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"

Come on op, we all know that a person's ability to park is in inverse proportion to the size of their vehicle. Have you ever driven round a Waitrose carpark? Painful!

YANBU

It's irrelevant what car and how she looked , why re people concentrating on that.

She was parked across 2 spaces, which is rude.

Her response was rude. Normal people would apologise and sort it out.

You haven't answered any of the other questions directed at you about how you would have handled the situation under other circumstances.

I have, actually

RTFT

Of course she can park wherever is legal on a road

But over 2 spaces is just a twatty thing to do.
Regardless of gender, social standing, hair colour etc.

bigdog, I'm very sorry, I didn't realise bad parking only applies in marked spaces.

I think the OP was being terribly unreasonable.

Mrs RR obviously couldn't see her parking faux pas because of the enormous sunglasses she must have been wearing (big sunglasses are obviously de rigueur even when it is raining. Or dark).

Especially if you have the tinted windows on the RR too. Then you drive blind effectively - but hey, you've paid £500 to tax your oversized car, so it's actually allowed

If you had posted your OP with simply "A car parked badly and I challenged them in such-and-such a way" I think you may have had a little more sympathy from some quarters - the operative word there is 'some'. Personally I couldn't give a flying fuck if Ms RR felt hurted because someone had the temerity to point out her twunty parking. Good on the OP, I say.

Re the stereotype - she could just as easily have said 'oh sorry, I wasn't paying attention, I'll budge up a bit'

Then it would have been a non-stereotypical story (a non-story in fact) & none of us would be here, other RR drivers or not

Thanks, SirChenjin

If the lady was not parked in a designated parking space I really don't see the issue. She wasn't parked in a disabled space, a private driveway, blocking anyone in etc. She was parked on a road which she's perfectly entitled to do. Whether she was in a 4x4, had blonde hair and was tanned is irrelevant.

I will remember in future when I'm doing the school run for my sister to be mindful of my blonde hair and tan. Clearly it can upset people, especially when I drive a range rover and dare to park in a street instead of on the zig zags outside the school.

Anyway, I'm off to munch my way through my box of Krispy Kreme's and open the wine

You're welcome . I'm pretty sure that Ms RR, who feels that she has every right to park exactly how she wishes because she paid £500 to tax her car, isn't sobbing snot trails into her Chardonnay this evening and crying why, whyyyyyyyy was that mean lady so horrid

Most normal people would have apologised as soon as someone pointed out that they'd parked like a dick, as opposed to claiming road rights and telling a complete stranger how much their road tax cost. How you kept a straight face at that OP, I don't know

Of course she can park wherever is legal on a road

But over 2 spaces is just a twatty thing to do.
Regardless of gender, social standing, hair colour etc

Precisely - so why the need to bring up the car and appearance of driver in the OP simply puzzles me. It has nothing at all to do with twattiness of parking. As I said before, crappy parking is crappy parking, regardless of who has done it, so I fail to see the need to mention appearances at all.

And just ask nicely, not confrontationally - "Could you budge up a bit please". It's really not too difficult.

La la la la la la la

hides yet another fucking boring fucking 4x4 bashing thread

Ah, but they are so much fun, especially when the driver ticks every single cliched 4X4 driver box. She really was the gift that kept on giving

Tinted windows at the front are actually illegal, SirChen, so not quite sure what you refer to there . I know some cars do have them, but only because they haven't been spotted by the relevant authorities. They are not allowed.

And I agree, most people would apologise immediately, if it were pointed out they had done something inadvertently wrong, but as has been said SO many times - there are ways of asking.

I personally think OP was being unnecessarily confrontational because she didn't like the car or the driver visually, so decided to deal with her prejudices accordingly.

I'm wondering how the RR driver would know she was 'bang in the middle' of two parking spaces if they weren't designated or marked spaces. If I drive down a street (which has no designated or marked spaces) I park my car. In a lot of streets only the people that live there know where the unofficial parking spaces are. Personally I think the OP is being unreasonable.

But she hadn't done anything wrong. If bays were not narked.

Narked. Hah.

Mmmmm perhaps because if OP haf simply said, she parked badly and I asked her to move up, the thread would have filled with, you don't know what sort of day she'd had with her great great grandparents being left on the side if the road after The government had sold their house under them for all the illegal immigrants to live in, and oh by the way the Daily Mail are on hand to capture the head tilt picture.

She parked like a twat. Regardless of how the OP described her.

I am achingly good looking and drive a massive shiny 4x4.

My clothes are eye watering.

You better hope I don't mind my own business deliberately take up your whole road, OP

How did she park like a twat if she didn't know where the unofficial unmarked parking spaces were?

Also, what do you mean by empathetic?

What should she have said in empathy?

"Ya, soz. Your little car only stretch over one space babe? Bad luck. And soooooooo soz that's what you have to wear. And like massive mega soz about you not having been to St Lucia at Easter. Soooo pale. Really sad. Would you like the number of my hairdresser?"

Do you know what empathy means? And why expect it from some random in a big car.

If you plonk a wide 15-16' vehicle in the middle of a 30-35' space, you can be fairly sure nobody else is going to be able to squeeze in either side of you

But I can see that if you don't normally have to park in the street, the finer points of on-street parking etiquette are going to be lost on you.

Hmmmm. I'm torn. I own a range rover (nice) AND a defender (not so nice).

And I live in a rural setting, and I own working dogs.

Am I a jumped up cow or am I practical?

She parked her fucking car! She was completely unaware it was "your" space. What do you expect her to do? Do you expect her to ram her car up the arse of the car in front of her when there was plenty of space to park? Put cones out if you're so precious about space on a public road that's "your" unallocated, unmarked parking space. Fuck sake! This is hardly a tragedy. Jeez you actually had to walk across a road to your house in the rain? Rain never melted anyone I know of. On street parking is just that. Anyone can park on the street!