue of park assist and reversing and front parking sensors, they are only tools and drivers should be able to park a car without the need for them. They do not remove the need for looking.

[valgamesh]

When I finally convinced my dad to get a Golf TDI he kept it at home for the first 4 days, the first time he parked it at the shops his entire back end got crushed in and the stupid lady told him after he rang her she had considered not leaving details as he'd most likely not get it fix through her insurance or at least thats what everyone else had done in the past.

[Corey_R]

I think that with excesses being ~$600 for a standard excess, but with people having the "option" of increasing that up to $2000 (even higher?) to decrease the cost of their premium, it makes people less likely to be honest in these situations. If you hit someone's car, and cause the damage they did to fuzion's Polo above... that's effectively a $2000 mistake for some of these people. Whilst they are scum for not owning up, I feel that this is a negative side effect of these high excesses. No idea what the case is here of course, but I feel that this is one thing contributing to the problem. Apart from people these days are just lame

[djorkboy]

On some occasions when I park my car I notice that the car in the next spot is clearly parked by someone who can't control their car properly, is parked hard up against one side of the parking spot (which means there is a higher than usual chance they will smack their door into my car) or a car next to me has parking scrapes all over it ....or I just "get a feeling". I quickly, and discreetly, take 3 photos on my phone. 1 of my car, 1 of theirs and a wide view of both cars.

It may seem a bit extreme to go to these lengths but there are so many dishonest people out there. If they do pull out and scrape my car I will have a picture of their license plate, a picture of them parked badly, a picture of my car before the damage was done and a picture of their car before the damage was done, all conveniently geo-tagged and time-stamped by my phone.

[elephino]

Random dings that appear on the car from car parks are so annoying. On my MkV GTI, I had a dent on the rear door from about a week after I got it due to parents letting their child open the door for themselves. A few over the years make you wonder what had happened that the other person was able to make a dent or scratch in that spot.

[bigfoot]

On the issue of driving standards, my current client has a system of 6 monthly driver checks for all its salaried employees. Every 6 months, every employee must undergo a driving check. That's everyone from the CEO down. They are assessed by other employees, however there are no favours asked or given. Employees (all levels) have failed and have had to undergo formal driver training before undergoing a fresh driving check.

thats what we need to i.e. whenever you renew you licence you should be tested to an extent

[Cookie28]

I completely agree with everything that you guys have said, although I am just about to turn 17 and go for my p's. My mum is a great teacher and encourages me to reverse as much as possible and if given the chance I reverse. I think that this is fantastic as she is making sure that I am competent for when I get my p's. We even went for a drive this afternoon mainly to practice my parking before my driving test on Thursday. Although I have seen many of my friends parents not give them sufficient advice or help when they are learning with anew parents even refusing to drive with my friends... Which sucks for them...

[rikard1]

my parking preference:

- between two columns
- if its single column then close to that column so people arent tempted to walk between my car and that column
- end of a row where its possible to park over the line away from the car next to me (unless its likely a trolley will be left there)
- nowhere near a trolley return bay
- never on a slope where a trolley or something could roll into my car
- nowhere near thoroughfares where lots of people have to walk past my car (carrying shopping or pushing trolleys)
- never outside a pub or club
- never next to a van, coupe or 4wd (especially **** ones)
- never next to any ****box (obviously)
- nowhere within egg throwing distance from the road late at night

any more?

[wai]

You know it is not just other drivers who have no sense of responsibility. I had fitted two animal repeller high frequency whistles on the splitter lip of my Caddy. I don't know how effective they are. Well, I discovered today that some idiot had walked between my vehicle and the one in front of me (more than 1 m gap left by me), and they managed to snag one and break it off. What amazes me is that they actually took the time to clean off the remnants of the adhesive pad from the splitter lip and then in a crude attempt to hide what they did, they stomped on the one knocked off to try and make it unrecognisable on the road. If they had meant to do damage or steal it, why leave the other one behind?

I decided to remove the remaining one as it looked odd on its own. The Caddy whistles (wind noise much like many old Kingswoods did) at speeds over 90 km/h so it is probably producing enough of a warning for wildlife anyway. I am heading down to Bendigo next week.

[Dyldo]

on Sunday morning the Polo was parked in Homebush near Moto Ex show being held.

Left for about 1 hour ish if that in total.

some f****er decided to leave a nice gash into the rear bar and leave of course with no details as they cannot own up to damaging other peoples property!



luckily with of a bit of paint correction i got about 95% off thankfully but some fine marks still evident that will not come out unfortunately



Very disheartening how rude and disrespect people still are these days. If you cant afford to insure it, dont drive it.

KILLER paint resto there mate. Need to discuss this and a few other things with you if thats cool?

You should work in a detailer's business with that sort of skill