Ok, Faye, just what does this say that I wrote: "pulled into the parking lot of a Winchell's Donut Shop and pulled into a parking spot". Both parking lot and parking spot are in my opening post.
You missed my point that you never made it clear in your OP that you ONLY wanted to discuss parking in a space in a parking lot and no other discussion about parking such as curb whether parallel or head in at a 45 would be welcome or appreciated. Furthermore, I don't know anything about any Winchell Donut parking lots and spaces. It could have been parallel parking in their lot for all I know. Anyway, I get that you didn't appreciate my post, so never again will I get suckered into your web of negative contention.
The last time I had to take a driver’s test, there was a guy out in the lot trying to get his CDL and failing miserably in the backing up stage. By the looks of the condition of the cones, he wasn’t the only one who had problems but this guy totally took out two cones on his third and final try. Just replacing the cones must be one of the reasons why getting a CDL is so expensive here.
I've been driving for 60 years now and have never clipped another car in a parking lot. Why? Because I'm careful and back out slowly so I can adjust my tires to the situation. I don't feel the need to obsess about it.
Oh my goodness, what did I just click into . I could go on about my parking experiences but nah. I will say though that when parking at the curb I turn my wheels to the curb and when parking in a lot I park as far away as I can from other vehicles because some don't care how they park.
Ok, you folks are still missing my point: I'm talking about pulling into a straight (box type) parking spot, not an angled one. After that incident, with the company truck, and then, after turning and pulling into a straight parking spot, straightening out my wheels (from pulling in), looking to my left and seeing the truck next to me with its wheels turn in (not out) towards me, we decided to find a different parking spot. IOW, if the guy next to me, got back to his vehicle before we did, forgot to straighten his wheels before pulling out, he would've most definitely hit the front quarter panel of our vehicle. Without a picture to show, it could be difficult to explain or picture in your mind.
@Cody Fousnaugh, I get your point but you will never know if he did or didn't do what 'you' thought. Based on your gut you thought it was best for you to park elsewhere, just in case. I get it.
Thanks, Von, but, when we seen his wheels turned into the direction of our vehicle, if he forgets and backs up out of his spot, our vehicle gets hit. Since that happened to me with that company truck, I'm very aware about how someone is parked when I pull in next to them. Whether it's their front wheels or parking to close to another parking spot or, and yes, have seen this also.......someone pulled into a parking spot at an angle, not straight (like the parking spot requires.
I think if I remember right at one time that question was in the Texas Drivers License exam, and it was required to have the wheels curbed, in out it made no difference because depending on facing a slope up or down the car would curb itself if it happened to roll on it's own with no one at the wheel. The point was to prevent the car from rolling into traffic by curbing. ! I don't know if it still exist in the exam today or not. I do know curbing is not good for our latest designs that all use rack and pinion steering, the weight of the car can damage the rack by bending it if too much force was used. They do bend easily, and if it is bent your steering in one direction will stick and not return to center without your on input. They really feel funny when you drive one, I know this after working for Nissan and working on Maxima and Sentra s. Every time we repaired a rack we would leave the steering wheel nut off and take it for a road test to let the wheel center with the direction on smooth roads and once we find a nice straight ride we would lock the steering wheel down so it was perfect.
Again, and I should’ve made this clear in the thread title, but didn’t, not talking about curb parking. Only talking about parking lot space parking that is like a box, not at an angle.
I always used to straighten the wheels after parking on my old truck, because the steering wheel would lock for some reason sometimes if you didn't, and it was tricky to unlock. I never noticed how others' wheels were parked before, but it would make a difference. I always worried more about dings from opening doors. Try to do like @Von Jones, and park far away from others, so it wouldn't matter. At the grocery store Sometimes I'd come back and someone would be parked right beside me anyway, even this far out. Couldn't get the groceries near with a cart.
Ya know, I really hate those pesky yellow lines all over a parking lot. I think the object of the game is to park so as to cover as many of those lines as possible so I do my own due diligence and have found that I can take out at least 3 and if I open the tailgate I can crowd 4 of them if I park just right. Now, I have found that if I turn my wheels to their limit that I can disembark and not even scratch those rigs that can’t even cover 2 lines on both sides of me. Note: I know the wheel turn limit is just right when I hear a loud screechy groan coming from somewhere under the hood.