to have expected a slightly more empathetic response from this Range Rover driver?

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

It's pouring with rain.

The (shiny new) Range Rover is parked bang in the middle of 2 spaces outside my house with the engine running.

I park across the road, then tap on her window & say "you realise you're parked across 2 spaces?"

Super-groomed blonde perma-tanned woman driver responds "this is a public road & I've just paid £500 to tax my car"

But does it matter to you? If they are driving the car they choose to drive and pay all the taxes and subsidies, then that is their business, not yours.

If they have inconvenienced someone with inconsiderate parking, then mention it to them nicely and ask them to budge up. Same as you would to someone in a clapped-out old mini (who can also be inconsiderately parked). Yes, it does happen, believe it or not!!

I agree jonicome, most of the people I know that drive them do not put hay in them or live anywhere near a farm.

Land Rovers are for farmers. Range Rovers are NOT. Theyre far too nice to get all messed up with hay

You were pointlessly confrontational towards her. Of course she was pointlessly confrontational back.

If you'd stopped, asked nicely if she could move up so you could park outside your house and she'd refused for no reason, then she'd have been being unpleasant.

(I am very much imagining her in 'Dynasty' style shoulder pads and big hair, with a supercilious 'I screw over oil barons' look on her face).

Few farmers put hay in their RRs they use trailers normally . Round bales would never fit in mine for some odd reason. Note to self, don't look tanned or have blonde hair to drive the RR. That's me fucked then!

YABU and rude - yes taking two spaces is unreasonable but no need for the comments about her car or appearance

You could have asked her to move her car a bit, but then if you'd done that you wouldn't have afforded her the opportunity to tell you how much she'd paid to tax the car or show off her fancy schmancy knowledge of the Highway Code - so actually, you did her a favour by saying what you did

Range Rover interiors never see bales of hay - and if they are one of those hideous Overfinch (could barely type that word...) even less so

Not if they're doubled-up as a farm AND family vehicle, Croydon!

We only have one car (the other vehicles are vans, used for business purposes). My car is used for everything else (although I admit I only carry enough hay for the rabbits). And my car is not all that nice - it is old and pretty scruffy but I love it

And I am a very considerate driver/parker.

Just makes me cross when people judge others on their appearance and how they THINK someone is behaving, when they're not necessarily doing so. And then proceed to tell everyone else how they think that person should behave and what car they should drive and for what reason. Gah!

Did you make it clear that you would like one of the spaces or did you just sound like you were telling her she was a shite parker?

Don't know any farmers with Range Rovers. They're a bit crap off road and don't tow very well. Best left for the horsey set to collect a few bales of hay with and feel all agricultural.

Fair point Evans - but equally fair point is that drivers of Audi/BMW/whopping big shiney 4x4s with tinted windows that have never seen mud do tend to have a definite - ahem - driving style

Its bollocks. No time for this sort of attitude. How dare a woman look good and drive a nice car! She must be a ruthless bitch?!

Were the spaces marked outside your house OP as designated spaces?

Just as a matter of interest, if you had taken up 2 spaces outside someone's house during school pick up and they pointed it out to you, would your first reaction be to

1. Apologise and say you hadn't realised, then move up a bit

OR

1. Say that you can park where you like and tell that person how much your car tax costs

You should have taken a picture of her car and handed her a note with the YPLAC website on it telling her to look out for her car on that site.

Some people give female drivers and drivers of larger cars a bad name :-/

SirChen - anyone could have said either, but it would be regardless of how they looked or what car they drove.

1. If the person asked me nicely (whatever car I was in) I would apologise and move up.

1. If the person verbally attacked me in an aggressive manner I wouldn't even bother with telling them how much my car taxes were. I'd go for the jugular!

I personally think the point of this OP was simply to have a pop at someone who looks nice and drives a big car. Nothing to do at all with the car being parked inconsiderately.

It's also how the opening sentence to the offender is addressed to the offender.

"Could you please move up a bit, I can't get into this space"
OR
"you realise you're parked across 2 spaces"

First - nice, likely to get a good result
Second - aggressive, likely to get a bad result.

Of course, morals of story, don't park badly, no matter what car you drive or how you look, but also, don't speak to someone in a manner in which you would not like to be spoken to yourself (and don't judge someone else simply on how they look or what car they drive). Grammar may have gone a little awry there, but now I'm cooking dinner too

(And as for my hay example; it was just that - an example)!!
I used my daughter's Toyota Aygo to go shopping one day after her driving practice to college. Flippin' Hec, I couldn't fit everything in her boot. I drove home with pork chops sticking in my ear

I agree that it shouldn't about what she looked like, or what car she drove - but interestingly the 4x4s reaction was cliched, and she (wittingly or unwittingly) lived up to the reputation that the drivers of these cars unfortunately tend to have.

I would imagine that most of us would instinctively apologise for parking inconsiderately outside someone's house and offer to move our car as opposed to saying that we can park where we like as we've just paid £X to tax our car - unless of course it was an aggressive encounter - but it really didn't sound as if the OP was aggressive.

Trying to cook dinner too - terrible grammar, but you know what I mean?!

I don't think the OP sounded particularly aggressive either. But then, I am one of those people who gets really pissed off with crap parking. I'd be mortified if I'd parked over two spaces and hadn't noticed, and if I did realise, I'd move my car, however much road tax I'd paid.

Were the spaces marked? Was she parked legally?

Anyne who starts a sentence wi the passive aggressive phrase 'you do realise...?' gets short shrift from me.

I had already parked across the road; asking her to move forward would have meant double parking at a time when there is a lot of passing traffic (& I do generally try to drive considerately)

So there was then no point asking her to move forward, & I had the choice of pointing out that she was hogging more than her share of space, or saying nothing.

I spoke to her because she was there (she's not the first to do this, it often happens, especially on wet days) not because she had a big car & looked expensive - those, combined with her attitude, just made the situation such a cliche.

Do tell me how I should have worded my remark to avoid being PA. (Maybe next time I should just pile in with YPLAC )

She has a point - until you pay her road tax you haven't really got a leg to stand on. However, I can also see your very valid point!

Are the parking spaces outside your house private and designated? Do you have sole possession of it/them? Was she parked in your own private parking space(s)?
If the answer is no, and there was nowhere else to park, then you could have just asked the lady (nicely) if she could budge up. Agreed, she should have been more considerate, but to be honest, if it were me, and someone tapped on my window to just say "you realise, etc" rather than "would you mind" - that would get my dander up.

People in all walks of life do stuff to annoy others - there is a way of dealing with it pleasantly, though

Also, the question remains - what if it had been a Grandma or Grandad doing the school run in some old jalopy and they had parked similarly - would you have phrased your question in the same way? Or was it simply because a seemingly attractive woman driving a car you clearly dislike had parked in a place you wanted to be? (and it was raining, so clearly extra grumps)