There is a very popular facebook page called “You Park Like An Asshole” and we do enjoy following the almost daily posts in it. We think it is a great idea to somewhat educate Malaysians to park properly with the worry that some day a smartphone user will capture their parking mishap and make them famous.
We have actually seen cars owned by people we know being photographed and posted on the “You Park Like An Asshole” facebook page and have shared the posts with them and they all, in one way or another have come back with a reason or excuse on what happened and it always seems a little far fetched. However, the point was made and we are sure they will be more disciplined the next time they park anywhere.
Now, lately we have seen many postings of supercar drivers parking “Like An Asshole” and we noticed that in most cases these supercar owners do not give two hoots what anyone says or shares on Facebook. They seem to be ‘above’ common sense and decency in some ways. Are we wrong to think this way?
Then came a supercar driver that ‘Parked Like An Asshole” which happened to be a good friend and we shared the post with him. He was calm with the many insults hurled at him on the Facebook post and just asked me to meet with him for a cup of tea (yes, supercar owners also have the tarik in shops with no table cloth).
We did and this is what he had to say.
‘When you drive a really expensive supercar that is low and wide, street parking is always an issue as we cannot get too close to the kerb as we will not able to open our door to get out of the car as the door is low and the kerb is too high’.
‘Then there is side by side parking. We cannot open our door wide enough to get out and the car next to us is too close as our car is very wide. Also, there is the worry that the driver of the car next to us might open his or her car door (especially when it is a SUV or pickup truck) and hit our car body and dent it or damage the paint’.
‘This is why we are sometimes forced to park in a rather unpleasant manner to avoid damaging our car’.
He then had this to say to us.
‘You test drive expensive supercars. You don’t have any issue parking?’
Well, with us, we pick up the test car and we drive and drive and drive. We do not drive into crowded areas or go and park along street side parking. We get home and that’s it.
After listening to his explanation, we now understand the reasons why and hope you understand as well. We are not taking their side, but we do understand their parking issues as we just returned a brand new 911 Carrera S and we decided to ‘live’ the life of a supercar owner and we too had issues parking the car along at a supermarket car park in Ara Damansara and kerb side parking in Subang Jaya. It is not easy and the kerbs are too high and the door opening needs space at the side to open wide enough for us to get out of the Porsche.
