It's a car - Nothing more, nothing less. We all need to keep some perspective with the materials we choose to have in our lives..

 

Haha that video is

 

It all depends on where you live. In my area, pretty much every car is a nice one, so i just pull into the Trader Joes , etc as most drivers of nicer cars are pretty careful and respectful.
For big box stores, I go middle of week in the morning .
For restaurants, I mainly try not to park next to newer American cars that really old people like to drive or 2 doors, with their much longer doors. Minivans dont bother me since most have sliding doors.
Most dings happen in perpendicular spaces, not diagonal ones so you can take that into acct if you have a choice.
I believe in karma...if you are too cautious, it will come back to bite you.
Worse case scenario is I have an experienced mobile paint less dent removal guy who makes any ding disappear just like that for $100-150 bucks ...a lot cheaper than the suggestion to buy a $20 K beater / insure second car if a 991 is your only car.

 

I don't disagree with any of the above posts -- I just wanted to add that there is a balance you have to achieve and not let the material things change you.

Even before my 991, I was a careful, aware, calculating-risk every moment kind of guy in just about every facet of my life.... but I still choose to drive my 991 to the regional train station every day, drive it in rain or snow (why I bought the 4S!), and even left it in a not-so-good parking spot (not even sure it was an actual spot!) at the airport for a week recently! I don't go to extremes in parking locations, but do try to limit the risk of anything bad happening. I have great insurance for major stuff, and for extra protection I had the front-end wrapped, and bought a ding/dent/wheel/tire insurance package when i got the car. So if for some reason I get a ding in the train parking lot, I can take it to the shop and they push it out free of charge (caveat is can't have broken paint surface). If I break a wheel or blow a tire hitting the surprise pothole, that's covered too! So even though everyone thinks I must be uber-rich driving the 991 and leaving it in the train station each day like I just don't care, it's actually just that i know what i am in for should anything happen and I have taken certain steps to mitigate the risks!

Lastly, from my experience, the occasional ding or scratch is much more likely in my case to come from one of my kids, or the wife, or even from my own stupidity.

 

I had a 997 that owned me. I now own a 991.

I much prefer owning over being owned and consumed by worrying too much.

I try to get an end spot, if I can.

 

I had my doors wrapped to help prevent dings. I also ma careful where I park but I stay in the parking lot and would not park blocks away. I also let the valet park my car but tip well in and out. If I go somewhere that I know has bad parking, I take my wife's Lexus.

 

Nice. I like it. I like the 991 too much to not drive it everywhere.


Marc

 

Hey, hey easy there.. who ya calling old.. oh yes that would be me....

Yeah I've done similar kinds of things... lol I chose my shopping locations by the parking accommodations... There I said it

 

When I must park near others, I do try to pickout nice cars.. Unfortunately that doesn't always work.. as I've watched more than one Mercedes driver throw that big old door open like it was a barn door. So I tend to like "small" nice cars..

Unfortunately though, I can park between two BMW's or porsches or whatever and then when I come back there is a 65 Nova with fresh primer on one side and a 84 Yugo with duct taped plastic windows on the other side.. .... sigh

 

Mmm agree with all you said except the minivan's.. The doors may not get you but the 13 children that jump out like they are escaping from sing-sing can.. And then there was the time I watched someone place their child car seat on a the trunk lid of the car next to theirs why they fiddled with arranging things and kids in the car.. No way..

 

Good point.
And per the valet issue, depends a lot on the restaurant ... we are out of town and ate at packed Bestia last night in the up and coming warehousy Arts District of LA . No, I did not order the $120 rib eye . But their roasted marrow bones and cocao pasta sacks stuffed with oxtail were excellent as well as their many house made meat items
The valets couldn' t have been more careful , cordial and well trained . Seemed like half the cars rolling up were Panamera Turbos or GTSs. They seem very popular down here vs the Silicon Valley where Tesla S s have replaced all the flagship S classes, 7 series and A8s it seems .
I still stand by my karma comment though. Somewhere every day , a pine cone will drop onto an owner' s hood while cruising home after parking far away from others while shopping, lol !

 

Or the old lady that puts her purse down on your hood or trunk lid to find something inside it. Seen it done.

 

Exactly. Plus I can manage NE winters.

 

I just got out of an Aston Martin that I owned for 18 months, with the drop dead gorgeous paint that makes Porsche's factory paint look like a rattle can job out in the driveway. Because of that ultra-fine paint, the big doors, the difficult egress to get in and out of the car in parking lots, and the low hanging front spoiler that caught on everything in real life, and the fact you can't see out of it worth a darn, I never drove it much. 4,000 miles in 18 mos, it sat in the garage most the time. One day it dawned on me that I never was going to drive it much, its a poor car to simply daily drive or run errands in - best at going to Cars N' Coffee or blasts in the country. It cost a lot of money to sit in the garage. I used a BMW 135i Convertible as my daily driver.

So I decided to go back to Porsche and got a 991 - then sold the BMW and the Aston. Now I drive the 991 everywhere. I don't worry about the paint, or the fine leather interior (I have the base vinyl in my P-car), and its easy to see out of (OK, maybe not the back window with the top is up) and egress is much better.

It's way more fun to drive because I'm actually driving it. And that - is what its all about. Door Dings be damned.

 

I cannot imagine letting my car run my life. It's a car!!!

That being said, take a cab, buy a Prius, have a friend pick you up or find a significant other to live with you with not as nice a car...

Good luck!