To think women are perfectly capable of driving and parking "big cars"?

[Kingcyrolophosarus]

and to hate the casual sexism from male garage workers

Took car to the garage, patronising young guy " would you like me to reverse that out for you?"
No thanks, I've been driving since you were in nappies mate. I've had this car for 5 years, it belongs to me, not my husband. I know how to look after the engine, I know what tyres it takes, and I can fit those tyres by myself

Car hire guy when I was changing a car( for price reasons) "is it too big for you, can't you park it?"

Tyre garage guy
" ooh these are really expensive" proceeds to quote 30% extra
Er, you really think I don't know how much they cost?
I'll go to a garage that doesn't assume I'm stupid thank you

I cannot park in any size of car. I particularly struggle to park our focus because the bastards designed the bloody thing so that you can't tell where it ends at either end (and there's a stupid ledge at the back that makes me paranoid about hitting things). It's not just paranoia; I did scrape up the side of the car on the wall surrounding the ludicrously tight driveway at our old house. So we bought a house with a huge entrance to the driveway instead. And I scraped the door trying to park in DZ's even more ludicrously tight parking space at his work. I m never trying to get a car of any size in there again. I'd struggle to park a bike in it! Several of his colleagues bought smaller cars just so they could use the stupid spaces.

I honestly wouldn't want a bigger car (even with a more sensible design) because I really don't trust my own judgement about the size of the car. And I won't even try to reverse park, as I get anxious when other drivers are waiting for me to finish off to get by. I just can't do it.

Obviously this isn't due to being female. It's because my talents lie elsewhere (e.g. unlike DH, who can park better than me, I have a sense of direction and I know how to get where we're supposed to be going). So I get us there and then make him park.

I would drive a long way and walk back to avoid having to parallel park. I loathe parallel parking and won't even attempt it any more. In fact, I may never consider attempting to parallel park ever again. There is always an alternative.

In any case, the parallel parking on the driving test is not real parallel parking. You go out and find a situation in which no one would parallel park (i.e. a lovely wide, quiet road where you find a car with nothing behind it for miles, where it would be easier and quicker to drive in behind the car) and then parallel park. This in no way prepares you for having to get a car into a very tight space between two other cars on a narrow residential street with a queue of irate buggers waiting for you to finish.

YANBU. I am a brilliant driver, reverser and parker.
When we lived in the ME, we had a Patrol. Shape and size of a skip. I'd parked it, gone and done something and was slinging DDs pram in the back.
A helpful man came along, told me it was a mans car and asked why my DH wasn't driving it and whether I had a Suzuki something.

I used to love multi storey car parks when I had a Mini. Was great fun deliberately driving all the way to the top to park just so I could whizz back down the helter skelter exit.

Now I have a Passat estate it isn't quite so much fun. Well, not in the car park anyway. Too scared of catching a corner with my long car. On the open road though its definitely got a bit more wellie.

I chuffing love driving. I have inherited my Dad's ability to park a truck in a motorcycle space and woe betide anyone that tried to "help" me park. I genuinely don't know how people actually manage without being able to reverse - they must drive miles further than necessary

I drive a fuck off, massive estate and in it I Own The Road

Oh, and I regularly say, in a patronising tone, to DH when he can't get into a space "would you like me to park it for you darling, you're obviously struggling"

I love parking and I am fucking brilliant at it and have a very large and very old and shit car.

Except when I am due my period which is so fucking annoying as I hate blaming periods for anything.

YANBU, at all! Patronising mechanics give me the rage.

I recently paralell parked in a teeny space, first go with no probs. Got out of the car to a "nice work!" comment from some builders who had been watching me do it. FFS, women can park, some just haven't botherered to learn learnt. They got the headtilt, hard stare treatment! Grrrrr.

noblegiraffe thank you, I had never heard of stereotype threat before. Learn something new everyday on MN!

I would also like to say that I love maps and am a great navigator. In fact I am generally really good at finding my way about, even when we were in the middle of Kyoto I always knew where we were and japanese cities are notoriously hard to navigate. DH on the other hand couldn't find his way out of asda

[checks knickers to see if maybe there is a penis in there after all]

Pigeon I loved "Mind Driving". What did you contribute?

Sadly I am one of those women who has a car too big to for me to be able to park perfectly but you know, it wasn't my choice. My DS is disabled, my lessons were courtesy of The Family Fund and I have to drive a vehicle which is suitable for him, not me.

When DS was awarded a mobility car DH traded the family one for a teeny tiny manual (I can only drive auto) and I would be very not just about his twenty years parking experience but the matchbox-sized thing thing he handled so niftily. Now I am seeing the repercussions and I am the one getting better at parking the asexual-mobile while his skills are slowly being eroded

I'm very good at parking,sometimes tho when I'm hungry & I get angry or frustrated then it all goes out the window,my ex wife was great at navigating tho,she or I could never understand why or how I couldn't get it!?!?

Trixy we have the same dad. Except mine would not allow us to drive with him
As teacher with mum in car! She was too neurotic!

Our learning to drive party trick at about lesson 3 was an insane hill start while turning left into a very narrow road around a large tree! I know people who to this day take routes to avoid that particular intersection!

Borrow my car OP. It has hand controls, scares the hell out of the Kwick Fit guys when I need a new tyre or two.

I'm not the best at reverse parking because of the aforementioned hand controls. If anyone makes a comment I ask them to park their car without using their feet.

I actually became good at reverse parking becuase shortly after my test (before they taught it) I always seemed to need to park between two cars where there was a group of lads watching and laughing. So I would wind the window down and say, "stop laughing , guide me in".

YANBU. Obviously.

It makes me mad as hell that I am a shit driver. Through no fault of my own i feel as though i am conforming to some godawful sterotype.

However as a result of the stereotype i'm damned if i will not drive because of it, which makes me a bit unreasonable as the roads would be safer if i didn't.

Having said that i have never had any kind of driving conviction or serious crash. Which is more than can be said for my DP, who considers himself a great driver despite having written a car off (by driving into a ditch)

I'm better at parking than DH. He's probably ok when I'm not there but he gets in a flap if he has to attempt a space more than once. He is a good, safe driver though, which I appreciate. He doesn't speed or drive aggressively like my ex who may or may not have been compensating for something

He's just bought us a large car, I'll be the main driver as he generally walks everywhere and I ferry the cherubs about. This new car has all the buttons and bows so I imagine parking sensors etc. I think it also has a parking camera. I'll be switching them off if I can, I imagine them being very off putting.

We have to reverse park at work and I have to parallel park outside my house, I'm fine with both as long as I don't have too many blind spots.

No YANBU. I have a fuck off big Citreon C8 - like a tank! And I am perfectly capable to driving it and parking it thanks very much. I learned to drive when living with my mum and dad - they have a long drive on a hill, turning at the bottom is hair-raising to say the least and you needed to reverse into the garage at a very odd angle on a slope.

YANBU. I can reverse into parking spaces whether I'm driving my little car or the pick-up truck. Only difference is the visibility is worse in the truck and I have to rely solely on the wing mirrors. I can also reverse the truck into my drive, making 4 wiggly maneuvers and placing it exactly where I want [feeling rather pleased with myself]. But I think it's all down to being taught how to park and being able to practice in an no pressure environment. Oh, and I've passed my advanced driving test, so sod all those who say "women can't drive". And can reverse a trailer.

I would urge anyone who has difficulty with parking to have a lesson to learn how to do it rather than feed the stereotype.

I know I'm a good driver. I'm not a stereotypical cautious slow woman driver but yet never had an accident in 10+ years of driving & just 3 points last year. I'm much more observant than husband.

I drive husband's automatic estate, farm trucks etc, but recently bought a manual estate (upgrade from polo!) and am so disappointed by how impossible it's been to get a good seat position. I'm small; 5'2", and it's impossible to depress clutch, touch brake, adjust steering wheel etc to make it driveable. I know that I'm not only uncomfirtable but also dangerous. Having to sell it after just 2 weeks!

If large cars are hard for some women to drive I think that's because they are designed for an average height man -not exactly our fault!!! Sitting with everything maxed out restricts movement & ability to see properly (at roundabouts for eg).

I'm hoping to get behind a disco next but will try it out first this time!!!

God, I love multi-storey carparks! At the last place I worked, you could get a fabulous tyre squeal going round the corners even at a nice safe speed if you swung the wheel tight . My boss's office was near to the car park and he said he always knew when I was on the way in...

I have to admit, my parallel parking skills have deteriorated over the years. We used to live in London with on-street parking and I was ace at parking. Now, I don't have to do it so often so take a bit more time over it. Still wouldn't not do it though.

DH cannot drive, but does have better spatial awareness than me - when I do have to parallel park, I'll often ask DH if he reckons I can fit the bus into the space

Queen, any size of car can be problem for you, not just big ones. A few years ago, when I was looking for a new company car, one of the cars on the list was a VW Golf (think it was the Mark 4). I just could not get that car in a comfortable driving position - I'm 5'10" with long legs, and if I had the seat back far enough for my legs, I was stretching for the wheel. Shame, as it was a nice car.

I must admit that when I heard Bradley Wiggins had been hit by a woman driving a white van my heart sank as it plays straight into this stupid stereotype.