How many times have you parked your car and forgotten where it is? Some of us just don't have the necessary skills to locate our own vehicle a few hours after we left it in a very specific location. If you suffer from this affliction, we have the help you need.
I lose my car all the time. I don't have a fancy remote to set off my car alarm and locate it by noise. I have a black car so it looks like a lot of other vehicles. If I don't explicitly try to remember where I parked I will not remember, and in order to do that I have to remember to remember which, as you might guess, doesn't happen too often. Tired of losing my car and wandering down streets and through lots, I decided to create and enact a plan to fix it.
Car Park Tour from Adam Dachis on Vimeo.
Don't just take a picture, take a video. Pictures help you locate where you parked the car but you rarely get enough detail to determine the exact location. In a crappy parking lot or on a street you won't get much use. You can, however, find your way back if you record the entire trip out of the parking lot (or down the street) to your destination. Simply film behind you with your smartphone, walk to the exit, and upon your return scrub through the video in reverse. As you do, you'll see the exact path you'll need to walk and it'll lead right to your car. When you really need specific visual help, this method never fails.
Pin Your Location (Where Possible)
Indoor parking lots don't work well with GPS', plus you wouldn't get a precise location regardless. If you park on the street, however, a pin in the map can pretty much land on the exact location of your vehicle and help you find it when you return. If you go out for drinks or have some other version of a wild night, just use your smartphone to navigate you back with walking directions. Sure, you should be smart enough to figure this all out yourself but we won't judge if you need to use your smartphone to literally tell you how to get back to your vehicle.
Make Your Car Noticeable
If you have a generic car like mine, you can't spot it easily. How can you fix that? You just have to make it look different. While you can decide what sort of horrible adornment you want to use to ruin your car's perfect aesthetics, a piece of fabric works fine. You just need to take a brightly-colored shred (it can come from an old t-shirt if you don't own straight up fabric) and tie it around your car's radio antennae. If that doesn't work, or if you don't want a semi-permanent solution, place it underneath your windshield wiper whenever you park or keep it in the car and under the windshield. The more visible the better, but do whatever works best for you. If you can see the bright color you improve your chances of locating your car—at least during the day or in a lot.
Park Near Exits
Most people like to park near entrances to avoid walking, but you have to compete for those spots and probably won't get one. If you can park near the exit of a ramp or lot, however, you'll have a bit of a trek but will save time exiting. A little extra legwork keeps you mobile and mildly more fit, plus if you park at exits, you always know exactly where to find your vehicle. If you forget somehow, just go to the exit and you'll figure it out.
When you can't park in a garage or lot, however, try to find a spot at the corner of two streets. You might have to drive a little farther but if you can, choose a corner, and then you just have to make a note of those two streets intersecting and not worry about where you parked on one. Of course, you could also just drop a pin on a map in your smartphone instead.
Let Technology Find Your Car For You
If you don't really want to exert any effort remembering, you can use your smartphone (presuming you don't leave it in the car regularly). Through the power of Bluetooth, you can pair apps with custom hardware to locate your car without doing much more than lifting a finger.
On the iPhone side, Find My Car Smarter uses a tiny Bluetooth dongle that plugs into your car and notes your parked location via GPS right before you leave. You don't have to do anything—it'll figure out when you park and just make the note for you. If you lose your car, just open the app on your iPhone and it'll help you locate your vehicle.
Android users should check out Park Me Right. While it won't know when you park and automatically trigger a GPS note in your phone, the app costs nothing and you can load it up when you park to do the same thing. If you can get into that habit, you can drop a pin in the map in far fewer steps.
Overall, you need to put some effort into keeping track of your car even if you have no talent for the job. While tips and tricks can help a lot, you do need to pay attention and try to improve your ability to find your vehicle. If you get used to employing these methods, you'll think more about losing your car as soon as you park. Once you can create that habit, you'll always remember to at least take a mental note and vastly improve your chances of locating your vehicle.
Images by Andreas Altenberger (Shutterstock), RicLaf, and Matthew Rutledge.
Original author : Adam Dachis
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