Do you have trouble finding your car?

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If you have one of those cars with common colors/looks, do you have trouble finding them in the parking lot?

Our car is blue gray and I can never find it. Even when it's our regular grocery store and we parked at our most regular spot. DH doesn't understand and say just remember where we parked it. Somehow I just couldn't. I used to try to find the dirtiest car in the row because DH rarely washed it. But if he washed it then I can't find it again.

One time I went out with a friend (who might be aspie, too) to the zoo and neither of us could find our car. We paced around the huge parking and waited until it's dark and nearly everybody left. We finally found it when there were only several cars left.

I'm just wondering if this is an aspie thing or a common problem for everybody? I think I want a bright orange car next time.

I only have a bike, but the same principle applies (there are a lot of bikes in the Netherlands, so it can be difficult to find yours), and I also do this for cars. I just memorise the exact place where the car is. In your example, I would memorise how I walked from the car to the entrance of the zoo. I also try to put my bike in the same place every single time to make sure I can find it. This solves most issues. I'm pretty sure I'd have a lot of problems if I didn't actively try to memorise where my bike was when I put it somewhere.

Oh, yes - I'm notorious for losing my car.

At one previous job, in which there was a huge parking lot, my wandering up and down the rows of cars became well known enough that I sometimes had complete strangers tell me where my car was.

When I changed my license plate last fall and my license number changed as well, my car became nearly invisible to me for months.

I often can't remember where I parked my car, so I need to memorise it before I leave my car.
But the worst thing is I get lost everywhere. I have no sense of direction so I'm always busy with memorising.
It's not only in real life, I get also lost in the virtual world. If I play Xbox it's quite entertaining for my family

I'm like that too, but I use a trick: I memorize the license plate of the car I'm in, either my own or my friend's. Then, when going back to the car, I look at license plates, to see if any one of them matches the one I'm looking for. Once I see it, the car is found, and my friends are none the wiser.

I read somewhere that people recognize cars with the same parts of the brain they recognize faces with. (Hey, if you look at the fronts of cars, they do resemble faces a little bit.) So "car-blindness" is related to face-blindness, a common problem for aspies. But by remembering text instead of a "face", I get around the problem.

I have no trouble recognizing my car at all but I certainly have trouble remembering where I parked it.

I forget where I parked my car a lot and it doesn't matter what it looks like. I usually bring a kid with me to point out where the car is... but now my oldest thinks it's funny to just make fun of me the whole time I'm looking, "Did the car run away again?"

Oh, yes, I do that all the time, but I thought that was just standard. I actually play a game where I try to make words using the letters on the license plate. It makes remembering them a lot easier.

Oh yes. Same problem. All the NTs I know don't have this issue.

Usually have to look at license plate as mentioned above or look inside car for objects I know I own (which sure looks creepy when it turns out to not be my car).

Weirdly, no. It's like I have car-seeking radar and I just seem to home in on it every time.
I reverse playback my walking route from where the car was parked to the store entrance, although it's not something I seem to do consciously. Sometimes I get an odd feeling that I'm in the wrong area but I'll look down the row of parked cars and >ding< there's mine a few cars away.

[ETA: If you have an Android smartphone, this could be useful: http://www.appbrain.com/app/mycar-locat ... ocatorfree ]

My husband is the only NT I know who has this same issue. But when he walks through automatic doors, he has a moment where he forgets everything... who he is, where he is, what he's doing, what car he's driving, where it's parked... everything. That happened after a severe car accident. A semi-truck ran into the back of his pick-up on the highway. He took up smoking again so he would have something to do for a moment while everything came back to him and he could continue on with his day. I've learned that I can circumvent the trigger by distracting him as we go through the automatic doors... which is very useful for me because somebody has to remember where the car is because it won't be me!

Once in awhile, I'll have a brain fart, and forget where I parked, but I always find it easily. And my daily driver is about as common as you can get; a silver Toyota 4-door truck. We have several vehicles, and I do sometimes walk right past the one I drove to a place, because I have it in my head that I drove one of the others, so I'm not looking for the one I actually drove there.


Charles

I've never had this problem. My cars have always been unique in some way. My last car was an '04 Kia Rio, orange rust color with tinted windows. On the rear window I had an Iron Maiden sticker in the center. I think I also had an In Flames sticker somewhere. I also had a licence plate frame with barbed wire and two skulls with eyes that glowed red.

My current car? I think only two other people in this state have working models from the same year. I keep this one pretty standard, except for the "I Am The Stig" sticker on the rear window

I always have trouble finding my car. Most of the time, I even have trouble finding the direction my car is in! I take my niece with me a lot, and the second we leave the store I have to tell her to show me where my car is. When I am alone, I have to look for something. Like if I am at Walmart, I have to engrain it into myself that I am directly down from the W. If I don't, then I WILL forget, and occasionally I forget anyway. Once, I looked for more than a half hour for my car in a movie parking lot.

I have tremendous difficulty finding my car in parking lots. I have found strategies that help.


After I park, I look around and take note of where I am in the parking lot. I concentrate on my surroundings. If I am with someone, I don't let them distract me with conversation. I take note of any lane markers or signs that indicate my area of the parking lot. Big lots are often broken up into labeled sections. It is important to stay focused and take careful note of what section the car is in.

I try to park in the same part of the parking lot everytime. The easiest place to recall is the aisle in front of the entrance/exit. That way all I do is walk forward from the exit and I will stumble across my car eventually just by walking straight ahead. Unfortunately, lots of people do this same thing and the parking spaces near the store are usually occupied. If you impliment this strategy, you might need to walk a ways to get to the store and back.

Another option, if your car has keylees entry, push the red button on your keyless entry setting off the car alarm. If you are close enough to your car, the alarm will be activated resulting in easy retrieval of the auto.

If all else fails, get security to help you locate your vehicle.

Last but not least, buy a car in a rare color so it's easy to spot under duress.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 02 Aug 2011, 1:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If I don't look very carefully where I am when I park, I find it nearly impossible for me to find my way back. I've wandered around for hours before because of this. If I do look, however, I can usually find my way back.