Which car is mine?

[bhskittykatt]

So after work I went out to my car, and immediately saw damage to the door. I was pissed. Why would another coworker hit my car? How did they do it in the employee lot? I knew that damage wasn't there when I left.

Upset, I turned to head back in to see if Security could do an incident report, when I noticed shiny pom-poms in the rear window. Funny, I didn't recall having...

I looked back at the line of cars and saw my ACTUAL car parked a few spaces down.

One of the maintenance guys cruised by in a golf cart and gave me a queer look as I made my way back around to my own vehicle.

This is what happens when you have not one, but two coworkers who drive the same sort of vehicle you do.

[thatcrazyredhead]

Don't feel bad, bhskittykatt! A friend of mine actually got into a car before realizing it wasn't his! (Did you know that most car keys will open one in five of the same model?) Same make, model, color, etc, but "Hey, this isn't my stuff..."

[Headset Hellion]

My mom got into the passenger seat of the car one time and started talking to my stepfather, only to look over and realize that there was a complete stranger sitting in the driver's seat! Apparently he just looked at her in shock as she apologized profusely and got out of his car as quickly as possible.

[mathnerd]

I've done that before. More than once. I drive a Honda Civic in what was a fairly popular color for the model year. Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit just how many times I've mistaken somebody else's car for my own. These days it's not so bad, as the older it gets the fewer of them are on the road.

[MoonCat]

Yep, friends of ours once loaded their groceries into someone else's car. It was only when they got in the front seat that they realized something wasn't right. They were positive the owner was going to show up while they were frantically unloading the groceries, and accuse them of trying to steal his car.

And I once almost got into a car that I thought was my brother's. He was picking me up from work, and some guy stopped next to the building with the same model car and almost the same color.

[Argus]

(Did you know that most car keys will open one in five of the same model?)

I've heard something like that before. From a guy who helped out when my mother had locked her keys in the car. His car was from a different branch of GM, and his key worked in our car.

[Chromatix]

I believe they've got better at that with more recent models - or at least with European makes.

I've never had any trouble whatsoever identifying a vehicle that my dad drives. There's always been something utterly unique about it:

1) A Renault 12 Estate... at a time when 99% of Renault 12s had already been scrapped (due to typical Renault bodywork lifespan at the time) and 99% of the survivors were not Estates. Dacia were still manufacturing their clone at the time, but these hardly ever showed up in the UK. Due to it's age, the body was also in a colour and finish that were no longer at all common.

2) A SEAT Terra - a van conversion of a very small car - with a camper conversion which completely changed the roofline. We could usually spot this one from across a crowded car park.

3) A VW Transporter with a camper conversion. This one isn't nearly as obvious as the Terra camper, but since it stands taller than the Terra did, it's fairly easy to see the curtains in the back and side windows.

It also helps, I think, that UK registration plates are printed in very large type and can thus be read at quite some distance.

[Elspeth]

Both my husband and I drive very popular cars and colors it seems. Only way I can tell them apart from others on the road are the stickers we have on them, supporting a local soccer team

[Tyg3rW01f]

My Mother tried this, but with the clicker of her Subaru Outback wagon... She called me, my sister, then my father trying to figure out why her keys weren't working!!
Dad, a small-animal vet, was in the midst of a minor surgery, and yelled at the veterinary tech who was telegraphing everything, "That woman is too dumb to recognize her own car!"
That got Mom's attention and a moment later, the tech said, "Doc, your wife says I'm to apologize for her; her car was the next aisle over... and also to tell you you're sleeping in the other room tonight."
Thank Heaven the surgery was a cat neuter.

[sms001]

We had three identical Tauruses in our employee lot for a good stretch; model, year, and color. They eventually all hung different items from their rear-views.

[greek_jester]

This wasn't something we had to worry about when I was growing up.

background/

When I was a little girl, the main employer in Luton, Bedfordshire, UK was the Vauxhall factory. If you didn't work for the factory, you worked for one of the service or supply companies that dealt with it. You could tell when the mandatory 2 week holiday was, because the whole town emptied out. Needless to say, thanks to employee discounts there were a lot of Vauxhall vehicles in the town. Please note that back in the 70's and 80's it was rare to find a car that wasn't black, blue, red or white.

/background

The way to make sure you could always find your car? Drive to the next town over and buy a non-Vauxhall car. We could always find our car at the local supermarket or multi-storey, while there were usually at least 4-5 people walking around, looking confused, wandering up to the dozens of cars of the same model and colour.

[Pixilated]

I drive a Toyota Corolla in what I call a non-colour (officially it's 'bronze' but it looks more like 'dense fog at twilight' to me). Needless to say, it doesn't actually stand out at parking lots. I also have once or twice found myself wondering why my keys aren't working only to look into the car and go, "Oh ... that explains it ..." (My car has 'stuff' everywhere -- back seat and passenger seats -- and when I'm fumbling with a lock and look inside and see a pristine car with not a single item on any of the seats, well, ... )

As of a couple of years ago another way I can tell my car easily in the parking lot is the little dent I put into the left rear fender, which has now developed a nice case of rust. Someday, maybe, I'll get it fixed, when I no longer need it for rapid identification purposes.

[Jetfire]

Don't feel bad, bhskittykatt! A friend of mine actually got into a car before realizing it wasn't his! (Did you know that most car keys will open one in five of the same model?) Same make, model, color, etc, but "Hey, this isn't my stuff..."

Long ago we had a silver Intrepid; there were only a few hundred in my home town at the time I'm sure. :P

One day mom and my sister and I were getting groceries and we stopped at the Silver Intrepid. We unlocked the doors and got in before we realized hte inside was a different colour than the one we had. Oops! I think we got al lthe way to about to turn the key in the ignition before we clued in too. Hehe

[mathnerd]

As I said before, I drive a really popular car in a really popular color. A few years ago, while living in North Dakota, where nobody locks their doors, I was leaving the mall and jumped into what I thought was my car. There was a train wreck in my brain while I tried to figure out where the clutch pedal went. Then it dawned on me that I was not in my car. Ooops.

Another story, but one that doesn't make me feel quite so much like an idiot. I'd injured my foot and was driving my father's truck, since the injured foot was my left foot, and I didn't want to deal with the clutch. I left the grocery store, put all the groceries in the bed of the truck, and then tried to unlock the doors. The key wouldn't work. It took about a minute before I realized that the black Ford F-150 in the next spot over was actually the one that belonged to my dad, and not the one that I'd just put all my groceries in.

[celticgrl]

I did the wrong car thing the other white ford focus walked up to it opened the door climbed in started to put my keys in the ignition when I realized my little dangling Buddha wind chime was gone off my mirror, I was livid that somebody had stole it the realized wait a minute didnt I lock the doors before going in the store look one car over and there is my white ford focus with wind chime still happily hanging from mirror.