Believe neighbour has hit my car, but has not owned up.
Discussion
Hi,
Wanted to post here for some advice. Just a week ago I had my car blown over at a bodyshop. There is (or was!) not a mark on it, as a few people that were at an RS246 meet on Saturday could testify!
Last night I came home and the car was still in lovely condition. I know this as I pick my gf's son up from school and his child seat is at the nearside rear of the car. However, this evening when I picked him up, I noticed a lovely great dent and large scuff on the rear quarter panel. It's not a small mark, and like I say, the car is immaculate at the minute so it stands out like a sore thumb, so there is no way I missed it the night before.
So, severely annoyed, I drove home and parked up and tried to think how/where it was done. In the last 24 hours the car has sat parked in the space outside my flat, and also at a space at work. Both the spaces outside my flat and at work are marked bays, with cars parked adjacently paralllel to one another, as per any normal typical car park. Given the side the damage is on, it narrows the likely culprits down to two cars/owners. One, a young petrolhead chap who has a MX-5 Black Edition, and a neighbour who has a workhorse B5 Passat.
The MX-5 is relatively easy to discount as, given the way I noticed it was parked when I left work for the day, the doors were nowhere near the mark and it couldn't possibly have been damage from a bumper scuff or suchlike given the size and height. So on to the Passat, and a quick walk around this evening after I returned home, and there is a very coincidental mark on the leading edge of the rear passenger door. A quick check with a tape measure from the ground to the height of the mark and they are also EXACTLY the same in height and length.
So, I'm now in a bit of a dilemma on how to deal with this. I realise there is a very, very small chance that perhaps someone else parked next to my car at work, hit it, and then moved their car, leaving the other guy to park next to me for the rest of the day. However, given the other evidence, I think this is unlikely.
Assuming that the marks are not just a coincidence, what is the best way to approach this??
Wanted to post here for some advice. Just a week ago I had my car blown over at a bodyshop. There is (or was!) not a mark on it, as a few people that were at an RS246 meet on Saturday could testify!
Last night I came home and the car was still in lovely condition. I know this as I pick my gf's son up from school and his child seat is at the nearside rear of the car. However, this evening when I picked him up, I noticed a lovely great dent and large scuff on the rear quarter panel. It's not a small mark, and like I say, the car is immaculate at the minute so it stands out like a sore thumb, so there is no way I missed it the night before.
So, severely annoyed, I drove home and parked up and tried to think how/where it was done. In the last 24 hours the car has sat parked in the space outside my flat, and also at a space at work. Both the spaces outside my flat and at work are marked bays, with cars parked adjacently paralllel to one another, as per any normal typical car park. Given the side the damage is on, it narrows the likely culprits down to two cars/owners. One, a young petrolhead chap who has a MX-5 Black Edition, and a neighbour who has a workhorse B5 Passat.
The MX-5 is relatively easy to discount as, given the way I noticed it was parked when I left work for the day, the doors were nowhere near the mark and it couldn't possibly have been damage from a bumper scuff or suchlike given the size and height. So on to the Passat, and a quick walk around this evening after I returned home, and there is a very coincidental mark on the leading edge of the rear passenger door. A quick check with a tape measure from the ground to the height of the mark and they are also EXACTLY the same in height and length.
So, I'm now in a bit of a dilemma on how to deal with this. I realise there is a very, very small chance that perhaps someone else parked next to my car at work, hit it, and then moved their car, leaving the other guy to park next to me for the rest of the day. However, given the other evidence, I think this is unlikely.
Assuming that the marks are not just a coincidence, what is the best way to approach this??
Just been out to take these, and looking at them now, I can't see how there's much doubt.
My car...
Neighbour's car...
The mark on the Passat is hard to photograph because of the colour, and the fact I had to light the area, but you should be able to make out the mark on the edge. Both at the same height from the ground, between 74-76cm. Even the slight curve of the dent on mine, matches the curve in the door edge of the Passat!
My car...
Neighbour's car...
The mark on the Passat is hard to photograph because of the colour, and the fact I had to light the area, but you should be able to make out the mark on the edge. Both at the same height from the ground, between 74-76cm. Even the slight curve of the dent on mine, matches the curve in the door edge of the Passat!
Edited by sixspeed on Wednesday 30th April 00:26
Unless there is CCTV I can not see you being able to prove anything. You can obviously ask the owner of the car about it and point out the matching aspects of the damage to both cars and hope they cough to it/pay for dent removal. Try not to let it stress you though, you might be able to pay £150 and have the dent ironed out. It's worth doing that and not letting the anger stress you out for weeks - ETA I am not a lawyer and have no legal experience!
Yeah, I guess I thought this was the case. I know these things do happen, and if it had been done by some anonymous member of the public, in a random car park, I guess I'd be more inclined to shrug it off (well, I'd have to!). But the thought it was likely someone who lives across from me and that they haven't owned up, plus the fact the car literally just came out of the body shop about 10 days ago having had almost a complete body respray to remove every scratch, stone chip and other mark on it, really adds salt to the wound.
It'd be nice if they had the decency to own up.
It'd be nice if they had the decency to own up.
Had exactly the same thing with my old run-around and a car belonging to a relative visiting a house on the lane where I used to live - corresponding marks on both cars, at the same height and there was even some blue paint from his car on my white one and vice-versa.
The Police were completely uninterested - when pressed they eventually agreed to give me a ref # for the report, but wouldn't take any other action - not enough 'proof' apparently.
The other driver completely ignored a note on his windscreen asking him to get in touch, disappeared and when he next appeared a week of so later the damage had been repaired.
I suspect that unless your neighbour has a lot of integrity you'll be coughing up for this one.
The Police were completely uninterested - when pressed they eventually agreed to give me a ref # for the report, but wouldn't take any other action - not enough 'proof' apparently.
The other driver completely ignored a note on his windscreen asking him to get in touch, disappeared and when he next appeared a week of so later the damage had been repaired.
I suspect that unless your neighbour has a lot of integrity you'll be coughing up for this one.
Go round his car at midnight with a hammer and dent every panel so you feel a sense of satisfaction, then laugh at his expense when he moans about it on the internet.
Alternatively, suck it up, s
t happens, it was probably just an accident.
Yes, you are understandably pissed off and I would be too if it happened to my pride and joy, but you're never going to get satisfaction so you might as well get on with life.
Smile at a stranger, do a good deed, forgive and forget etc.
Alternatively, suck it up, s
t happens, it was probably just an accident.Yes, you are understandably pissed off and I would be too if it happened to my pride and joy, but you're never going to get satisfaction so you might as well get on with life.
Smile at a stranger, do a good deed, forgive and forget etc.
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
Rear passenger door. Do they have children? If so, it's a bit unfair expecting the car owner to 'fess up when it was likely done by one of the kids and the adult is unaware.
They don't have kids.I doubt they'd bother repairing the damage to their car (bar perhaps an unconvincing touch up stick job). Their car isn't exactly in cherished condition. I hoped to catch them this morning but they had left by the time I came outside. I'll just try approaching them later and hope there is some honesty forthcoming. I won't fo down the line of actually accusing one of them but more point out that it is simply their door that has caused the damage... and then hope.
As I already said, if it hadn't been for the fact I've just paid a significant amount to remove damage like this from all over the car I would be less inclined to do something about it. In fact, had it happened anything more than 3 weeks ago I probably wouldn't have cared less knowing I was going to have the car in the bodyshop at some point soon anyway!
HTP99 said:
Looks like your dent is very minor with no paint damage, I would just chalk it up as experience and pay a dent man a relatively small amount of money to pull it out; it isn't worth the stress and upset that confronting the neighbour may cause.
That photo does look that way, and if it were so, I could deal with that. But I think that's simply the effect of the LED light I used (which has a blue tinge), as these two photos I took in the light and from a slightly different angle say otherwise...
Although I do wonder if the mark is more the remains of their paint (which is very clearly now missing from their door), and might come out with some polishing. If it can be polished out, and the dent pulled by a PDR, then I'd be over the moon. Having to paint the rear quarter (which leads into the roofline), and the surrounding panels though won't be a cheap job.
What's an RS246?
Anyway I think you'll have to suck it up depending what the blokes like.. I was sitting in my car once when some knobhead family turned up-junior knobhead opened the door straight into my car. When I complained to knobhead senior, he just denied it and drove off (not before I kicked his POS car though, which was actually quite painful but made me feel a bit better)
People suck, generally
Anyway I think you'll have to suck it up depending what the blokes like.. I was sitting in my car once when some knobhead family turned up-junior knobhead opened the door straight into my car. When I complained to knobhead senior, he just denied it and drove off (not before I kicked his POS car though, which was actually quite painful but made me feel a bit better)
People suck, generally
Hoink said:
Willy Nilly said:
It's a pain in the arse, but it is just a car. Lots of worse things could happen in your life, just get it fixed and move on.
This attitude really annoys me.He's absolutely right!
Try having one of your kids murdered, a spouse raped or terminal cancer: people deal with this every day without whinging on the internet.
It's just a car, a thing, an object; a tool that gets you from A to B without having to get wet when it rains or sit next to strangers on the bus.
Hoink said:
Willy Nilly said:
It's a pain in the arse, but it is just a car. Lots of worse things could happen in your life, just get it fixed and move on.
This attitude really annoys me.Hoink said:
This attitude really annoys me.
I do find the response on this thread slightly blase about the whole thing, but I do get that this type of damage is commonplace, and I'm more emotionally involved 
Given that kind of response though, I suppose it would be ok for me to go at their car with a sledge hammer in the knowledge that its just a car and there are more important things in life ... blah blah.
spikey78, www.rs246.com / forum.rs246.com .
Rubin215 said:
Why?
He's absolutely right!
Try having one of your kids murdered, a spouse raped or terminal cancer: people deal with this every day without whinging on the internet.
It's just a car, a thing, an object; a tool that gets you from A to B without having to get wet when it rains or sit next to strangers on the bus.
wrong...He's absolutely right!
Try having one of your kids murdered, a spouse raped or terminal cancer: people deal with this every day without whinging on the internet.
It's just a car, a thing, an object; a tool that gets you from A to B without having to get wet when it rains or sit next to strangers on the bus.
f
king hell, this place is going downhill.Forums | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff