[spdfreak]

Hi. I know you all will say that it comes with experience, but I have yet to know where to jack a car up from. Maybe it's because I had a bad experience lifting my car with a jack, or maybe not.

My bad experience. My bad experience happened when I lifted my car with a jack, the usual floor jack, and placed the cup under the rear passengers floor (where the passengers feet go) on the part that looks like a rail. I always used a piece of hard, pressure treated 2X4 in between the cup and the car, but forgot. I lifted the car about 12 inches when I realized it wasn't getting any higher.
I dropped the car down to the ground and saw that I had bent in the floor. This happened because the edges on the cup of the jack caused irregular pressure. Not too bad, because I can bang it out with a rubber mallet.

Now on to the question.
Where is a good lifting point for any car? Many of the new cars (like a VW that I worked on yesterday) have plastic covering everything under the car. How is one supposed to know where to lift a car from?
Pass bye a shop and watch the mechanic kick the lift arms under the car and raise it. How do they choose a strong spot? Put it under and see what happens? No. Thats clearly wrong. And if it's your car, you definitely don't want to do that.

Advice please.