Selfish parking?

We don’t use supermarkets in this country; we shop local and online with small specialist suppliers (organic wherever possible). So parking isn’t a problem with a car. When on a site in UK we manage to shop using the trikes. But we do stop at Port Solent before getting the ferry. We have a small trailer but usually manage to park in the first one using 2 spaces.

In Spain we shop locally either on foot or by trike, going to the village baker, butcher etc and the local market once a week which we enjoy and is cheap. We like to stock up with Jamon de Bellota Ibérico to bring home and know a couple of places in Extremadura in small villages where we can park outside on the street. When it’s home time we go to a supermarket in Plasencia for the usual bottles, Bomba rice and a few other specials. Again 2 spaces is what we need.

Our van is only 6m so parking isn’t too difficult, providing there isn’t a height barrier, but adding the trailer makes it more difficult, so like others I park with an eye to getting back out again. I also use Street View if we have to park somewhere we don’t know to see what the options look like.
 
Has anyone noticed that either the lines are getting closser together or cars are getting fat, pull into any tesco c park and the wheels just about fit within the lines, so next chap pulls in next to you, doors if luck may be opened 6 inces at best, if he is driving a rangerover you had better use the ejector seat cause there is no way out.
 
trevskoda said:
Has anyone noticed that either the lines are getting closser together or cars are getting fat, pull into any tesco c park and the wheels just about fit within the lines, so next chap pulls in next to you, doors if luck may be opened 6 inces at best, if he is driving a rangerover you had better use the ejector seat cause there is no way out.
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I mentioned this in my trip thread Trev about the Tesla being the same width as the van.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I mentioned this in my trip thread Trev about the Tesla being the same width as the van.
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Big problem here with the big 4x4 rovers and toyota type wagons of which like my sister inlaw has and she is about 4ft 6 in hight with no kids,
Never understood why tiny people buy big cars, maybe a self conscious thing, I drive a small car caus i have a monster van. 😂
 
trevskoda said:
Big problem here with the big 4x4 rovers and toyota type wagons of which like my sister inlaw has and she is about 4ft 6 in hight with no kids,
Never understood why tiny people buy big cars, maybe a self conscious thing, I drive a small car caus i have a monster van. 😂
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I'm not a tiny person, but I can understand why people buy big cars. When we were tuggers, we needed a big car to safely tow a tonne-and-a-half of caravan. We'd have had a smaller car for those other times, but the fixed costs of a second car far outweighed any potential fuel savings. Same consideration if you occasionally need to carry a few more people or more stuff than a small car can handle. The thing is that even if you only need a larger vehicle for a couple of times each year, the additional fixed costs of running a smaller can in addition often outweigh any savings you'd make from better fuel economy etc. and so the big car ends up as your only car.
 
GeoffL said:
I'm not a tiny person, but I can understand why people buy big cars. When we were tuggers, we needed a big car to safely tow a tonne-and-a-half of caravan. We'd have had a smaller car for those other times, but the fixed costs of a second car far outweighed any potential fuel savings. Same consideration if you occasionally need to carry a few more people or more stuff than a small car can handle. The thing is that even if you only need a larger vehicle for a couple of times each year, the additional fixed costs of running a smaller can in addition often outweigh any savings you'd make from better fuel economy etc. and so the big car ends up as your only car.
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I had weighed up the pros and cons of Caravan vs Motorhome when we decided wanted something more spacious a few years ago.
And one of the definite cons of the Caravan was having to get a 2nd car that was big enough to pull a caravan, and which would sit on the driveway generally doing very little throughout the year and whose size is not needed for any other purpose whatsoever. (it would be a 2nd car, and not just a bigger only car as the OH won't drive cars bigger than small hatchbacks).
Of course, having a motorhome means you have a 2nd vehicle that is generally doing very little throughout the year with even worse fuel economy than a big car, so ends up being a lose-lose in that respect :(
(probably the answer would have been something like a pickup truck which can tow a caravan, but also in many ways replace the small trailer I use behind the Motorhome when taking stuff down the tip or picking up bulky things)
 
wildebus said:
I had weighed up the pros and cons of Caravan vs Motorhome when we decided wanted something more spacious a few years ago.
And one of the definite cons of the Caravan was having to get a 2nd car that was big enough to pull a caravan, and which would sit on the driveway generally doing very little throughout the year and whose size is not needed for any other purpose whatsoever. (it would be a 2nd car, and not just a bigger only car as the OH won't drive cars bigger than small hatchbacks).
Of course, having a motorhome means you have a 2nd vehicle that is generally doing very little throughout the year with even worse fuel economy than a big car, so ends up being a lose-lose in that respect :(
(probably the answer would have been something like a pickup truck which can tow a caravan, but also in many ways replace the small trailer I use behind the Motorhome when taking stuff down the tip or picking up bulky things)
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If it wasn't for what I call "anti-van bigotry" on the part of local authorities and car park operators, the ideal 'car' for us would be a small van (we used to have a 2001 Citroen Dispatch) as that has enough space to take what we need. However, we found we were being banned from more and more car parks and other facilities because it was classed as a "commercial vehicle" (even though privately owned and not used for commercial purposes).
FWIW, I've always looked at the choice of recreational vehicle as being between a motorhome and a car/caravan combination. Both have advantages and disadvantages and it was a change from pitching up for a week or more in a campsite and doing day trips from there, to doing pub stops etc. and moving on every day or two that had us switch to a motorhome.
 
GeoffL said:
If it wasn't for what I call "anti-van bigotry" on the part of local authorities and car park operators, the ideal 'car' for us would be a small van (we used to have a 2001 Citroen Dispatch) as that has enough space to take what we need. However, we found we were being banned from more and more car parks and other facilities because it was classed as a "commercial vehicle" (even though privately owned and not used for commercial purposes).
FWIW, I've always looked at the choice of recreational vehicle as being between a motorhome and a car/caravan combination. Both have advantages and disadvantages and it was a change from pitching up for a week or more in a campsite and doing day trips from there, to doing pub stops etc. and moving on every day or two that had us switch to a motorhome.
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one of the daft things about the small commercial vans is the road tax. I have a friend who had a Ford Fiesta Car and also a Ford Fiesta Van. Identical vehicles in every respect except in the van one no rear side windows and probably no rear seats.
Car was £30 tax, Van was £265 or something.

I don't know off-hand the actual model names, but I would certainly have bought what I think are called the "Van-derived Car" car models like the Renault Kangoo, Peugeot "teepee expert extra" (or somesuch weird name) or whatever the car version of the Dispatch is called.
I think they look to have excellent space in a small footprint, are cheap and have zero street cred (which is fine by me. not bothered by badges).
Right now I run a Corsa. Bought when a few months old and replaced a much posher car, but will have had it for 6 years in a couple of weeks and has been the cheapest to run and most reliable car I have ever owned, as well as being extremely competent and does just about all I need.
Exciting, no. Excellent, yes.
 
I had a Citroen Dispatch as a courier van for a while, quite a pleasant thing to drive long distances, I was doing a run from Leeds down to Ponty clun in south Wales almost every night then so it needed to be comfortable and frugal, it went in for a service and I borrowed a Berlingo, second worse van ever for comfort, but did the job well enough, I got the chance to buy a dual fuel Vauxhall Combo soon after, so cheap to run on LPG although it was a PITA sometime when it would go back to petrol.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I had a Citroen Dispatch as a courier van for a while, quite a pleasant thing to drive long distances, I was doing a run from Leeds down to Ponty clun in south Wales almost every night then so it needed to be comfortable and frugal, it went in for a service and I borrowed a Berlingo, second worse van ever for comfort, but did the job well enough, I got the chance to buy a dual fuel Vauxhall Combo soon after, so cheap to run on LPG although it was a PITA sometime when it would go back to petrol.
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The most uncomfortable vehicle I have ever driven was a brand new Mercedes Vito. Loved the look of those and when I was looking for a van in 2012, I borrowed one for a couple of days from a Dealer for a bit of road trip and some meetings I had planned.
Within 50 miles my left knee was hurting from the strangely positioned clutch pedal. after 100 miles I was trying to avoid changing gears and if I wasn't commited to get to these meetings I would have just turned around. Never been so happy to return a brand new car!
(I actually ended up buying a Renualt Master MWB and that was a super van to drive and own, even though only had it for a year before closed the business I got it for).
 
Odd, but the Renault Master was the other worst van for comfort, this was an X reg van LWB, but the seat was terrible, there was a diagonal hard part at the base of the seat back and it pressed against my tailbone, I hated it, it was good van otherwise and great for short trips, but I PXd it for a sprinter very quickly, once you graduate to a Sprinter, you're done I think.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
Odd, but the Renault Master was the other worst van for comfort, this was an X reg van LWB, but the seat was terrible, there was a diagonal hard part at the base of the seat back and it pressed against my tailbone, I hated it, it was good van otherwise and great for short trips, but I PXd it for a sprinter very quickly, once you graduate to a Sprinter, you're done I think.
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My Master was a 10 plate so would have been a later generation so likely different seats? I don't know if Renault and Vauxhall collaborated on the Master/Movano back in 2000?
my old DPD driver absolutely hated the Sprinters. he had nothing but trouble with them and he said everyone who was stuck with them at his depot wished they had anything else. The number of times he turned up with a rental while the Sprinter was off the road ..... :(
 
Burge said:
Gone a little off Topic has this Thread ☹️
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It always happens, it'll go back when someone has something relevant to add, meantime you get other interesting comments.
 
Too many nutters spoil the plot.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
Too many nutters spoil the plot.
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There's only one of me, Kev, because, as I have posted before, my Mother used to say, 'It's a good job you weren't twins, our Stephen, because I'd have throttled the bloody pair of you ...'

Damaged, I am; damaged, I tell you. But, outside the guarantee period :ROFLMAO:

Steve
 
Oh heck, I was damaged at a very early age.
 
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