i dinged someone's car today

[kiteman]

basically i live in a very windy area of the country, parked next to a car at work, opened the door to it's first stopping spot. reached to my passenger side to grab my laptop, turn around and a 30mph gust slams my door into the car next to me. actually the wind thing grabbing my door has happened many times, but never dinged another car and even thought about it before like "glad no car was there." today i just didn't realize the wind was blowing that hard at peak gusts, because there was no wind when i opened the door...

anyway, i saw the guy at lunch in his car, i spoke to him. we work together so he just emailed me and told me he was going to get it checked out and maybe fixed next week. but people get weird with money, so i don't want him to come to me next week with it fixed and say it was $500 or something absurd. i know paintless dent repair is usually only $100-150 or so for a single dent. i guess i'm preparing myself for the worst, no clue if it would happen.

right now i guess i'm at little to no obligation to pay anything, except the email. even then i could deny it. no police report, no insurance, no pictures...would just be his word against mine. but i want to right the situation or i wouldn't have stopped to talk to him at all. what do you think i should do in the situation where he quotes me something unbelievable?

[rickyrocket]

Ah,how do you expect anything short of interweb beat down,no pics,is there paint damage,kind of car,do you get along, etc.

[speedup]

I had that happen to me. I am walking up to my car, and this old man pulls in next to mine. I am right behind the two cars and he opens his door and wind catches it. His door slams into mine hard. I watch the guy get out of his car, touch his door where it hit to check it out and knock off my black paint, and didn't even look over at my car. He has an old camry and my car is new.

Anyway, I asked the guy for his insurance, and he didn't want to give it to me. He finally looks at the damage and says "that's nothing - the wind caught it, its not my fault." Well, it was a deep ding, right down to metal. So the discussion got a little heated. Someone else in the parking lot called the cops, which I was glad they did, and when they came the old man finally gave me his insurance.

I took it to the dealer body shop, and they charged his insurance over 600 bucks to remove and reinstall front fender, prep, sand, new fender badge, paint, clearcoat, the spot.

If I hadn't have seen it with my own eyes, he would have left. To top it off he tells me he's a "man of god" and a preacher at a local church.

[pyroguy]

I dinged a fellow aqua blue camaro owner's door once. I felt like total crap until I was able to finally track him down after he gave me the cost of the repair and pay him back. Good news is, at least in my situation, it didn't get into the paint so an easy visit from the paintless dent repair guy and about 20 minutes of easily working the dent back out and it looked as good as new. Normal PDR fix is $25-$50, but because he got it fixed at a car show the next day it was $75, which I was glad to pay to get his car back as it should have been. Good luck and hopefully it isn't too expensive of a fix.

[Royal Tiger]

Originally Posted by speedup

I had that happen to me. I am walking up to my car, and this old man pulls in next to mine. I am right behind the two cars and he opens his door and wind catches it. His door slams into mine hard. I watch the guy get out of his car, touch his door where it hit to check it out and knock off my black paint, and didn't even look over at my car. He has an old camry and my car is new.

Anyway, I asked the guy for his insurance, and he didn't want to give it to me. He finally looks at the damage and says "that's nothing - the wind caught it, its not my fault." Well, it was a deep ding, right down to metal. So the discussion got a little heated. Someone else in the parking lot called the cops, which I was glad they did, and when they came the old man finally gave me his insurance.

I took it to the dealer body shop, and they charged his insurance over 600 bucks to remove and reinstall front fender, prep, sand, new fender badge, paint, clearcoat, the spot.

If I hadn't have seen it with my own eyes, he would have left. To top it off he tells me he's a "man of god" and a preacher at a local church.

People suck. Maybe he was waiting for you to offer a 12 year old boy as trade since he's a "man of god"?

[Orange skid mark]

I had it happen to me hitting my step daughters Mini Cooper. I have been telling her to take it to a painless dent repair for a year, she refuses, and hasn't had it fixed. I feel horrible about it. Our doors are so long they are like a parachute in the wind. You really got to hold on to them tight almost any time when opening them. One of the few bad things about our cars.

To top it off he tells me he's a "man of god" and a preacher at a local church.

That is the first thing a shit stain tells you around here. That is part of the reason I won't go to church in my area. They are full of scumbags who think that if they go to church once and usually twice a week all is forgiven. I am not that devine and never forgive anyone like that.

[lbls1]

That was good of you to own up to it. Most people hit and split. He could give you a bill for 500 or more if he doesn't have it repaired by PDR. It depends on how bad the dent is and whether a PDR person can get it out/or is available.

I am very anal about parking spaces. In general I don't use crowded parking lots with my Sunday best, and I evaluate parking spots very carefully with my daily driver. If a spot seems too narrow or if there's a remote chance of a door touching my car's panel, I'll look elsewhere for a park.

[DvKillar]

good for you doing the right thing! As stated above, I am always mindful of these huge doors. definitely a design carry over from Gen 2's!! But in Oklahoma, gotta always point into the wind when parking unless you have 3 park spots to get comfy. I also park under security camera at work, just to keep honest people honest!

[Northeast16SS]

Doing the right thing isn't always the easiest thing to do....otherwise everyone would! Take pride in being one of the good ones. I just don't park next to other cars if I can avoid it, and I will go to great lengths to avoid it!

[JLSuperfly]

Originally Posted by Northeast16SS

Doing the right thing isn't always the easiest thing to do....otherwise everyone would! Take pride in being one of the good ones. I just don't park next to other cars if I can avoid it, and I will go to great lengths to avoid it!

This. Plus, any extra exercise you get from walking is never a bad thing.

[Scalded Dog]

I wouldn't sweat whether or not he tries to hit you with an exorbitant bill, unless he actually hits you with an exorbitant bill. Most likely, he'll figure that you were pretty cool for owning up to it, and will be pretty cool about getting it fixed at a reasonable price.

If, by chance, he DOES happen to go that route, worry about it then. Until then, just plan for a few hundred bucks, and don't worry about IF he will be a jerk.

[gringo]

What does the dent look like? If it's something that looks repairable, why not call the PDR guy yourself and have him come down to where you work and fix it for him?

That way, you can pay the dent guy directly without worrying about the coworker dragging his feet on the repair or perhaps coming up with an outrageous figure later on.

That's what I would do.

[irwires]

Why not simply ask him to provide you with the estimate before doing anything?
This way you can decide if he needs to shop around or if your really feeling guilty just open your wallet. No matter what happens ask him for a receipt when it's done so that the next ding he gets can't be blamed on you. Always pay with a check, NOT CASH, so that you have a record of payment. Listen to judge Judy who says always have a record of payment.

[Junior]

Ah, door dings. I'm glad OP is a stand up guy and is taking accountability. Most people wouldn't and that's sad. Something similar just happened to me (by proxy) Friday. I took my son camping for the weekend, so decided to take my wife's Pilot, as it is ideal for carrying all the gear we wanted. Just sold my truck, so my wife had to take my Camaro to work. She parks in the furthermost lot from her building, in the furthermost spot. Apparently no one ever parks there unless they drive their "baby" to work. Well, she looks out the window in the morning, and low and behold there is a car parked right next to her...with all the other spots empty (must be British, you know how they love queues LOL). At the end of her workday, wife goes out and sees the same car (a small Mitsubishi SUV) parked right next to her. She checks and of course there is a ding in the passenger door of my Camaro. She lines up the Mitsubishi's door edge and it's obvious they were the culprit. Not to mention the Mitsubishi's door edge is riddled with paint chips from past offences. She decides to wait for the culprit. Security sees her and asks what she's doing, so she explains, they agree and affirm her notion that the Mitsubishi is definitely responsible, and they file an incident report. In the meantime, she calls our insurance company, provides the vehicle's VIN and plate number. Insurance company stated that once they identify the owner, we can file a claim against them, and that the security's incident report may aid in resolution. We are supposed to hear back from the insurance company today regarding moving forward with this, as the owner never came out despite my wife waiting for an hour after 5pm. Meanwhile I have been fuming for 6 days! The ding isn't horrible, though it is right on the door crease, and looks to have some discoloration. I'm not sure how difficult the repair will be, but I'm even prepared to pay for it myself, so my car can be ding free again...

Door Ding


Close Up


Mitsubishi's Door Edge