Feeling stupid :( (struggling with multi storey car park!)

[CustardD123]

I've been driving for 6 months-ish so a fairly new driver since passing and I have a very small car.

I'm generally fine with driving but find parking to be tricky sometimes (especially in bay parking if the car next to mine has parked onto the bay lines so then I end up with only a small gap so worry excessively about scraping their car). Some days I can park into a bay perfectly first time and sometimes, even 10 attempts don't work..!

Anyway, I thought I'd try going into a multi storey car park for the first time today and struggled even more with the tight spaces.. and stupidly scraped the rear driver-side bit of my car on the ramp going up a level :(

....and knocked my tyres on the exit after putting my ticket in and the barriers go up :(

Got so insulted by a fellow driver (short bald overly loud man) that I shouldn't be driving, how did I pass, etc etc. when I was struggle to get into the a bay (felt like I was gonna scrape the car on my left)

Any tips? & any words to make me feel better? I feel like a completely stupid sub-human..! :( I'm mid-20s, female by the way.

I used to have a Ford Galaxy which is obviously a very larg car and I always drove right to the top of the multi storey to park in an empty bit.

Always had to take the ramps wide to avoid scraping the near side as I turned in to the ramp.

I've been driving more than 20 years and there is a local car park that is so tight I refuse to use it.

I have a mini now which is easier to park but I always reverse in, much easier.

The advice for getting a lesson is sound, just to build confidence.

I go to the top floor of the car park, and reverse into a space which has at least one empty space next to it. I avoid car parks which I know are so full that I won't find a suitable space.

Best single piece of advice I got for reverse bay parking? Use all 3 mirrors. Sounds daft, but try it.

I've been driving over 10 years and I am genuinely terrified of multi-story carparks.
I'm a bit claustrophobic and they set off my anxiety and cause me to panic like mad.
The problem is, panicking causes more accidents. I can park anywhere, but if it is enclosed, I can't.
Best of luck OP

I've been driving for nearly 45 years and I am pretty confident most of the time.

I live at the end of a cul de sac and I mostly reverse 50m down the road and onto my drive in one easy go.

The other day my neighbours (who hate me because some building work I had done meant that a few times they had to wait a few minutes to get on or off their drive - drivers were always happy to move when asked) were stood on the drive. ... It took me 4 goes to get my car right to reverse onto the drive (over shot, undershot, wrong angle, repeat).

Yeuk - but what the hell - what they choose to think about me is none of my business so long as I know I always do my best.

Almost 20 years driving and after scraping my wing mirror in one I've never drove into one since.
Why make them so smalĺ and fiddly?
I hate parking during busy times too. My anxiety kicks in if people are waiting while I park. I try to go early morning when the car parks empty.

Thanks a lot everyone :) all of your posts make me feel a lot better

I had a quick question though. When you reverse in do you usually drive ahead and then reverse back, sorta doing a 90 degree turn into the bay (which isn't great I guess as it often leads to someone else taking the space by the time I'm reversing back) or more like drive sharp turn to the right and reverse into the bay?

Sorry I've worded the question confusingly..!

In that situation Op, I try to overshoot the space and reverse if from “downstream”. But ad you say, this might mean that someone will come up behind you and you can’t do that.

I was taught to drive 3 spaces past the one I needed to get in and reverse with full lock on and it worked perfectly every time and to be fair I don't think anyone nicked my space however now I'm more experienced I've learnt to do it the other way you describe, I suggest you go and practice on an Emory car park.

Once you are confident reverse parking you will never look back! After 18 months together DP finally agreed with me last week as I have been making him reverse park too

Yes, agree with others that it's just practice - try a few different ways to get into the space and see what works best for you. I normally drive past the space and angle myself towards cars on the other side and then reverse in (so you need to do less than 90 degrees turn). Put your indicator on to show you're going into the space, if someone else takes it they're a cheeky fucker.

I got a brand new car and had scratched it I
my office multistorey three times within the first few weeks. I felt so bad about it but hey it happens.

To drive in forwards you need a big turning arc or lots of manoeuvre. Reverse in, drive out it's the best way. I've drove for many many years.

Learn to reverse well

Choose your multi-storey carefully. A modern one is fine. A 60s/70s built ones are awful. The spaces small and the ramps to go up or down a level tight and small. I hate and avoid those.

A lot of the older ones have really low ceilings too. This seems to add to the stress strangely.

Oh and if it makes you feel any better me and DH spent about 20 minutes walking around a multistorey yesterday because we forgot where we parked 🙈 was so embarrassing because people kept driving really slowly next to us thinking we were walking to our car. Multistoreys are just all round awful!

I hate multi storeys!

When I first passed I went shopping with my mum and we parked in one - I panicked and she had to park for me

I've been driving for 29 years. I can't park in multi storey car parks. They terrify me. I find a normal car park and walk.

There is some kind of exact formula you can look up for reverse parking/parallel parking. My husband taught me to drive and he explained it to me before we started and I've literally never had an issue.

Another thing I've found helpful is to line my car up exactly with the car parked in front of me. Then it's just a case of reversing straight back into the space.

Thanks a lot so far everyone :) been a huge help.

One potentially silly question - if you drive into a multi storey car park and can't find a parking space, how would you get out of it? Surely the token/card needs to be paid for at the pay station regardless but to do that, you'd need to be parked up before you can go down and pay? But how is that possible without a parking space?

Some car parks won’t let you in if they are full. Others don’t charge if you leave within 10 mins or so.

@LightningOne some of them give you so long to find a space without charging, it should be on one of the signs, either that or if they're that full it will be one in one out

I haven’t read the whole thing but I wanted to say don’t worry. These things happen. When I first passed my test I tried parking in a multi story and there was a great space between a brand new BMW and the wall. Well I got my car squashed between the car and the wall as BMW had parked over my line slightly and whilst I had a small car, it wasn’t small enough, evidently. Luckily a passing couple were able to drive my car out of the stuck position as each time I tried it just made the damage to both cars worse. I was crying and feeling shitty.

I had driven into the space. So now I reverse park and move my mirrors so I can see the lines. I also do not park next to a car that has parked over the lines. It just takes practice. You’ll get there. If you’ve got wing mirrors you can control from the inside of your at you’ll be able to line up your space and slowly. This was seven years ago and to this day I get annoyed by that, but it was a learning curve.

You’ll get there.

Good luck.

It depends on the multi-storey car park as to the difficulty.
We have 3 in town. The main one (and a little bit more expensive) is easy. Wide lanes no problems.

Then we have a second. Going up the lanes are not just narrow, but have a 2 feet high concrete wall either side. Whoever thought that was a good idea? Coming down they're only on one side, but even so!
I usually stick the parking sensors on and take it extremely slowly, which includes going backward and forward if necessary.
Dh thinks I should use that one always because it's 20p per session cheaper. I have pointed out one scrape probably accounts for 50 years of using it, so I don't.

The third one went up not long ago, and people have told me it's far worse than the second, so I haven't even tried.

And another one was I got jammed half in and half out at the hospital car park shortly after passing my test. If I moved forward the car bumped one thing, If I moved back, it bumped something else.
I'd got it under the barrier and was just praying it wasn't going to come down.
A nice chap passing had pity on me and got it out for me.

I've now been driving 12 years and I've been the person to help now. It'll come to you too.

I'd get another lesson and boost your confidence that way. Definitely reverse in. It's so much easier to reverse in and drive out. I struggle going in nose first but reversing in is dead easy once you've got your technique.