![\"parkinglot\"](\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/car-parked-in-the-background-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI have a confession.\u00a0 I can feel uneasy about where I leave my car and who I leave my car to.\u00a0 Just when I start to think I am being a little too eccentric about my behavior, I see another example (car damage) that reminds me of why I should be cautious.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We live in a world where car enthusiasts are in the minority.\u00a0 Empathy, accountability, and more specifically overall respect for other people’s property is severely lacking.\u00a0 For these reasons, if you have a car which you feel certain emotions about, I believe some discomfort when leaving your car somewhere is normal.\u00a0 I have some suggestions to help reduce the chances of strangers damaging your car.<\/p>\n
“Rodney, there is a parking spot right here, right.\u00a0 What about here, right in front of the store.\u00a0 Why are you going way in the back!\u00a0 You are ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
![\"parkinglotoverview\"](\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/parking-lot-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The easier it is to get into a major store, the more susceptible your car is to being damaged.\u00a0 If you take one piece of advice from this article, heed those words.\u00a0 If you are parking at the very front of your popular supermarket, that is just asking for your car to be put into the firing line of rolling shopping carts and people (on the move) who are giving absolutely NO<\/strong> thought or concern about dinging your car or sideswiping you.<\/p>\n When you park away from the general populace – you are less likely to have someone parked next to you.\u00a0 If someone does park next to you, they will tend to be less accident-prone, more considerate, and likely like-minded.\u00a0 When I say like-minded, that person may be parking next to you to avoid inconsiderate people as well.<\/p>\n Parking under a tree?<\/p>\n Does parking under a tree lead to more bonded contamination that is more harmful to your car in the long run and difficult to remove over time (particularly sap)?\u00a0 Yes, absolutely!\u00a0 Do I park under trees at times?\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 If I am looking for a parking spot, I am looking for the best location to isolate me from the most inconsiderate drivers and passengers.\u00a0 \u00a0Sometimes that means parking under a tree.\u00a0 Weighing the consequences:\u00a0 making it a priority to wash my car within that week versus the increased probability of scuffs and scratches from a careless person.\u00a0 I will wash my car a little more to deal with whatever contamination a tree will bring me.\u00a0 I will admit I tend to not leave my car in these types of locations for long periods of time.<\/p>\n I am a fan of going to low volume shops.\u00a0 I market my detailing business as a low volume operation, for a reason.\u00a0 I believe many of us have an inherent understanding that these kinds of operations are more care guy\/girl-friendly.\u00a0 I used to go to a large company auto maintenance shop.\u00a0 After noticing a small dent, that from my intimate knowledge of my car, I treated that as a sign it was time to find a new shop.\u00a0 The place I go to now, the serviceman noticed a mechanical problem that needed to be addressed, in addition to other indications that I am not being treated like a number.<\/p>\n I also like to wash my car, and sometimes detail my engine bay, prior to taking my car into a maintenance and\/or repair shop.\u00a0 I like to provide visual cues to strangers touching my car that I care about the appearance of my property.<\/p>\n I do not want to say all valet services are untrustworthy but I will offer my experiences.\u00a0 I went on a road trip to see a friend on his birthday.\u00a0 Upon arrival, the parking lot was blocked off, unnecessarily.\u00a0 This definitely caught me off guard.\u00a0 Trying not to add any additional inconvenience to my day, I handed my keys to a crew member who was parking cars.\u00a0 I was somewhat uncomfortable throughout the day knowing the valet crew parked my car in the garage.\u00a0 My only experience with a valet, I find out my car was damaged.\u00a0 Very, fortunately, I developed a habit of doing an inspection of my car before leaving.<\/strong>\u00a0 They would have let me drive off with obvious signs of damage (pictured below), giving cause to not accept responsibility.\u00a0 After filing a report with them and providing options of my preferred auto body shops, they begrudgingly accepted responsibility for their actions.\u00a0 I was told after reviewing the video they could neither confirm nor deny an accident, therefore they will “do the right thing” (eye roll).<\/p>\n Personally, that was enough for me, unless I am in truly dire straits, to not put myself in that situation again.\u00a0 But I will share more information.\u00a0 At the auto body shop, I asked the manager “how often does this happen?”\u00a0 His response, “quite often; at least once a month.”\u00a0 When I was at a business gathering, I struck up a conversation with someone who worked as a valet.\u00a0 A few minutes in, his inhibitions dropped enough to tell me about his joy riding adventures with other people’s luxury cars.\u00a0 I am not trying to tell you that a valet operation is inherently bad or unethical.\u00a0 My message is if you have a car you care about, please use your best judgment.<\/p>\n Finally, I am learning to find that balance of enjoying the experience of owning my car while still embracing my traits that the general population considers strange.\u00a0 I hope you can find this balance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Protecting Your Car Beyond Detailing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":28904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,64],"tags":[2665,2666,2516,499,1834,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-27879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-protection","8":"category-submitted-questions","9":"tag-auto-shops","10":"tag-beyond-detailing","11":"tag-parking","12":"tag-protection-2","13":"tag-tips","14":"tag-valet"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/parking-lot-1024x576.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kPO7-7fF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27879"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28903,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27879\/revisions\/28903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}My Safer Parking Area Suggestions:<\/h3>\n
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![\"parkingcloseup\"](\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Good-Parking-Option-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAuto Shops<\/h2>\n
![\"caronlift\"](\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/car-at-mechanic-shop--1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\nValet<\/h2>\n
![\"CarScuff\"](\"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/body-damage-e1564431305720-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFinal Point<\/h2>\n