Run-in with the garage doorway...literally.

Our garage door opening is really narrow. When we first moved in, Shweetie tried parking his TL in the garage, and he had only a couple of inches of clearance on each side. We also discovered that we could close the garage door if, and only if, the car was an inch away from the back wall. After that we never attempted to park his car in the garage again, and I've since had exclusive claim to the space.

The Jetta fit fairly easily, though I still had to back the car in, as pulling the car forward into the garage was nearly impossible. Actually, it might have been truly impossible, as the one time I pulled in forward (mind you, I was in a terrific hurry), I scraped the passenger side of the car above the back wheel. It was near the end of the Jetta's life and we'd just moved into our place less than four months before, so I immediately jumped out of the car and inspected the garage doorway with trepidation, and completely ignored the state of the Jetta. There were minor scrapes on the doorway where the car had grazed it, but it honestly blended in with the natural imperfections of the wood.

Anyway, I got a new Civic Hybrid in December, and although I do not keep the car as spotless as one would expect of a fairly new car, I've been glad that I haven't yet gotten any scratches or dings. That's not the case anymore.

When I got home from work today, I followed my normal routine: I pulled into the driveway slowly, pulled up to the garage diagonally across from us at a 45 degree angle, then started backing into our garage. I had just registered, "Hey, I don't think I was as close to our neighbor's garage as I normally am when I start backing up," when I heard a little bump and something that sounded suspiciously like scraping. Yeah, that can't be good. I pulled forward again, heard some more bad sounds, straightened out, then pulled into the garage.

There were two scrapes, but luckily they weren't that bad - definitely not as bad as the injuries the Jetta suffered. Luckily I was able to buff out all of the green paint that had affixed itself to the Civic. However, one of the scrapes also took a tiny bit of paint off of the car, but thankfully, my car is a dark enough color where it shouldn't be too noticeable. I haven't seen it in direct sunlight yet, though. Meh!