I'm not worried about hitting anything myself, thanks to the parking assist feature. But let's face it, the average driver uses park-by-braille and I'm afraid of getting the bumpers re-decorated by others who park near me. The bumpers have a reputation for being flimsy and who knows how little it will take to do a lot of expensive damage to the fog lights or rear sensors (conveniently mounted in the most-smashable areas of the vehicle).

I guess if you're a Cadillac owner you shouldn't be going anywhere so low-class that people park on the street, anyway. :)

I'll give you a thought on the name Cadillac.

Over the last 8 years I have received at least twice as much incidental or collateral damage on Cadillacs as I have Vetts.

I swear that it was caused by people resenting that you have one and they don't. But then maybe it is because of the carbon fiber bodys on Vetts that can take 10 times more punishment than any metal car.

I do know that with the flat acres of sheet metal on a Deville or SRX you need to make good friends with one of these guys who pushes dents out so that you can keep the side of the car from looking like a lunar surface. Had 3 pushed out recently on the DeVille for $50 and will probably do the same in a year or so.

Due to the average age and blue hair here in Florida there probably aren't more than 20 parallel spots in the whole Tampa bay area.

Hey Mack,
When did the vette start getting carbon fibre? :drinker

Pls disregard the carbon fiber statement. They just went to carbon fiber for some of the body in 04. They still use the mystery word of composite for the body. I had 2 C5s and I always assumed they were using something rather than "fiberglass: as the body panels exhibited far more flexibility and resiliance that older Vetts I owned.

I had a 69 that would stress crack if someone honked their horn nearby. So whatever the C5 body is, it sure isn't the same as the original corvettes.

I swear that it was caused by people resenting that you have one and they don't.

Yes, I've certainly encountered that before. My A4 was keyed twice in the space of three months. The total repair cost for both jobs combined was over $10,000 because they had to pull all of the trim off the car to repaint both times. (Incidently once was in MA and once was at the Metro near DC, so I doubt it was the same criminal twice).

The SRX has those big, defenseless slab doors and I try to find a good, protected parking spot a little bit away from other cars (but not so far as to draw attention). The "find the perfect spot" game makes parking more interesting. :rolleyes2:

Count me in the "defensive parking crowd".....I saw an SRX on the road with a dimple in the side sheet metal. very obvious.... besides, it's good exercise to defensive park! you guys with the pearl white paint should be even more cautious. This stuff is hard to match. My body shop repaired a door ding, but had to shoot the entire side to ensure a color match!

From a fellow defense guy. If you are lucky, your dings can be pushed out by one of those guys who gets in behind the dent and pushes it out you can often avoid painting. There are a couple of franchises who do this and I found one who removed dings from my DeVille at a local full service car wash.