My wife's car is normally parked outside our house and recently I have noticed the odd scratch and one proper dent on the side nearest to where our neighbour parks. Up till now we have had no reason to be certain it was him so we had just put it down to the usual inevitable marks cars get.
This morning I saw another dent and, as the car has not been moved since Sunday when I washed it, we know for certain it was him.
So - my question is - how do I approach it? I don't want to go in all guns blazing and accusing him. He is an older bloke with a car with big doors and it may just be that he doesn't realise what he is doing, but at the same time I want him to know we are not happy.
Now where's the T-Cut?...
The other neighbor you ranted to about parking has had a word with this one, and they've decided to accidently dent your car on a regular basis.
Time to move, or buy an old landy or hilux 🙂
LOL - no, it has been going on since way before the other neighbour and I had our little fall out. And I heard on the grapevine (through another neighbour) that she admitted she was a grouchy old cow and felt bad about what she had said. Still hasn't apologised though.
Errect a fence!
I get the impression it's communal, nose to the kerb, type parking, bob.
you could buy him some of those little rubber things that clip over his door and cushion the blow a bit?
I realised the other day as I tried to find a break in the solid wall of parked cars on my street wide enough to get the Big Dummy through to get to my gate that owning a car would be an absolute pain in the neck.
It is at the end of a lane, side by side so the doors open into the opposite car. We 'could' erect a fence, but it would make it more difficult for us to get in and out as it is relatively narrow anyway. And as we are about to have twins, I think that giving ourselves less room to get in and out of the car will cause more problems than it will solve.
Gaffer tape a bit of carboard, over some bubble wrap, onto the door.
Not pretty, but will prevent further damage.
Torch his car. He won't do it again and the burnt out husk will serve as a warning to others.
Dust-off and nuke him from orbit, only way to be sure.
do you set yourself a challenge to get this info into every post 😉 😆And as we are about to have twins
anyway I think the correct advice is either wee in his shoes, or own him with bombers.
Next time you are chatting mention that some idiot in a car park has ****tted your door again. The message might sink in.
do you set yourself a challenge to get this info into every post
Not a challenge but, as you can imagine, I am VERY excited (especially as it is 36 week scan this afternoon)!
Sorry - will try not to mention that we are having twins again. 😉
Coyote - MemberTorch his car. He won't do it again and the burnt out husk will serve as a warning to others.
😆 😆
Are these your first kids? Give it a few weeks and you'll be so knackered you won't give a flying **** about the car 🙂
and give it a couple of years and the interior will look like a badly filled skip and you'll be grateful for the distraction of the dents in the doors.
Its a no-win situation. He/his passenger will know that his car door knocks against yours. Its obvious isnt it? So he obviously thinks its not an issue so would look at you like you are mad/he wouldnt agree. Ideally you want him to say 'oh, I didnt realise (shock look on face), Im really sorry etc'.
Trust me, my GF thinks opening a car door against a wall etc is no problem- she thinks I have a problem as its 'only a car' and they are meant to be scratched with wear and tear.
Its a fence- then your guranteed/peace of mind.
Oooh....if this annoys you it will pail to insignificance at the frustration of the selfish arseholes parked in the parent & toddler bays when you've two babies to get in / out of the car....
I'm with burning his car.
But I'd move yours first.
Oooh....if this annoys you it will pail to insignificance at the frustration of the selfish arseholes parked in the parent & toddler bays when you've two babies to get in / out of the car....
Is that the ones in convertibles without kids who simply must pick up a bottle of wine on the way home from a hard day at the office...?
..and on that subject...why are there always loads more disabled parking spaces than parent/toddler ones? I mean, surely there's a higher proportion of people with kids than those with a disability? oh well.
Yes, but maybe more people with kids could manage to park a little further from the main entrance, whereas it could be more difficult for someone with disabilities to have to travel the extra distance.
you haven't met my kids
Had the same thing with our next door neighbour, again did not relizied it was here until we spotted it happening.
Again, elderly and she did not know she was marking the car, she used to swing out the door of her car as far as it could go, then lever herself out using the door, which left little vertical scratches to our car.
TBH I did not mention it to her, she was a great neighbour and had enough on her plate to contended with.
MF - Could your neighbour park his car the other way round so his door does not open onto your car, or is there scope to jiggle the space so it makes it easier for both of you?
I always thought the disabled bays were put close to the store to give able bodied bmw drivers somewhere convenient to park?
Not a challenge but, as you can imagine, I am VERY excited (especially as it is 36 week scan this afternoon)!Sorry - will try not to mention that we are having twins again.
You know I know that 🙂 Mention it as much as you like and let us know how scan goes 🙂
MF - wait until those twins(!) arrive, and then make sure every time you open your car door to get the little tots in and out you give his car a good belt. It'll soon concentrate his attention.
Then, when he starts out of his house to moan about it, you need only reply with:
"We've got twins, you know. I haven't slept for 72 hours and willyougetoutofmyf***ingwayplease."
(PS Hope the scan goes well)
Watch and learn.
Could your neighbour park his car the other way round so his door does not open onto your car, or is there scope to jiggle the space so it makes it easier for both of you?
It is a difficult one - we try to park far enough across that his door will open plenty, but his doors are huge so we couldn't get far enough across. I doubt he would want to park the other way as it would mean his door opening straight into his gate.
MF - wait until those twins(!) arrive, and then make sure every time you open your car door to get the little tots in and out you give his car a good belt. It'll soon concentrate his attention.
His is an old and relatively battered car - I doubt he would care/notice if that happened...
Nitromorse his car. Its the only way you will get some peace of mind.
You ask him to stop it - Fall out LOSE
You ignore it - You get more and more wound up LOSE
You ask him to park another way - Fall Out LOSE
You put a fence up - You cant get in easily LOSE
You nitro his car - You watch whilst he goes mental trying to work out who did it. Chances are he will ask you if you have seen anyone suspicious around. You drop into the conversation that you are also looking for the person who keeps opening their door into your car and damaging it. Say that there are some really horrible people in this world and walk off. This way if he keeps damaging your car, at least you have the 'upper hand' in the damage stakes to his car and if it stops you get the result you want as well.
Go buy some Nitro
You could always pay for a gull-wing conversion on his car.
Or park so close that he cant get to his door.
Trust me, my GF thinks opening a car door against a wall etc is no problem- she thinks I have a problem as its 'only a car' and they are meant to be scratched with wear and tear.
That's pretty much my take on it too - I always wondered why cars are made so shiny & easily damaged & then expected to spend their whole lives in a hostile environment.
As for the OP - It may be worth just going to see the fella & asking if you can make it any easier for him to get in & out of his car & see where it goes from there.
Cut off his head, and display it on your satellite dish as a warning.
Ok, leftfield here. How about a foam block or similar etc that you can place against your car everytime you park up?
Hide in the car, so when he does it again you can leap out and give the old bugger a heart attack, he won't do it again EVER RIP! Job done.
Is this on the Scirroco? I was looking at one this mroning- its got the same big/wide open flanks as my old Altea- door-dingtastic 🙁
Cut off his head, and display it on your satellite dish as a warning.
Oh my! How I LOLed at that one!!!!!
Might be stating the obvious, but can't you say "Excuse me old bean, looks like you might've bumped our car with your door. Would you mind being careful when you open the doors please?"
Maybe, hold a claw hammer in your hand and while you say it whap it into the palm of the other hand.
Hehe, this forum is funny sometimes! 😀
help him out and remove his doors!!
help him out and remove his doors
Easier - weld his doors shut..!
Some people are just utter utter ****wits who dont give a **** about the world and things around them. I was on a course last year and we had to go to the local pub for lunch, one lady who was driving kindly offered to take a few of us non drivers down there. Some fatty gutbucket, sat in the backseat, upon arrival opened the door til it hit the car next to us then dragged his considerable heft out easing quite a bit of weight off the suspension causing a 3" vertical scratch on the next car and no doubt taking some paint off the edge of the nice lady's door.
Point it out to your neighbour and ask him to stop doing it, make it clear your not going to be suing him for it or otherwise going apoplectic - you don't want it escalating, he may realise what a tit he is being.
Yes it's only paintwork and I wouldn't worry about the odd scratch but if this happens everytime he parks up your car will end up pretty tatty.
PS some bloody funny suggestions made me giggle 🙂
Well I spent an hour with T-Cut last night and the surface scratches have come out, but I am left with three nice dents along the back door.
Decided to let it lie this time but I will have to say something if it happens again.
How was the scan yesterday M_F?
All was fine thanks Mrsflash - mum and babies all doing fine so they are happy for her to keep carrying them and wait for a natural labour rather than inducing.
Thanks for asking 🙂
uplink - Thing is it really doesn't matter if YOU think a car is just a car and ok to scratch, plenty of other people dont think that way and since it's their property you're damaging you should respect their thoughts and not clobber it with your door - it really doesnt take much control and it is basic respect for other people. Christ I was able to make sure I didn't bang car doors into things at the age of 5, is it really beyond an adult?
I think I'd put up with the reduced space and erect a thin fence.
Good news 🙂
Don't let it go this time. Knock on his door and politely ask if he's doing it. Then politely ask himto stop. Then politely bite his nose off if he refuses.
coffeeking alot of people think its ok to do as long as they arent caught. If they are caught they go into the 'FFS its only a flipping car' defence. This defence is meant to hopefully deflect the car owner from taking £200 off of them at the adjacent cashpoint.
After polishing out the smaller marks (still have three proper dents), another mark appeared over the weekend when the car had been sat outside without moving so I confronted the old guy - kept it very friendly and asked whether we were parking too far out and making it hard for him to get in and out, but he said not. Also said that I wasn't accusing him of doing it, but we were at a loss as to explain it any other way.
He had a look at the marks and he said he didn't think he was touching the car and 'sincerely apologised' if he had done it. Hopefully he will be more careful in future. If not we have come up with an idea of getting some planters and putting them along the outside of our space so he will just hit those instead.
How long until the big day now?
No idea still! All was going well at the scan last Wednesday so they said they would just monitor.
Saying that, just had a call from my wife and she thinks her waters MAY have broken so we are nipping in this PM (on advice from the midwife) just to check. :-O
mastiles_fanylion - Member
No idea still! All was going well at the scan last Wednesday so they said they would just monitor.Saying that, just had a call from my wife and she thinks her waters MAY have broken so we are nipping in this PM (on advice from the midwife) just to check. :-O
When my wifes waters broke there was no mistaking it! Hope it all goes well when it does happen.
As for the P&C parking i wish that they would move them further away as its not a problem to walk you just need room to beable to fitt your upper boady in the door and lift the kids out.
you will definatley know about it when the waters do break - having watched them use the knitting needle to do my SO's - twas quite messy
good luck!
Aye we assumed we would know, but after my wife called the hospital, they said that because it is twins to go in and have a check-up to be sure.
If they've gone you are in for one hell of a day. Good luck.
So there you go - she was 4cm dilated when we got there so they broke baby one's waters at 7pm (they think possibly baby two's had gone and baby one was 'plugging'. By 10.44 Evie Grace was born. 7 minutes later out popped Isabelle Cara.
🙂
Wa Hay!
Cool!
I hope no-one in the hospital car park bumped you car doors!
Congrats 🙂
PS: You might not want to make it sound as though it was that easy when in earshot of your other-half 😉
Brilliant news! congratulations to you all. 😀
big congratulations to you all!
Nice one. Congratulations to both you and Mrs M_F. So pleased all the original heartache has been replaced by two bundles of joy..!
Now stop posting on STW, and get changing those nappies..!
😀
Fantastic news, congratulations to you all.
Great news, congratulations and best wishes to all four of you. Lovely names for the bairns, too.
Brilliant! Congratulations to all of you. Now go enjoy because the first few weeks are magical. After that it just gets better.
See [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/baby-tastic ]this post[/url] for pics 🙂
Thank you so much - we stressed so much about the names - nice to know at least one person likes them 🙂Lovely names for the bairns, too.
Traffic cones.
Congratulations!
This should take your mind off a few scratches in your car for the next few years!
BB
He's not going to be posting again for about 4 years 🙂
Congratulations, best thing you'll ever do.
But...
You will now look and feel like shit for about 6 years.
Your clothes will look like a tramps.
Your bikes will become antiques due to lack of cash/time.
You will expand horizontally through lack of exercise and eating crap at ridiculous o'clock.
Your single/childless friends will mysteriously disappear.
You will smell of sick and nappy sacks.
The car will cease to be an issue after they have projectile vomited a good milky feed over it a few times,keep it for 6 years and then scrap it.
Other than that having kids is brilliant, well done to both of you. Mine are 12 and 11 and it just gets better. Sounds like trite advice but time does fly by so enjoy them as much as possible they will reward effort ten times over.
Thanks for all the great responses - funny how a post about a dent in a car door has become the first post telling the interweb about our little bundles of noise. 🙂
As per the photo thread, congratulations. Back to the car door - give dent devils, dent masters or the local old boy equivalent (often better and cheaper than teh franchise guys) a call and get them to have a look.
They can work absolute wonders if a crazy array of tools. Chances are £75 - 100 later you would have a new looking door, with all dents pushed out, scratches polished out etc.
Probably need to sort out the root cause first though 🙂
smurf