As a new Model S driver, I've been terrified of scratching my rims. I actually have not parallel parked anywhere yet, and will probably continue to avoid parallel parking as much as possible, out of fear of damaging my wheels. (And I've always been reasonably good at parallel parking.) And yes, I know that the mirrors tilt down, and I do have them set that way. I'll parallel park when I have to--carefully.
But I now have an even greater fear. That is the fear of damage to the front end of the car from pulling in too far when parking, and then either parking over something and having the car settle down on top of it, or just ramming something as I pull in. The other night I parked and after doing so realized that I had parked with the front end extending a good foot over the curb, and clearing it by perhaps an inch! I immediately got back in the car and backed up, not wanting to take the chance that the car would settle onto the curb. But I realized that I could easily have just rammed the curb, not even realizing that my front end would not clear it. I just am not used to driving a car that is so low to the ground in the front. I really fear that at some point I am not going to be thinking about it and make a critical mistake while parking.
OK, all that said, how to solve this dilemma of parking properly when we actually are thinking about it? The car is long too, not just low, so we don't want to stick out the back end of the spot, and risk being hit in the rear. We want to pull in as far as we safely can. Well, I found a tip in another thread, that I have not seen talked about much, that I found works really well. I thought I'd share it, in the hope that it helps other new Model S drivers, or others who just may not have seen it. The tip was posted, by user caddieo, who said he had picked it up some time before from "the depths of the forum. Here's that post: Parking with auto-leveling suspension - Page 3
Anyway, the idea is that you gauge how far to pull in by watching for the front (the curb, the paint-marker, etc.) of the adjacent spot to your left to appear below your driver's side mirror. Depending on your height and driving position, you should then have either a little or perhaps almost no room left to pull forward yourself. The nice thing is that you can practice this, and "calibrate" so to speak, by just going to an empty few parking spots and trying it. Pull in slowly, stop when you see the first hint of the adjacent line just begin to appear under your mirror, get out, see how close you are to the front of your spot, and then you will know for the future how much further you can pull forward once you see the adjacent parallel front marker appear.
Now that I have learned this trick, I am confident that I am parking well, as long as I am thinking about it. I am still worried, though, that at some point I will just forget how low to the ground the car is and pull in too far without thinking. Unfortunately I don't think there's any tip to help with that. If anyone has one, feel free to share it!
Edit: Thinking about this a little more, after responding below, I realized that very small adjustments might have to be made if you have the air suspension and are parking when the car is at varying heights. But if you calibrate at "Standard" height and then pull in to the parking spot at "Standard" height, the distance remaining will always be the same.
But I now have an even greater fear. That is the fear of damage to the front end of the car from pulling in too far when parking, and then either parking over something and having the car settle down on top of it, or just ramming something as I pull in. The other night I parked and after doing so realized that I had parked with the front end extending a good foot over the curb, and clearing it by perhaps an inch! I immediately got back in the car and backed up, not wanting to take the chance that the car would settle onto the curb. But I realized that I could easily have just rammed the curb, not even realizing that my front end would not clear it. I just am not used to driving a car that is so low to the ground in the front. I really fear that at some point I am not going to be thinking about it and make a critical mistake while parking.
OK, all that said, how to solve this dilemma of parking properly when we actually are thinking about it? The car is long too, not just low, so we don't want to stick out the back end of the spot, and risk being hit in the rear. We want to pull in as far as we safely can. Well, I found a tip in another thread, that I have not seen talked about much, that I found works really well. I thought I'd share it, in the hope that it helps other new Model S drivers, or others who just may not have seen it. The tip was posted, by user caddieo, who said he had picked it up some time before from "the depths of the forum. Here's that post: Parking with auto-leveling suspension - Page 3
Anyway, the idea is that you gauge how far to pull in by watching for the front (the curb, the paint-marker, etc.) of the adjacent spot to your left to appear below your driver's side mirror. Depending on your height and driving position, you should then have either a little or perhaps almost no room left to pull forward yourself. The nice thing is that you can practice this, and "calibrate" so to speak, by just going to an empty few parking spots and trying it. Pull in slowly, stop when you see the first hint of the adjacent line just begin to appear under your mirror, get out, see how close you are to the front of your spot, and then you will know for the future how much further you can pull forward once you see the adjacent parallel front marker appear.
Now that I have learned this trick, I am confident that I am parking well, as long as I am thinking about it. I am still worried, though, that at some point I will just forget how low to the ground the car is and pull in too far without thinking. Unfortunately I don't think there's any tip to help with that. If anyone has one, feel free to share it!
Edit: Thinking about this a little more, after responding below, I realized that very small adjustments might have to be made if you have the air suspension and are parking when the car is at varying heights. But if you calibrate at "Standard" height and then pull in to the parking spot at "Standard" height, the distance remaining will always be the same.
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