I do my best to take excellent care of my cars. Pride of ownership is one reason, but resale value is just as important to me. One way I do this is by being obsessive about where I park. It can be a real pain, but I feel in this case the end justifies the means. I have taken parking to the extreme and would like to state my thoughts on this important subject. If you share my aversion to door dings and scratches, chances are you may already practice many of these steps and even have a few of your own that you'd like to contribute.

1. A premium space for me is one all the way at the end of the row and far away from where I'm going. It's even better if there isn't a car within 10 or 20 spaces! I use this method as much as possible!

2. I will always park next to small cars rather than large cars whose doors are longer.

3. Avoid parking next to beaters and wrecks, if they don't care about their own vehicle, they won't care about mine either.

4. Never park next to a cart corral, too many opportunities for trouble.

5. Park next to four door cars. Two door cars have longer doors, which must swing wider for the occupant to enter and exit. Some (especially GM products like the Trans AM and the Camaro) have very heavy doors that are easy to lose control of.

6. I avoid mini vans as these may be transporting children who may not understand the consequence of hitting the car next to them. I keep my distance from sport utilities and station wagons for this same reason.

7. Never park diagonally across 2 spaces, this is asking for trouble.

8. Spaces with no neighbor on the passenger side get preference over spaces with no neighbor on the driver side. All vehicles have drivers, many don't have passengers.

9. When parallel parking, I always search out spaces with plenty of room, or better yet, one on an end. There are many drivers who haven't learned this skill and use the park by Braille method instead.

10. When I am fortunate enough to get an end spot, I take advantage of it by hugging the curb. Just be careful - you don't want to do any curb surfing!