This is so me.

Again, exactly what I do. When I was T-boned, they hit my pass. side. I try to always park on an end spot, & only offer 1 (potential) side to hit.
I wasn't happy w/. repair job completely, so I try to offer that side & protect the drivers'. Plus, I see drivers', so last thing I want is a dent on that side, but prefer to have on neither.

If I have to have both sides vulnerable, I'll park elsewhere & walk further. If possible.

Now, you 2 guys are using my techniques.

 

My big gripe at work ( a large plant) is that many feel they have to back in to a spot. So they can leave faster maybe? It takes them 3 times longer to park while you wait on them to clear the lane and most of the time they are not strait in the spot, which leads to door ding due to being too close. I try to park at an island and hug the curb and sometimes put 2 tires on the curb so they can swing all the way open and never have a chance of touching mine. I have a ding in my bumper from some SOB backing in with a 4wd and a hitch sticking out. He stopped when the hitch hit my bumper.

I will say that I have been guilty of door dinging on accident when wind caught my door when opening. I felt guilty and figured out whos truck it was a day later but to also notice 3 other worse dings on the same door (truck was 1-2 years old) I no longer felt bad and didn't bother fessing up since it wasn't an issue to him obviously.

 

TurboGibbs, I back into spots, but I don't take a day to do it. Some reasons to back into spots instead: When you're ride is cold it uses more gas. To go into R, uses more than in D, due to gearing. Pull straight out, fixes both.
In winter, it's easier too, since my rear defroster isn't workin. W/. snow on rear window, it's harder to see outta it.

I have a nice crease on D side behind rear tire. In snowy winter, due to some clown who had a hitch mounted platform only 6-12" off ground. I went to back into spot (I start at ~3-4am, so it's extremely dark on that dimmest part of lot, flood light doesn't work), & since I'm lowered, my mirror didn't pick it up. His platform stopped my truck. He said, ya, I've been meaning to put some reflective tape on there & paint it so it more visible, instead of all rusty. Really, w/. snow on the ground & in dark, it was extremely hard to see it. He never did paint it & said others had done that too. Well, no ****! Even tho it looks likea fine, dirty line & crease isn't really seen cause it's so low, I know it's there & can't stand it.

 

I too try to get the corner spot when possible to reduce the possibility of a ding by 50% by only offering up 1 side of the truck...I've done that, pulled right up to the curb, just to have someone park so close that getting out was just that much harder since I had the curb right up against my driver side.

I'm not a fan of the guy who takes up two spots either...I've often thought of that method but figured that it would bring on an even worse retaliation by someone who was pissed because they wanted one of the spots. I know how pissed I get when the parking lot is crowded and I see that. I've seen convertibles in that situation and get tempted to take a crap on the tool's dash

 

I always try to park next to another cars passenger side, since they are less likely to have a passenger (the driver is a certainty after all).

I can back into spaces way easier and than I can pull into them.

 

Billy, true. I don't care if I had a Lambo or Ferrari or...2 spaces pisses a lot of people off, even if it's way off, & no one is parked there, nor will they. It invites keying cause someone is on principle alone. That & jealousy.

Atomic, exactly. Less likely to have a passenger. Man, u guys are using all my good ideas. I guess now, everyone will know them. Now what? I guess the tools that don't care will read this & use these ideas. Now, I gotta come up w/. innovative other ideas to prevent. Hovercraft or helicopter?

 

hey guys for the valvestems all you need is something i gurantee all of you have already, and it works. i did this to this punk that was always talking **** and drivin like an *** in the parkin lot at school. needlenose vicegrips. i ripped all four of his stems out.