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I'm sure most of us have been through it. It just happened to me now. How do you guys deal with that jerk who carelessly opens their vehicle door and bangs on your vehicle leaving a small dent or some paint scraped. Do you let it go? Try and get their insurance? Give em a dirty look? Do it back?

Javier730 wrote:I'm sure most of us have been through it. It just happened to me now. How do you guys deal with that jerk who carelessly opens their vehicle door and bangs on your vehicle leaving a small dent or some paint scraped. Do you let it go? Try and get their insurance? Give em a dirty look? Do it back?

If it leaves a noticeable mark, I'm getting their insurance. Otherwise, I let it go. A lot also depends on my mood, and if the jerk is female, the cuteness factor also plays a part.

If they actually do any damage, I will confront them about it. If they shrug it off, I get the license number and call the LEO. Had a large 4x4 swing his door open and hit my wifes Escape pretty hard when it was only 4 days old. I got out and looked at it and sure enough, there was a pretty good size dent in her door. I confronted the guy and he made some comment like you expect dings in a parking lot and then he started to walk off. I proceeded to take his picture, a picture of his truck, the damaged door and he turned around and was asking what I was doing. I said I needed the evidence for the LEO and my insurance at which time I started to call the local police. He then came back, apologized, and gave me all of hids info. He did state that he would like to pay for it himself to keep it off his insurance which he did, about $350.00.

Now, if there is no damage, I may say something like you need to be more careful or may just let it go. Depends on what kind of day I've had.

Soccerdad1995 wrote:

Javier730 wrote:I'm sure most of us have been through it. It just happened to me now. How do you guys deal with that jerk who carelessly opens their vehicle door and bangs on your vehicle leaving a small dent or some paint scraped. Do you let it go? Try and get their insurance? Give em a dirty look? Do it back?

If it leaves a noticeable mark, I'm getting their insurance. Otherwise, I let it go. A lot also depends on my mood, and if the jerk is female, the cuteness factor also plays a part.

I agree, if it's noticeable get their insurance. If anything get a license plate number if you don't want to get into an argument.

I remember once returning a rental car and it had a small dent from one of those parking door swats. Rental car company wanted to charge me big time. So yes, get as much info as you can.

This happens to me fairly often.

And I may be an outlier on how I respond. For me, it depends completely on their reaction. If it was done because they were completely careless and inconsiderate and then show no remorse then I tend to get upset and say something. If it was an obvious accident in a tight spot, I just let it go.

Since I bought my truck brand new in 2008 I haven't been too concerned about its appearance, paint job, etc because I knew I intended on using it as a truck for work, hunting, fishing, camping, etc. After all its just a material possession and if it functions like it should than I'm happy with it. That being said, its not the damage to my property that upsets me but people's rudeness and inconsiderateness.

I get equally upset when I observe people do this even to stranger's vehicles. I just dislike disrespect.

I have been lucky in that I haven't had anyone do any damage to my vehicle when parked, they have bumped it and I made sue there was none and the person was apologetic. However, I did cause some damage one time with my door. I pulled into a supermarket parking lot and parked on the passenger side of a car with the guy loading groceries on the driver's side. The wind was really gusting that day, and as I opened my door, it was yanked out of my hand and struck his car, leaving a sizable dent. I got out and told him that I had hit his car, and he said "don't worry about it" I told him he had better come look because there was a dent. He was surprised at the actual damage. I apologized and provided him my insurance info. A very civil encounter, and my insurance covered the damage almost $350.00

For me, it all depends on their reaction and how bad the damage is... since I'm a biker, my car doesn't mean a whole lot to me unless it's raining or snowing. However, if you damage my car and then get an attitude with me, you better believe I'm taking pictures and calling a LEO. At that point it doesn't matter if you want to keep it off your insurance or not. If you cop an attitude and get funky with me, your insurance is going to be the one who pays, even if it's $5.00

Now if you get out and are immediately apologetic, chances are I'm going to let it slide unless you did a significant amount of damage. But if you got out and were nice, we can definitely discuss paying for it out of pocket instead of through insurance. Common courtesy goes a LONG way.

I drive a 2500 hd a rather big truck. The first week I had it I park at the far end of the parking lot leaving a sizable space. Just my luck in the whole parking lot that was fairly empty a lady parks right on me and her kids slams the passenger door into my truck. Thankfully she was fair and contacted her insurance company to get it fixed.

I haven't had any problems with door dings like this. I have had others hit the front and back of my truck pulling in too close parking and once at a light when the guy was unable to stop in time. So far, I've been lucky. No damage to my truck at all. I have large heavy push bars in front and keep my trailer hitch and ball mounted at all times. The poor guy that couldn't stop ended up with my hitch ball through his radiator and pretty much ruined his whole front end. I might have gotten a scratch on the ball.

The rest of the parking lot incidents have all left small dents in the cars and the one truck that bumped me. I really felt sorry for the lady in the one truck. It was her husbands new truck and according to her was less than a week old. She scraped the shopping cart thing turning into the space and then bumped me hitting the push bar. That put a nice size dent about a quarter to half inch deep into the front bumper.

Other than that, if I have door dings it's difficult to tell. It's a truck and I do truck stuff with it, not baby it. There's scratches and little hail dings and all kinds of stuff I stopped worrying about years and years ago. However, I also have those foot rail things that stick out a couple inches more than the sides and probably stop most car doors.

I'm always parking far enough away from other cars to avoid getting dings but it doesnt work too well. Someone always parks next to me no matter how many empty spaces there are. My car now has dings up and down both sides.

I feel like this problem is multiplied by 10 in the city I live in. Kids (I say that humbly because I'm still a kid myself) just don't care about other people's property. My truck is by no means the nicest one on the block, but I try and keep it looking decent because I pay for it with my own money. So when I walk outside and find new little dings on it, you bet I get angry about it. I actually got hit on my rear bumper pretty hard right after moving into the apartment I'm at right now; it was hit hard enough to leave a considerable dent in my steel bumper, as well as leave lots of red paint on it. Of course they didn't leave their information and insurance.

My old 4Runner is age 11 now. Lots of battle scars from life in Atlanta, GA.

I'm starting to treat a few tiny rock ding/rust spots now but don't sweat all the continuous parking lot damage. Or the crash from the lady that rear ended me while I was sitting at the red light in a school zone (that was a hard hit and I should have made a claim on her insurance as it left more wrinkles than I could pound out). I was just grateful that when she pushed me through the intersection that I missed hitting kids.

It depends on the attitude of the person who hit me. If they are apologetic and act decent about it, I'll let it go. If they are copping an attitude, I would ask for their insurance.

What really ticks me off is when someone parks so close to my driver door that I cannot get in - I mean cannot even walk between the cars to reach the door. Happened a couple times, I had to get in via the passenger door. I'm also taking the 5th on what happened to their cars as a result.