After watching my new A4 get sratched up by some lady in a beat-up minivan yesterday, I decided to drive around my office building searching for the *perfect* parking space where my A4 couldn't get hit/sratched up anymore.

Looking in the far back of the parking lot, I found 4 cars: A black Benz CLK-420, a black Porsche 911 Carerra, a Yellow Audi A4 and a black Cadillac Escalade, that ALL park by each other--but take up TWO parking spaces in between each car! And there's room enough for me to park my black A4 taking up two spaces also!

Whew. Now I can relax when I park my car from now on--at work at least. It's kinda far from where I'm used to parking (all the way up front), but damn, it's worth it.

I have found the ultimate parking spot here at work. Its a loading dock that never gets used. No one can park on either side. The only problem was it was covered with little stones (kept getting in the groves of my new Goodyear’s) So one day I swept the entire space. People in the windows just shook their heads. What can I say, I love my Audi!

Some bottom feeders take great delight in seeking out nice rides that are parked in a "conspicuous" manner, much like the way you describe, and will go out of their way to damage them... you may be able to get away with snatching an extra space in a private lot or small office lot where everyone kind of knows everyone but I would strongly caution you from doing it in a busy public lot...

You car will be screaming, do me, do me...

I'd personally get annoyed if I saw a car take up two spots in a fairly full parking lot... but in a pretty empty lot, I don't think it's too big of a deal... but I agree that parking in two spots would draw unwanted attention, possibly resulting in being keyed instead of door dings...

There are three ways to park safely at Apple where I work: (a) come in early (9am ish) or at noon (lunch break; my approach), then you get a spot in the underground garage, where each spot is a premium spot by definition (pillars every other spot); (b) come whenever and park in the 2nd row where there is no other cars, using two spots; (c) park in between cars that are double-parked =)

We never had anyone have their cars keyed, other than Steve Jobs, who's not very popular, among others for parking in the fire lane / handicapped parking. And by parking in between double-parked cars, in a way, I am also double-parked, right? =)

- Stan (up way too early today)

I park on an end spot....in the front of our building (cauz I get there before anyone...I get to work between 5:30 and 5:45am). I do NOT take two spots. Now, as of last week, my bosses boss parks his brand new "Cutter Motors" BMW Black 540iA next to me....he protects my car. AND...I don't even have to pay him for the protection service. I have been known to park in eastern Mongolia from time to time (way the hell out there). I never park next to someone without extra room...and try to park in diagonal parking whenever possible.

Steve S.
97 2.8QM

I cannot for the life of me understand it. I posted a similar message to Dime's a couple months back (mentioning I sometimes park across two spaces; something I very rarely do anymore) and people told me my car would get keyed. Keying a car because it's inappropriately parked is, to me, equivalent to beating the crap out of a person who doesn't hold the door up for you or something. In what way does parking across two spaces justify physical damage to your property by some freak? The punishment just doesn't fit the "crime"! All Dime is trying to do is protect his valued property from these damn freaks in the first place. What are the freaks trying to do? Show him that "they can get him anyway, no matter where he parks"? It's insane!

Each time (thrice so far) when I visited you at work, you were remarkably spaced away from the other cars in an otherwise packed parking lot. So maybe I just showed up on an (un)fortunate day, but so far the odds are on my side =)

Good to have protection, tho. I try to park next to my co-workers' Saab or BMWs whenever I can. But they get in way too early...

- Stan

It's rude not to hold the door open for someone behind you, but if you were the "victim" of this "crime", would you poke their eyes out with your key?

It's just too far for other people to walk so that's why I guess knowbody parks there...

My favorite spot is the one that my buddy stole today. It's the first spot to your right as you enter the R&D1/6 parking structure. Usually, no one parks there and it's easy to get out of! There's also a few corner spots with lots of room between the cars.

-henri

Just wondering, I work on a Macintosh at work (Art-Director) and at home.
Brian 97 A4 1.8TQMS

They will look for the 5 nice cars in a row. Personally, I would beat the guy to a pulp if I saw him key anyones car, let alone my own. Sorry if I mislead you guys. I just think you are asking for trouble by double spacing.

Basically, we work on the world leading App-Server - and one of Apple's best kept secrets (don't let me started on Apple Marketing)

- Stan<ul><li><a href="http://www.apple.com/webobjects/">WebObjects</a></li></ul>

You just paid $5k to paint your girl friends car and she left you for another guy and lets him drive it...!!!


This actually happened to my best friend. He paid $4700 to paint her VW bug adn did alot of mods and stereo work for her. He was with his her for almost 6 years and he found out she was cheating on him. When he confronted her, she left and took her car and gave him nothing in return. He went back a few weeks later (after seeing her new boyfriend drive it) and decided to throw a brick into the hood and kick all of the fenders in as well as a few key marks

Would I personally key your car? Absolutely not. But if I saw that someone else had, I would conclude that you deserved it. Parking in such an arrogant fashion invites that kind of reaction and I don't think you should be particularly surprised if that is the reaction you engender.

MHO

I use to own (still do, but gave it to my mother) a PowerMac... I really liked it and was anti Wintel for the longest time but its so damn cheap to build your own pc and I went to the dark side >-) I have to give Apple credit tough, their hardware is looking very impressive and I plan to to buy a G4 one day.... unless of course I can get a free one from an Apple employee... come one, from one Audi guy to another!? :)

Mike D.
2.8QMS

be prime target... it just draws a lot of attention and pisses people off... my initial thought is that the owner must be pretty arrogant to think his car deserves two spots...

My point wasn't that I would vandalize someone's vehicle; it was that many would. It is the arrogance of someone like yourself that leads to such a reaction and I don't think many people would be all that surprised. If you park in that fashion, you are inviting an angry response. Given your knee jerk response to my post, you probably deserve it.

I would NEVER park in two spaces at a grocery store, mall or other place, but where the other 4 cars plus mine are parked obviously we can get away with it because they (now WE) have the extra room around us.

If the parking was limited, THEN I'd be a little big worried about being keyed. I'm a firm believer that people do key DSP (double-spaced-parked) cars for that fact.

But obviously we all want to stay together as a group but want to park far away enough from each other so we don't have to worry about the other persons car.

...anyway, that's what my "pampered upbringing" taught me. And I didn't say I was entitled to two spots; I even said it was rude. All I was saying was that I couldn't understand why someone would key a car over it.

Holy cow, peace on earth! :)

... post the current employee price list. Which is an insult to us employees: currently, the only thing we can buy with a discount is a Powerbook and a ridiculously expensive G3 server. No iMac, no normal G3, no G4.

There was a day...

Sigh.
- Stan

Sad meaning that some people think of cars as mear appliances and lack respect for the other persons car.

Then there are those sad souls that would actually go out of there way and key somebody's car, which is just like beating the sh#)oooh@! out somebody for not holding the door for you on the elevator.

If we didn't have the room to do it, I'm pretty sure a gang of people would surely vandalize our cars in a heartbeat of parking was limited. But parking is not, and like I said I wouldn't do such a thing in another public place. Bad news.

Did you notice that Dime said these spaces are far from the building, with plenty of empty spaces around? The car owners are parking and walking out of their way (and everyone else's way) in order to park this way. What's the big deal? If people double park in prime areas (close to building) or areas where the number of spaces and the number of cars are nearly equal, then this is wrong. But, in Dime's case, it shouldn't be an issue.

The truth is, no one seems to have mentioned the root of the problem, which is that in a lot of places these days, parking spaces are too small to begin with. There's a 7-11 that I go to and none of the spaces are big enough for the A4, IMHO. And, look at two-door cars. Especially ones like Camaros. The doors are very long. It's almost impossible to get in/out of these cars without hitting the car parked next to them. It's not the design of the Camaro that is at fault. It's the small size of the parking spaces.

This is a problem that I am intimately familiar with, since my other car is a 1971 Olds Cutlass (2-door). My car's doors are very long. also, my car does not have any body side moldings to stop doors from other cars. Anyone next to me can bang their door right into my paint. So guess what? I park in the far reaches of any parking lot that I can. I used to double park but that's not usually necessary. Still, in a remote area, it shouldn't matter if someone double parks.

Handicap spots.. I had a friend of mine get me a handicap tag and it has been great! Never need to look for a parking spot, always close to the main entrance.. And the space will always accomodate two cars...

Dmak 1.8TQMS

My Audi isn't an overpriced conglomeration of proprietary parts made for beginners.

So you feel your Audi is a bland, overheating, ancient technology, crash prone product made with sub-standard parts from many different manufacturers to make it the "cheapest" yet have the fastest speed since the "masses" only care about processor MHz. Add an OS on top of that which has more lines of code than there are stars in the universe (double that for the bug count) coming from a company that has the gull to charge its users for bug fixes.

You state that the Mac is for beginners. So you consider anyone who just wants to "do work" and not "work on" their computer all day a beginner?

Are you going to talk about how the PowerPC is slow and that there's no software out there for the Mac too? Can't you PeeCee users come up with anything new? Obviously not, look at the Pentium for reference.

maybe your handicap in some ways you just dont relize it.

I hope you are joking. After recovering from an ambush wound in Viet Nam in a wheelchair for four months, I have rather strong feelings about scumbags who use up space for those who need the accomodations. Small things add up in society and sometimes one has had enough and will gladly adjust your attitude.

your welcome Vic O.

<i>>So you feel your Audi is a bland</i>

Bland? Oh yea, it's really important that my computer is different colors.

<i>overheating</i>

Yea right. The Pentium is one of the most durable processors in the world. You can shoot them with almost twice their voltage, and overclock them with 1 1/2 times their speed with no problems.

<i>ancient technology</i>?

Why waste my time even commenting on this one? Macs are some type of new technology? Gimme a break!! All the newest technologies (AGP, SDRAM, 100MHz system bus) were all used in PC's first.

<i>crash prone</i>

99.9999 % of the time it's due to a user error.

<i>sub-standard parts from many different manufacturers</i>

Well, if you buy a sub-standard part from a sub-standard manufacturer, that's your fault. At least you have the choice. Standards are a good thing.

<i>the "masses" only care about processor MHz</i>

This is what I have been saying all along. Remember when the iMac came out? "Pentium toasting 233Mhz", and that stupid ad with the Pentium logo and the snail? Come on people wake up! Don't be brainwashed by the gimmicky ads.
I could go on and on about Pentium's on-board cache, frontside & backside bus, etc. as compared to the Mac propriatary garbage, but I will refrain.

<i>Add an OS on top of that which has more lines of code than there are stars in the universe</i>

What are you comparing here, Windows vs. Mac OS or Intel vs Mac? You said "Add on OS...". Ever put Linux on a Mac? Gee, I think not. The key here is that you can add another OS if you want. Windows, Linux, Unix, BeOS, OS2, whatever. You pick.

Enough for now.

figure just have another beer and let it go.

The Mac can run:
BeOS for Mac, MacOS, MacOS X, Linux.

Through Virtual PC (which is fast on a G3 or G4):
Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, Linux, Solaris, BeOS for Intel, Unix, OS2 and any other OS that runs on the Intel platform.

So, in essence, you have a machine that can do anything a PeeCee can, and more. Plus the Mac is standardizing its hardware to a PeeCee format making it easier for manufactures to develop stuff for both platforms. The only thing holding back PeeCees is Intel and MS.

Nothing factual or constructive...ever. He is a real jerk.