Friendan

So I pulled into the Blockbuster parking lot in an empty space AWAY from other cars, and I go inside to see my friend (and get a free movie!).

I come outside with my friend and while we're talking I hear a loud SKREEEEEEEE! I look over at my car and some woman getting out of the back of her Cavalier opened her door on my car and put a nice dent in it, along with white paint from her car!

I go up to her and she gets out with an attitude, and starts talking about how the parking spaces were smaller than normal and if she opens her door it shouldn't hit another car and blah blah blah..."I've never been in an accident, I've been driving for 30 years...look at my car! It's all beat up, I don't know where these dents came from, these things happen..." etc etc.

Well evidently you don't care about your POS Cavalier and your car's flawless black paint doesn't now have a big white line and dent down the side...

She eventually cooperates, but then guess what happens: during all this commotion, her keys get locked in her car! She has no spare keys, she has no cash for a cab, neither does her son or daughter. Her apartment isn't far so being the (overly) nice guy I am, I drive her son to her apartment to get the keys, and drive him back. While we're driving he's agreeing with me like "man I can't believe she didn't look! What a dumb thing to do" etc...I figured it at least might make her more willing to cooperate with the claim to help them out.

I can't believe this...I mean, it's not life threatening, but I just want my car back to normal!!! I'm going to a body shop tomorrow...I just REALLY don't want to be out of pocket for something that was COMPLETELY not my fault.

Wish me luck!

tifosiman

I'm sorry to hear about that Brendan. That's the very reason mine doesn't get used for errands like that, only comes out usually for driving events on the weekends, then when it does get parked it is next to like-minded people. The good thing here is that you were able to witness the occurance and have a hope of getting it rectified. Most of the time people just find the damage and the culprit is unknown and long-gone. Hopefully, since she was caught, and you were such a good samaritan, she will be more careful in the future in parking lots........

WolfeMacleod

My wife's '02 Saturn gets a new scrape on it every other day it seems. A couple days ago we found a nasty wheel rub on the right rear fender.
At least she doesn't have to worry about rust, but...what arsewipes people can be.

Yabo

That sucks. See, my way of averting that problem is, have the paint in such disarray that I can't even tell if someone did that.

The DareDevil

Don't feel bad.

I bought my car and, I **** you not, someone backed into my driver's side door the day after. Of course, this happened while it was parked on the street and I didn't notice until I went to drive it a few hours after parking.

Guess what... NO NOTE! grrrrrrrrr

I managed to pop the dent out by removing the panel and pushing, but you can still see from an angle where the dent was because it didn't pop out perfectly. Anyways... Blood pressure rising...

Joe Anstett

Here, I'll make you feel better. Last weekend I washed my Firebird and pulled back out of the driveway to pull into the garage, and CRUNCH, I clipped the corner of my 951. I NEVER am careless backing out, it must have been heat stroke.

Both cars were flawless and never in an accident. Arrrgh.

Both of them have damaged quarter panels. First repairs tomorrow. About $4,000 total damage to both cars.

I have to say New Jersey Manufacturers is a great company, they're covering me with only one $500 deductable. Now let's see how much my rates go up.

BTW it drives me nuts when you go out of your way to park away from other cars and you get some heap right next to you. That's why you have to favor the last spot on the right, nobody on your right and the person on the left is likely to park with their passenger door towards you, and the odds are they have no passenger. Gotta play the numbers

Russian Rocket

i feel for ya, i go to one of the biggest colleges in U.S. and probably work an extra mile every day i take S2 to go there instead of the Rabbit. College parking lots suck big time. My girl friend(friend) drives a 996 Convertible to school and her car has more dents than my 84 Rabbit, someone ripped off her bumper backing out of the parking space and just left it lying across the lot If i saw that happen to my car i'd be going to jail...

Mike the Rookie

"BTW it drives me nuts when you go out of your way to park away from other cars and you get some heap right next to you. That's why you have to favor the last spot on the right, nobody on your right and the person on the left is likely to park with their passenger door towards you, and the odds are they have no passenger. Gotta play the numbers"

And I thought I was the only one who had this parking thing down to a science!

aribop

Hell, I just take up two spaces away from everybody!

Manning

It doesn't matter what you drive, you park away from all the other cars in the lot and you will attract other cars to park near you. When I was a punk rock teenager, friends of mine and I would intentionally park right next to cars that parked across two spots. Can't imagine punk *** kids have changed that much over tha past 20 years. Don't draw attention to yourself and at least you won't attract the contrary ******** like I was when I was a kid.

And I agree with Tifo's attitude about this: if you don't want it to get scratched up don't drive it as you daily runabout. Hell, I had the same thing happen in the Lowes parking lot yesterday. Some clown opened his door and I hear him say "oops". I knew what happened, but frankly my car is so dinked up at this point it hardly matters. One of my sister's kids glanced off my right front fender with their bike the first day I drove it over to her house. From that point on I resolved that if I intended to daily drive the thing I would have to accept this stuff would happen.

Friendan

It's weird because I used to drive my car to school and park it in a very tight parking lot, and I never had a problem.

I guess I figured this time around since the lot was near empty that NO ONE WOULD CHOOSE TO PARK RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Very frustrating...I usually try to play the numbers like Joe, but I thought I would be safe this time.

I'm going to a body shop right now, get an estimate. I'm going to do what I can to keep it in it's current shape and drive it daily, because it's about time I enjoy this thing...

bleucamaro

Thats why I just park in the handicap spaces. they've got that extra space next to them.

xsboost90

drove my freshly painted mustang to college, parked on the street. Came out and this red hondu was parked right up against me and the paint was all blown off the rear bumper! I was pissed but didnt persue the person, i had some paint left and repainted the bumper. About two months later i was driving this beater i bought just to drive to school, i see an empty parking spot right in front of...oh yes, the same red hondu! Lets just say i didnt ease it into the spot if ya know what i mean.

who1

I parked my dent free A4 WAAAAY out in the Target parking lot. Came out and found a cart at the rear corner of the car and two nice big dings on the rear door and some paint scraped off the rear bumper. Go figure.

Porsche-O-Phile

All the more reason to just take two if possible and not overly discourteous.