I was running late for a meeting with Microsoft in their corporate office here in Phoenix. On arrival I found myself in a parking garage and headed to a top floor to find some open parking. As in most parking garages, there were spaces with the half-wall dividing some as part of the support in the physical structure of the building. So my plan was to park with the passenger side hugging the half-wall to the right of the space leaving plenty of room on the left to avoid door dings.
Having done this many times in my wife's X5 with the 3D View camera system figured it wouldn't be a problem in the M850i. In hindsight there are a couple of factors in play in the X5 that are different from the M850i. On top of that throw in the fact I was rushing due to being late and it was a recipe for disaster.
The first factor difference is seat height and visibility. In the X5 from the driver's seat the sight line to the passenger side front fender is 2x easy vs the low seating position and sight line for the same in the M850i. Also, the sensor in the X5 at that position is flush with the bumper but the M850i's is recessed. Not sure if the PDC component of the 3D View in the M850i compensates for that but I'm willing to bet that it doesn't.
The end result is I hit the passenger side front bumper "flare" but thankfully I was going so slow it is minor damage. In fact the PPF took the brunt of the damage and the paint transfer (white wall). After removing the paint transfer from the PPF I can feel some abrasion in the plastic of the bumper but with any luck new PPF on the front bumper and it will not even be noticeable. The damage in the pic is mostly the frayed PPF.
Still completely bummed and feel like an idiot as just could have chosen an open spot with plenty of free spaces around it and hoped for the best on the door ding aspect which likely was the better option.
