Am I being unrealistic nowadays to expect someone to own up to damaging the car?
Just found wife's car with damned great (foot square) mark on painted bumper, which in one place has gone down through the paint to the plastic below for at least 6 inches, so Mr T Cut isn't going to cure it.
This now matches a very similar patch on my car which was done a couple of months ago. I have had my back bumper re-painted twice (in 4 years) and the front once........purely because of parking shunts by other (unknowm people).
Both cars are parked in a quiet residential street in a nicer part of North London (apart from my neighbours/ visitors parking prowess obviously).
Should i just accept it as modern living or carry on spouting from my soap box.
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Unless you catch them at it, what are you going to do? It is very annoying, parking misshaps, driving supermarket trolleys without due care and attention etc but unless you employ a car minder I don't see what you can do.
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While I do have the greatest sympathy, westpig, living as I do in central London I feel the blame should go squarely on car manufacturers who fit bumpers that are no more protection than lipstick, and have the same function as lipstick: to give the thing a glossy pout. Doesn't resist scuffing, unrepairable and most inexcusable of all, expensive and finicky in design.
Little short of corporate crime in fact. Extortion rather than murder perhaps, but crime nonetheless.
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I know you may be restricted on parking places but maybe it's down to where you park, are you parked on or near a bend, close to someones drive or near an obstruction making it awkward for larger vehicles to get by your car without scuffing it ? You have to remember a lot of drivers out there can't park/manouvre for toffee and some have no spatial awareness. If my bumper got scuffed just once, I'd be parking somewhere else if possible. I'm fortunate that I live in a cul-de-sac where there is no traffic that goes past my car, except the one next door neighbour, and I have a drive that is about 5 car lengths long, so mine and my partner's car are both usually on the drive, but I still managed to scuff my front bumper on my wall whilst reversing out of the drive, due to the hedge being a bit overgrown (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). The repair cost me £80 + VAT from Chipsaway and they made an excellent job of it.
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you could always fit a thatcham motion alarm,one that warns everyone or one that can send a message to your mobile i believe (or did i dream it?) if i didnt dream it you could catch them in the act
Another alternative is to get a remote cctv camera with sender that works on 12 volts wire this into ciggy lighter and connect to your telly you can then watch everyone near your car from the comfort of your living room
i"m not taking the proverbial by the way,i know how much bumper repairs and time costs....
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The Mondeo sports two bumper scrapes by "anonymous" people in the last 6 months.
Part of the reason I'm happy to drive a £1500 car rather than go into debt for a £15,000 one.
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I'm a little more calm about the situation now, a few glasses of wine and a good nights kip has chilled me a little...
but here's a good one, Mrs W and i went to friends last night, good decent folk and the subject came up..i.e. parking shunt and no one had owned up.... my mate's wife said "well neither would i, as i'd be the only one doing it these days wouldn't i ".... which to a degree was a valid point i had to begrudgingly admit.
So it thought i'd ask you fine people....and be honest.... what would you do in the same position?
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Probably cough.
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About a year ago I marked the offside rear bumper valance of a very nice silver old-shape Megane coupe opposite my house. The mark would have more or less polished out, but I left a note with my phone number under its wiper. No call came.
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PU's post ^ ^ ^ ^
Trust a Lawyer, that can be read two ways!!!!!!!!!!!
dvd
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So it thought i'd ask you fine people....and be honest.... what would you do in the same position?
I'd like to think I'd do the same as the lady down the road who'd reversed into SWMBO's Focus and stoved the door in. I think she thought it would polish out when she said it was 'only' like if a supermarket trolley had hit it. Then we saw it! She said she'd pay - and did - it was actually c£350 from a very competent, non-cowboy repair man. BUT the lady was honest, honest, honest!
The sides of my old Mondeo are covered in dints from parking at the local supermaket - nobody seems to bother. When I went down earlier this afternoon, I nearly suffered apoplexy when I saw a DB9 parked there - still it had been parked well away from everything else. I then noticed a nice new Celica parked in a disabled (wide) bay - presumably to avoid damage (no blue badge) - somehow, I couldn't blame that driver.
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That's weird - the last time I saw someone in an expensive car in a disabled space who could walk perfectly well, with no blue badge, his car got a discrete kick out of sight of the security camera. My grandma has difficulty walking long distances, and the disabled bays at her local Tesco are always packed - most of them with no blue badge.
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his car got a discrete kick outof sight of the security camera. My grandma has difficulty walking long distances, and the disabled bays at her local Tesco are always packed - most of them with no blue badge.
Yes, DH, that's why I said 'somehow' I couldn't blame that driver - my first gripe is with the folks who design such narrow parking spaces and the door openers who couldn't care less. My ol' man cannot walk a single step and when ferrying him about I freqently find old bangers and chavmobiles (complete with perfectly fit drivers) in disabled bays. There would be little point in kicking them - and I couldn't have brought myself to kick that Celica (the driver, perhaps, yes!).
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Our local Tesco has blossomed into an Extra - the car park has grown a bit and has inhereted some very strangly oversized bays. I make a bee line for these if I'm driving sommething decent. In the Landie it's a different matter, I park next to the nicest car in the car-park within an inch of the white line. My little way of winding the owners up.
By the way the Store has now got a covered walkway with little stainless steel steering wheel like objects on the supports. These are bang on bonnet level and I've seen a couple drive into them causing considrable damage.
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In the Landie it's a different matter,I park next to the nicest car in the car-park within an inch of the white line. My little way of winding the owners up.
Oooooh, Pug, you are a little tinker!
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Re: non disabled people using disabled bays.
My view is that supermarkets / car park owners should clamp non authorised vehicles and impose a fine to have the clamps removed, and subsequently the money earned from these fines given to various charities (once wages are deducted for the person doing the clamping)
Failing that, a clamp warning sign would be enough to deter *most* people from wrongly using spaces that are needed for the people they are actually intended for.
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I think the problem is ours, as we have forgotten what a bumper is for. I agree it's daft to paint them, esp. colour coded. If everyone accepted scapes and dents on bumpers as par for the course, it would not be a problem, but we don't , and they cost ridiculous amounts to repair and paint, so when they are damaged we get cross. As for owning up: I've done both. There is a shift in morals now where most people would not own up I fear, and it is a general disrespect for the law and other people.
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What's the matter with you all? Why don't you require cars to have bumpers instead of extra-fragile end panels called 'bumpers'? Has the British consumer no brains and no testicles?
I fear so judging by you lot.
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Lud, I think most British drivers have respect for other peoples "brains and testicles" thats why *soft* front ends and not steel girders for bumpers.
Are you an American???
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You've misunderstood me Aswan. I'm not advocating steel girders for bumpers, although they seem quite sensible to me, but the sort of tough, unpainted plastic bumper you mention in your next post.
Are you Egyptian?
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To the OP,
II too live and park in a city and (IMHO) think this sort of damage is best accepted as part of modern life. For peace of mind that is.
In fact as we only need a two seater for my vehicle and wanting to opt out of all the status and metallic paint damage issues ( and being more practical)
I bought a new small van instead of a car.
Its white and has those really practical and robust, ( polypropylene?) bumpers with no paint.
It has all the advantages of a new vehicle, but I regard it as an appliance and when its worn out and goes to the scrapyard in about 15yrs time, it won`t matter how many scrapes it has had.
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Got boxed in tonight by a Mr. Richard Head. He must have though I had a helicopter and not a van. He actually left one foot behind me. He hadn't bargained on the tow bar so I just pushed him back out of the way. Can't stand twerps like that.................and they are allowed to vote!
vbr..........................MD.
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you have to be careful using towbars in situations like this as they can enter the bumper cavity or worse "ride under" and trolley jacks are needed to seperate the different species (richard attenborough voice was on)
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He actually left one foot behind me.
A whole 12 inches and you still couldn't get out of the parking space without resorting to hitting the other vehicle?
Can't stand twerps like that
I'm sure he had a few choice words to say about your lack of manoeuvring ability as well.
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I remember whilst waiting in the coach in Paris ,(we were not allowed to leave until 52 towels had been returned,)with a Sparsholt College of Agriculture outing to Paris, the cleaner lady came out and ,in her car, went backwards "Wham", forwards "Wham",Wham,Wham and then drove off.
It turned out that this was the common way of getting out of closely parked spaces,the secret was to leave the handbrake off.
Into her recently vacated space entered a brand new British reg Rover SD1(shows how long ago),we winced and left.
Of anywhere i have been ,the big rounabout in Paris ,where the coach broke down the first time,was where i have seen the most barbaric,appalling,suicidal and funny driving ever,(mind this was over 25 years ago) where people actually drove cars that were minus their doors and other cosmetic stuff, where they really drove into anyone in the way with horns blaring and much arm waveing.
You all probably know where i mean, but i cannot remember what it was called except bedlam.
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You all probably know where i mean, but i cannot remember what it was called except bedlam.
Sounds like the Arc De Triumph. I remember going around that roundabout and the tour guide on the coach said many a good punch up and road rage could be seen there on a regular basis.
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Ah, the place de la Concorde.... try crossing it on foot in rush hour. Sorts out the sheep from the nimble mountain goats that one.
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