Talk to me...

[1781cc]

...about S8 stresses!

I am going through a wobbly period and need some sense talking into me, I have had this gorgeous car since January and I am constantly stressing about it, coming back to wherever it has been parked and finding its suffered damage.

So far I have had to have her repaired twice under an Audi approved garage and she's arguably in better cosmetic condition then when I bought her, I also have peace of mind on the repair as I get an audi warranty for the work each time, but I find the psychological part of ownership now to have changed quite dramatically and I am always worried about where I park the car.

Mechanically she's been a dream, no issues, but I am increasingly thinking about selling and buying something with a smaller footprint in parking spaces as this thing seems to attract the wrong sorts.

I parked far, far away in the empty bit of costco's car park, in a wide bay parking yesterday, only to come back to it and find that even though there was over 30 spaces available, some idiot parked right next to mine and barely inside their own white line.

I checked her over and all ok, no damage, but W T royal F

I know I am not alone in this and have seen several lovely cars on here suffer at the hands of idiots

[Sir WIll]

I hear your pain.

I always worry about the D2 parking it mainly due to utter morons who also use the car park.

My solution is the A2 for the little journeys and shopping etc, great car and takes up no room.

Then the D2 can just be polished and taken on the more important trips.

[Audidothat]

The trouble is you are a true car lover and any vehicle you buy will be cared for by your good self in the same fashion. The root cause of the problem is the other road users, not your car, even if it did have a smaller footprint.

1 solution I have considered is to have a drone hover directly over my parked car, filming directly down in glorious HD with various alert features sent directly to my phone.

The camera is linked to the DVLA to check MOT & Insurance status and can also distinguish the make and model of all cars to alert me if a (insert car of your choice) is attempting to park anywhere near.

It also conducts a full body scan of the occupants including BMI to see if they have left enough room to get in & out.
If not it can announce various health warnings via an onboard PA system.

Or I might buy an A2 like Sir WIll.

[MikkiJayne]

Me too ^ I don't take the D2 out unless I know I have secure parking at the other end. If there's an doubt (like the station, or Tesco) then thats a job for the A4.

I was pretty lucky with my first D2 as it was my only car at the time so I went everywhere in it. How it never got dinged in a car park I don't know, but the S8 is too special to risk these days.

Its amazing how a lone car will attract others in a car park

[roberto]

you are not alone..............................
i was so careful with my white A8 where i parked even to the tune of leaving somewhere i had gone to because the parking spaces were to small
doesn't matter where you go there will always be parking numptys
i dont do this but my friend in his Q7 always has 2 child seats in the back and parks in family spaces if he's not happy with the normal ones
(how very dare he indeed)
this is one reason why my vehicles are so low milage as i use the Galaudi most of the time
sad init
there will always be careless toohats out there ready to pounce on all our nice cars

[David's8]

The only benefit of my wifes disability is that she is entitled to Blue Badge. Whilst I only use it when shes onboard it is a real help. The extra space afforded by the wide spaces and the cross hatching between spaces is a real comfort. Even then, some seem to have problems navigating the space between with a trolley.
I will not take my S8 into the local town and park in normal spaces unless absolutely necessary. I have even cycled rather than do that

From what I have seen of parking space standards is that they are based on a "standard" car of 4.75 x 1.8m. Hence 90deg bays are 4.8x 2.5m with a min width of 2.4m and parallel bays should be 6x2.4m but can be as small as 5m in length.

[Conquistador]

Yep you aren't alone, I try to avoid taking my S8 for little trips into town and shopping too, I'll use my Lupo most days. I can chuck that around and I don't really give a crap what happens to it to a certain extent but not in the sense that I'll park inconsiderately and fling my door open onto another person's car!

[1781cc]

Good to hear I'm not alone in my fears but the common thread here is that a second knock about car is order of the day, that's not an option for me as my second car is my track car (which I don't care about cosmetically) but it's certainly not suitable for town and station driving (roll cage, buckets, no interior or dash) and there is no space on the drive for a 3rd car and my wife's fiat.

I really fear for her condition day to day, I've never felt like this before about a car and I've had over 70 of them since I passed in 94, fast, slow, high and low, just not sure what to do now, if I can put away a second pot of money monthly (for what if cosmetics) and accept it (first pot is my what if mechanical fund)

Lovely car, but with two knocks this year not sure if we're compatible

Failing that... keep me posted about drones! Ha ha

[briang9]

yeah, not alone, I hate taking mine (or the RS6 for that matter) anywhere that involves "normal" parking. If I do I usually park in the most remote area of the car park, but like you I often come back to find some ****wit has parked next to it despite there being loads of empty spaces. I have a theory that some people need to park next to another car as they dont have the ability to park straight otherwise

I also have an old Fiat I use for leaving at stations, airports etc, I even took it to Keswick on a weekend away of walking and drinking recently as I recalled from previous trips how tight and scarce parking is where we were staying...no way I would have risked either of the Audis round there Wife thinks I am stark raving mad BTW

[homer simpson]

Costco have GINORMOUS parking bays compared to any other car park so for someone to be just inside the lines