This may sound like a joke, but it's not.
I have been driving most of my adult life, and have always taken pride in parking well. I've made fun of people who park badly. I've never before had trouble parking perfectly straight in spots, with the car pretty much perfectly spaced between the lines. I say never before, because since I've been driving the Model S I feel like I'm parking like a drunken monkey! (I usually adjust my botched first attempts, but adjusting looks and feels stupid, and the final result is still usually not as good as my effortless, no-adjustment-necessary parking used to be.)
I'm wondering if there is something about the car's hood that is causing some optical illusion that is just messing me up somehow, and if so, I'm wondering if any of you have figured out tricks to avoid this.
It's not my vision, age, coordination, or anything like that, as when I drive an ICE I can still park just fine. And it's not the length of the car, as I've driven large cars without issue before.
I'm sure part of the problem is that I am trying to be overly cautious in keeping the car free of door dings, which may cause me to err on the side of adding more distance on the passenger side, since I can see and judge the space on the driver's side more easily. But that doesn't explain why I can't get the car in straight! Another issue could be that I'm also constantly messing with the rear and front camera as I'm parking, wanting to be certain I've pulled in far enough, but not too far. (I have Rick's front camera switch installed.)
I had picked up a couple of great parking tricks from other TMC members, before having the front camera. Those tricks were to use the rear camera to see the back line when pulling through a double parking spot, to the front spot, and to use the side mirror as a gauge for how far to pull forward by pulling forward until the marker or block at the front of the adjacent spot was just visible under the mirror. Those are great tricks. So I am wondering if anyone has any tricks that may help me regain my ability to park the way I used to be able to.
I should probably go out some night, to some deserted parking lot, and just practice parking, like a kid learning to drive. I've been avoiding doing that, but I fear I may have to.
Other than deserted lot practice, anyone have any great ideas for me?