Street Parking Survival Guide

I’m no car expert, but after 20 years of roughing it on the street, thousands of dollars spent to repair sideswiped doors, smashed headlights, dinged bumpers, dented hoods, punctured tires, and broken windows, plus piles of tickets (all paid, of course), I am a street-parking survivor and more than qualified to write this guide. These tips are drawn from my experiences, as well as those of car experts and other street parkers who, like me, learned the hard way so you don’t have to. 

Avoid parking under trees. Bird poop and tree sap are acidic and will damage the paint on your car. If you get dumped on by winged vandals, be sure to clean it off quickly to avoid lasting paint damage. Wet, heavy snow can also cause branches to break and fall on your car.

Park upstream. If flooding is in the forecast and you can plan ahead, consider finding a garage for the day or heading to higher ground to protect your vehicle. If water reaches the floor of your car, that can mean trouble. In a matter of minutes, a flash flood had the floor mats in my mother-in-law’s Mercedes-Benz floating when she parked on the street to attend a class. The insurance company totaled her flooded sedan because of electrical damage. “I relive my decision to park in that spot every time it rains,” she says. “Especially since it would have been just as easy to snag a spot on higher ground a few blocks away.”

Have some snow sense. In regions where it snows a lot, keep a snow shovel in the car—you’ll need it to dig out after the street plows bury your car or to turn a snow mound into a parking spot. But also know, if you toss that snow into the street or onto the sidewalk, you could end up with a ticket.

Throw some shade. Constant exposure to sunlight can crack or tear your dashboard and leather seats. Use a windshield sunshade to help block rays and a leather conditioner to keep your seats supple.

Don’t do repairs on the street. “In many jurisdictions, it’s not legal to work on your car when you’re parked on the street,” Milchtein says. If you decide to take your chances anyway, be sure to do it in a safe spot away from traffic, like an alleyway, a parking lot, or a public park. There are also shops that rent out stalls and tools for people to make car repairs.

In addition to buying or renting a set of basic portable hand tools, you can use an inexpensive mover’s blanket to keep the ground clean and a bunch of towels to keep your body clean. Stick to simple jobs, such as changing your brakes, air filters, tires, or spark plugs. If you’re not super-savvy about doing these things, you can search on YouTube for a tutorial, channels like Eric the Car Guy, ChrisFix, and 1A Auto.

Fold-in side mirrors. “When I lived in New York City, I always folded in my side mirrors,” Milchtein says. “The streets are narrow, people don’t drive very thoughtfully, and mirrors get broken all the time.” Thieves are also less likely to target a car when the side mirrors are folded in. David Glawe, president and CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), says folded mirrors could suggest the vehicle is secured because some vehicles’ mirrors automatically fold in when the car is locked.

Take everything with you. Don’t leave anything in the car, even if it has little or no value. The cost to repair a shattered window is what you’re trying to avoid here. (Almost everyone I spoke with for this article has had their car broken into.) Some people go so far as to leave their empty glove compartments and the center console open to ward off break-ins. If you keep a gun in the car, make sure it’s locked in a gun safe or secured with a cable lock, as reports of guns stolen from vehicles are on the rise. Researchers at Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group, found that a decade ago, less than a quarter of all gun thefts were from cars; in 2020, over half of them were.

360-degree dash cams can help in case of crashes. When filing a police report or an insurance claim, dash cams can document your story. “Get a forward and reverse dash cam so you can see in front of you and behind you,” Milchtein says. Some more expensive dash cams will activate when they detect motion (as when another driver rams your car) and will hopefully capture the license plate number of the other car in a crash. A possible downside: Dash cams may also be tempting to thieves. 

Track your car. There are devices that alert you if your vehicle has been stolen and track its whereabouts. Some can also disable your car. “Tracking devices are very effective in helping authorities recover stolen vehicles,” says the NICB’s Glawe. “Some systems employ telematics, which combine GPS and wireless technologies to allow remote monitoring of a vehicle. If the vehicle is moved, the system will alert the owner and the vehicle can be tracked via computer.” You can buy a system on Amazon for about $250 (some require subscription services for about $10 to $15 per month).

Don’t leave your car running unattended. I once mistakenly left my Prius parked and running on a Manhattan street overnight because it was pouring rain, I was in a rush, and I didn’t hear the motor running. I had the fob on me and didn’t realize the car was on until the next day, when I miraculously found it unstolen. Yes, I know how lucky I am: Half of the 6,858 vehicles stolen in New York City in 2020 were taken while they were running. 

I’ve also been guilty of leaving my car running to warm it up in the winter, aka “puffing.” Lucky again, because many cars are stolen this way. It has become such a problem that it’s now illegal to leave your car running and unlocked in many states. It’s not only bad for the environment but also unnecessary. According to CR’s chief mechanic, John Ibbotson, your engine needs only 10 to 15 seconds to warm up before you can drive off.

Never leave your keys in the car. About half of vehicle thefts happen when doors are unlocked and keys or fobs are in the car. “The beauty of a key fob is that you don’t need it in your hand to start the car,” Milchtein says. “The downside is you don’t need to have it in your hand to turn off the car, either.” The best thing to do is never remove the fob from your pocket or your bag.

Don’t use your fob to lock the car. A growing opportunity for car thieves is breaking into cars by hacking the keyless entry systems, which use low-power radio signals. “These signals can easily be intercepted or amplified by tech-savvy thieves to trick the car’s internal computer system into thinking the fob is in contact with the door or ignition when it’s actually somewhere else,” Friedlander says. 

Leyba says that clicking the buttons on your fob amplifies the signals and makes it easier for hackers to intercept them, especially when you click repeatedly to lock it. To reduce the chances that your fob will be hacked, use the switch inside the car or your key to lock the doors. Glen Rockford, CR’s Digital Lab privacy program manager, says even using the sensor on the door handle to lock and unlock your door is better than using the key fob (if your car has this capability) because a hacker would have to be much closer to sniff out your key fob’s radio signal (think 3 feet as opposed to 100 feet). 

Don’t leave identifying information inside your vehicle. Imagine having your car stolen and your identity stolen too. Or being targeted at home. Keep a picture of your registration and insurance documents on your cell phone and keep all papers with your name, address, and other personal information at home. In August 2020, Sarah Noble’s Dodge diesel truck was stolen when her son took it to go fishing near Wellington, Colo. The police found and returned the truck three weeks later, but the thieves, knowing Noble’s address from the registration, stole the truck again that same night and months later used the title that was also in the car to sell it.

Install a catalytic converter shield. Cap City Muffler in Sacramento, Calif., makes Cat Security shields to protect catalytic converters from thieves. It currently makes them for the most targeted vehicles: the Toyota Prius, Toyota Tacoma, Honda Element, Nissan NV200, and Chevrolet City, with more models coming. A shield costs $120 to $480, depending on the model. A local independent auto shop would charge about $350 to install it, which, when all put together, is still cheaper than replacing a catalytic converter, which could run you as much as $2,500.

Lock up your tailgate. Tailgates are easily damaged and easily removed. With new tailgates costing hundreds to more than a thousand dollars, it is no wonder they’re a commonly stolen auto part. A tailgate can’t be easily stolen unless it’s open, so keep it locked shut. Some trucks have integrated locks on the tailgates, but many don’t. An aftermarket tailgate lock costs about $25. A hose clamp around the pivot point of the tailgate is a low-cost option that can serve as a deterrent—again, not 100 percent theft-proof, but it could make the job just time-consuming enough to persuade the thief to move along.