Can't Have Anything Nice!

[Fishcop]

Sorry, had to vent...

Our reasonably new Mazda6 has received a nasty ding to the door courtesy of some unthinking arsehat opening a door into our car. Dark blue, and right on the swage line - so it stands out like dog's balls.

Can't seem to have anything nice these days without someone ruining it...

[Outback Porsche]

It's disheartening isn't it. No one gives a rats about anyones elses stuff anymore.

Feel sorry for you John.

[wdfifteen]

I know it is frustrating and annoying. I had only painted my '56 coupe a few months before some Asian guy in a parking lot in Banf opened the door of his Japanese ****box and scraped 3 inched of paint off my car. But for some perspective, there is a thread here about, "Thought I had a mini stroke today." You might want to read it.

[drcoastline]

Sorry to hear John.

But look at the bright side at least it wasnt this beauty.

[CarreraDan]

I know the feeling. I was sitting in my Jeep one day waiting for my fiance to meet me for lunch and a woman in her mid 40's got out of her Lexus next to my passenger door and hit my door so hard with hers you could feel the Jeep move. I got out and looked at the door and sure enough a nice large ding and dent. I looked at her and asked WTF? She looked at me like I was retarded and said she didn't do it--I even showed her the nice metallic blue paint on the edge of her door--still denied it and walked off.

It is a very good thing I have mellowed out in my 30's because a few years ago I would have driven over the back of her car with the Jeep or dented the poop out of her door as payback. I let it go and got a friends discount of paintless dent removal. I got two good dings out for $65, you could never tell the dent was there. It sucks but sh$t happens. You should see what a Home Depot lumber cart does to a 911 fender--damn cart blew across the parking lot right into the fender--was much to far away to stop it just watched it hit. Another paintless dent repair and all was well.

[DanielDudley]

I remember scraping a guys car years ago in my old work van. I waited an hour for him to show up, so I could offer to buff it out, but he said to forget about it.

Time to get proactive...

[Rick V]

My sister in law backed into the drivers door of my Boxster..................T-Boned it. She wondered why I got so mad. I told her when she gets a new car I am going to back into it with my truck. Good thing I have also mellowed because last month she bought a new car...........

[widgeon13]

I always make a point of parking where no one is parked and when I return there is usually someone parked right next to me in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes, I think the behavior is intentional and the door strikes are intentional. A year ago I bought a new Silverado Crew Cab, parked at a ski area and ended up with scratches on the passenger rear door. It was pretty obvious to me that the person not only hit the door but left it against my vehicle for a while as there were also up and down scratches from asshats climbing in and out of the vehicle as it moved up and down. I've tried everything to get the scratches out and nothing seems to work. I'd like to choke the bastards.

It's a combination of laziness and a total lack of respect for other peoples property. It would be so easy to be careful but they don't even try.

[on2wheels52]

I park my bike on the sidewalk outside my shop. The sidewalk doesn't go anywhere, it just serves the stripmall I'm in. The awning alongside the building keeps some of the weather off the bike. There's still plenty of room for two people to walk past it.
Anyway, one day a woman in a motorized wheelchair knocks it over. I think I was happy it didn't fall on her. I get the "I'm sorry-I'm sorry, I'll pay to fix it" deal.
At least it's tough to hurt a KLR, it just broke the clutch lever. I'm still waiting for her to pay.
Jim

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

John,

I feel your pain! Don't know what I would have done if the offender were still parked next to me...

[A930Rocket]

In my much younger days, I had some lady in a Caddy hit my 240Z. The Z was nice, but not perfect, so when I got out, I gave her a good dent/scratch on her door.

[johnsjmc]

Last winter I was sitting ,(snoozing actually) in my almost new Jeep Wrangler.My wife was shopping I was in a mall parking lot in the Tampa area . A young woman about 35 drove in to the spot next to me and hit the rear corner of the Jeep .It hit hard enogh to move the car. I sat up got out and confronted her. She insisted she had done nothing. I was able to show her a big scrape ( with paint transfer too) on my bumper cover and a matching mark on her car. Then she insisted it was my fault because my parked car was close to the painted line on the parking lot space. I got her license info and phone number. I called a couple days later and talked to her husband . He sent me a check for the damage and thanked me for not reporting it to the insurance company.
If I wasn,t in the car at the time she would have gone on her way ,continuing to "park by feel"

[sammyg2]

Dude, if you park so you take up two or three parking spaces you can avoid door dings.

As long as it isn't in Arid-zona ......




yes I'm kidding.

[LeeH]

Sorry to hear this, John. I feel your pain. It really used to drive me mad when this happened. Like a couple of others here, I've mellowed in general, but also come to accept that cars are going to get dings. Don't like it. It's so wrong. I've just accepted that it's going to happen and shrug it off when it does.

I think when I was younger, my car represented the majority of my net worth. So, I took it very personally when it was damaged. Now my car is a small fraction of my net worth and much less a part of who I am, if that makes any sense.

Even with the above taken into account, I know I'd slip back into my old habits if I were driving a $40K car vs my 2006 Mazda5.

[Burnin' oil]

Having a bunch of kids whose sole mission in life is to damage or destroy my stuff, dings and dents don't bother me too much. BUT, idiots that cause dents and dings and don't take responsibility for their idiocy make me see red.

[Fishcop]

Thanks Guys

I went 10 years with my old car and never got so much as a scratch, and as soon as I change into something new... Just disappointed I guess. I'm going to try one of the paintless dent removal guys recommended on the local Porsche Club site.

For the record I'm not actually a fumer/seether/grenade kinda guy, had the person owned up I'd have been fine. Wife reckons it was probably kids getting out of the back of the adjacent car, but I don't think that excuses it.

Oh well... At least is wasn't the newly painted 911 Touch wood!

[billybek]

I was at one of the local PCA events and watched someone park their 928 between my SC and another 911. The guy opens the passenger door ( his wife was driving) and nails the drivers door of the SC.
Not being one of those guys to hold back I yelled "You have to be kidding! At a PCA meeting and a club member nails my car?"
He did the Oh, did I hit it? routine.
Couldn't see the dent after it happened, but it is there....
Still raises my blood pressure a little thinking about it.

[cstreit]

A month ago a woman backed into our new VW GTI Autobahn Edition in her minivan. She got out, apologized, and her insurance company is taking care of it at my favorite Porsche auto body shop. Just saying. :-)

[RWebb]

where was it parked? do they have any cameras?

[Bill Douglas]

Argh. I was angle parked in town and an Asian lady pulled up next to me and hurled the door open against the 911. Then she got out and sauntered off. I got out and said something rude to her and she smiled like I'd passed her a complement, says something in an Asian language, and she goes back to her car, hurls the door open again against the 911 and gets her hand bag out.