Car Parks and Great Walls - my thoughts. What are yours?

[chris]

Jacqueline if I saw your car parked out there by itself I i would park my ralliart next to you as I know for sure one side was safe lol.
We use a twenty year old ford laser mostly for shopping which was my late mothers, that was brought new and still chugging along,

[SXLancerMum]

If I was parked by your Ralliart there would be people standing around staring at the sexy cars sitting together.

After I left the surf club car park I had to go to Woolies. Nobody parked beside me there thankfully. The guy picking up the trolleys was just staring at my car. I wasn't in there very long. When I came back he was still at the same trolley bay just staring at my car. That guy really must like Lancers.

[SXLancerMum]

Another car park another idiot

Yesterday I had to go to Taree (160km round trip) to get my daughters birthday presents. I parked miles away from the shops in the Big W carpark, as you do, and nobody else was in sight. While I was sitting there organising myself some bird in an old ute came and parked right beside me. I couldn't believe it. After she wandered off I reversed out and found myself another spot. When I came back you could see all the new cars lined up against the wall with a space between each of them

Anyhoooo that trip yesterday was the first time I actually got to drive my car, by myself, any great distance. It was so much fun. It went like a dream. We have a rather hilly and winding road to travel to Taree and it was brilliant. People keep telling me that of course I'm going to rave about something else because anything is better than the Bubble (not true actually because they're wonderful cars) but they forget that we get decent new cars every year for work. The Lancer has got to be close to the top of the best we've ever had. And that's saying something after us playing with 28 new cars in 23 years (including the ones our parents bought in that time that we have driven frequently and my Bubble as well as the approx 23 work ones).

And the stereo is pretty good even for the basic one. I plugged my ipod into the usb in the glovebox and it was brilliant. And every time my daughter rang me all I had to do was press a lovely button on the steering wheel and talk to her. Oh how I love bluetooth. My new iPhone 3GS works a treat with it

That's two brilliants. I could use it many more times. I had sooooo much fun driving over there.

My daughter got her Ps yesterday morning. She got a CD for her 17th birthday (which was also yesterday) and had the hide to ask me if she could drive her friends around in MY car so they could listen to her new Pink CD. Ummmm don't think so my love. That's the reason I got the Lancer. So she could have my old Bubble. It just doesn't have a decent stereo system in it. She can listen to her ipod through the FM transmitter. Better than nothing eh She's already used half a tank of petrol in one afternoon. She pretty much drove the old car around from 1pm to 10pm with a couple of stops for tea and snacks in between. Just as well it's good on fuel.

[blade888]

I must agree on the 'Park alone and someone will have to park next to you' experience. I get this often too. When instructing cadets, I would park in a multistory carpark, there would be *3 LEVELS* worth of free spaces from where the taken spaces start. Since I can clearly see my car from my office desk, I can see someone will have to park next to me. They would then get out of their car. Have a good look at mine then walk away. It's a different person each time too. Seriously, what the ****!?!

I also avoid parking next to 4WD or high wheel based people movers. 7 Times out of 10 I will get a dent in the side of the car from their door, pram, trolley, or kids literally kick or slam into my car as they jump out. Good thing I know a place that pops the dents out good as new cheaply, just as long as the paint work isn't too damaged. So now these days even when there's a sweet parking spot in a very busy carpark, but it's next to a 4WD or high people mover, I'll avoid it and give it to someone else to deal with the damage.

Great wall cars? Cheap internal plastics, feels like you've decked out the car with 2 dollar shop toys. And in the Australian sun I'm not so sure those plastics will last longer than a couple of years.

[Gleno]

The shopping centre where i go to regulary has some spaces where its close to double the width of a normal parking spot. Most of the time i get a parking spot there because, firstly its a fair distance from the entrance,and secondly the times that i go shopping most people are still at work.

There are some places i go to where the parking spots are so narrow its not funny. Take sydney Airport for example,your car is more than likely to get a dent if you park in the domestic terminal,if you are lucky enough to escape having some sort of dent,you will find your tyre valve caps will be stolen.

BTW i didnt realise until the other day that the MY11 models have USB. Not sure if its a good idea being in the glove box,most car models have it in the centre console or the main headunit.

Are you able to put a USB stick in and close the glove box so u can play music??

[SXLancerMum]

The USB in the glovebox is good. It saves on your ipod being in full view and the steering wheel stereo controls work the ipod. Nice. It's supposed to do the same with a USB as well. Haven't tried it on one of those yet. My family have lost the 5 or 6 I own.

The aux in thing has 2 audio inputs like from your DVD or whatever. I don't have the right connections for that anyway.

Small parking places are very common in Newcastle. Charlestown Square has tiny spots and really tiny ramps as well. I hate driving my husbands Captiva down there. I scraped it on a pole a while ago trying to get it into a parking spot. We'd only had it for 2 weeks or something. I'd never had an incident in a carpark in my life. To say I was upset was an understatement. The turning circle on those things is really bad too. A B Double has a better turning circle. Westfield is no better.