I am rubbish at parking - has anyone ever been like me but somehow managed to become competent at parking?

[MrsFogi]

Please tell me how! I'm fed up of having to drive all around my area to find three residents' spaces next to one another (and paying for a car park when I can't even though there are lots of single spaces available). I'm fed up of driving to the top of multi-storey car parks so I can find three spaces next to one another.
Don't suggest parktronic, I have it. It doesn't help.

Can't help, I used to be quite good at it but I just get worse and worse as I get older. Dh gets out and "helps" me because he can't stand me not parking precisely within the lines in a car park

I was no good till my brother told me it's actually easier to reverse into a parking space.
I was but he's right.
Once I'd started doing that I got better at parallel parking too (you didn't have to do it in the test when I took it)

Agree with RustyBear - reversing makes it much easier. Get parking sensors as well and you're laughing!

I'm crap at parking too - just can't seem to judge how long or wide my car is and have parking sensors but they seem to beep like crazy about a metre away from anything. parallel parking I'm either miles away from the curb or kind of on it with one wheel sort of squished up. I managed to get my tiny nissan micra stuck on the metal gates of our drive - drove in and hit them then tried to reverse and got wedged - resulting in huge scar down side of car. I just wish I could get better but have been driving for 8 years now and I just don't seem to have the right sort of brain.

Can you adjust your parktronic so you are confident it works well - do you not trust it?
Have a lesson with a driving instructor - there is a sure fire method of paralell parking (do x when you pass mirror, y as you pass dorr etc.) then practice lots
Reversing in definitely easier

I got better at parking when i lived in a terraced house in a narrow road I had to parallel park so I just did!

I am better than DH at parking [smug emoticon]

Takes practice. And practice. And more practice

The more confident with driving you become, the better you'll be. It'll end up being the same as when you change gear - you do it without really thinking about it.

I used to be crap at parallel parking, then I got a tiny car

I mean door
Also make it a secret driving lesson

ooh my new car is coming with park assist where you drive past the space it tells you if you can fit in it then it steers it in you only have to work the clutch brake etc am bit nervous of it as will seem as car has life of its own
will need to practice on some poor unsuspecting fools friends cars first

You need one of those beepy parking things. My sister's got one - it's ace. Anyone would think she was a whizz at parking but actually she's crap.

Sometimes local councils run road safety days - my council runs 'parking lessons' every so often on a Sunday in a council carpark. I've not done it myself but they get you to parallel park and reverse park until you are happy with it. It's all done by proper driving instructors .

I can parallel park but I prefer it when the space is on my left, not my right. Not sure why . Reversing into a space is a doddle now but I struggled with that as a learner (as indeed reversing around a corner was too). It is something that comes with practice.

Do you mean you can't drive into a space right, or you can't reverse/parralllel parK? I assume the later?
Sadly, I suspect it's totally practice. When we lived in a busy street where you HAD to reverse park or park 5 miles away, I got good at it. Now we have a drive, my skill levels have plummeted again.

I think it's practice. I used to think I could never reverse into a parking space, then at work decided it was easier to drive out of the space at the end of the day then reverse out so started doing it every day & it is now soo much easier.

Just need to do the same with parallel parking....

I have to say - my parallel parking got better from parking outside our house. We have to park up on the kerb and it gives more scope for movement and you can go in at sharper angles. It got my confidence up and that was it really.

I never reverse into parking bays. Mostly because I almost always have to get to the boot and I get fed up of fuckwits parking bumper to bumper.

I think it's easier to reverse into a space since you know what's behind you (says she who drove into her space at work today) than out into a busy carpark or road.

im no good im always looking for the lovely three spaces in a rowbut have found when there is no other option i can park well enough in a tight space though it takes ten minutes of arsing in and out but i really hate to have to do it im slowly buildin up my confidence i find it better to go at my own pace then rush myself into it

When I was learning to drve my dad took me to b&q car park once they were closed, made me reverse into every single space one after another - seemed ridiculous at the time but I can park like a demon now - much better than dh

There was an article in one of the papers the other day explaining why women can find a problem with reverse parking..we use both sides of the brain and are processing thought all the time.
I used to get out and push my Reliant Robin into a space.

I'm really good at parallel parking

You have to reverse in, you have to use full lock and you have to practise.

I would go to a trading estate at night when there's no one there so you won't get stressed. Work out where you want to park and do it over and over and over.

I find the problem with some people trying to park is that they dither with the steering wheel. It's no good turning the wheel half an inch this way and that. You need full locks and then just move slowly so you can correct if you need to.

oooh lots of replies, many of them giving me hope. I think I'll take a couple of lessons (as dh would be no good at teaching me). Sadky I do have a system that beeps when I'm about to hit something! What doesn't help is that it seems to me that nowadays cars are so curvy you can't see the "corners", I need a car shaped like a shoebox.

Parktronic is a hindrance to good parking.

I wonder if the mistake you are making is that you are trying to go into spaces forwards? That's a product of lack of confidence.

With roadside parking, cars cars can't go in forwards unless you have two spaces at least.

You need to go in backwards. Just try it. You'd be surprised. I can't park for toffee UNLESS I am going in backwards in which case, much to my own total surprise, I am a demon.

Oh God I HATE parallel parking, I've missed nights out because I knew I'd have to park outside someone's terrace. dh thinks it's hilarious.