Paint Job Prices?

Paperbird

About 30 yrs ago I had my car reg number called out over supermarket tannoy. A young lad had reversed into my car and was waiting for me ( and I noticed his wife and a baby in his car ), the only damage was a broken rear light cover, we exchanged addresses and I gave him my phone number and told him to call in a couple of days and I'd let him know how much it would cost.
I got one the next day via a friend that worked at a breakers for £2 and was fitting it when he drove up, he'd phoned the dealer and they were £45 so he thought he'd bring the money over straight away.
I told him he'd had a wasted journey as I wasn't going to accept anything from him but if he really wanted to part with the £2 it cost he should put it in his baby's money box.

Baileycat

Paperbird wrote: »

About 30 yrs ago I had my car reg number called out over supermarket tannoy. A young lad had reversed into my car and was waiting for me ( and I noticed his wife and a baby in his car ), the only damage was a broken rear light cover, we exchanged addresses and I gave him my phone number and told him to call in a couple of days and I'd let him know how much it would cost.
I got one the next day via a friend that worked at a breakers for £2 and was fitting it when he drove up, he'd phoned the dealer and they were £45 so he thought he'd bring the money over straight away.
I told him he'd had a wasted journey as I wasn't going to accept anything from him but if he really wanted to part with the £2 it cost he should put it in his baby's money box.

This was really heartwarming, thank you it's nice to know there are good people out there. I would never have thought to have the reg no announced over the tannoy, that was quite clever of him, and really decent to stick around & wait to tell you. Very kind of you as well there are some less than honest people who would use the opportunity to take the pi55 and earn a quick buck.

geoffky wrote: »

I was wrong...
If you're involved in an accident causes damage - even minor damage - you have an obligation to stop and give your details to the other driver, or anyone else with reasonable cause to request them. If that's not practical (eg because the other car is parked and the owner isn't around) you have to report the accident to the police as soon as possible, and certainly within 24 hours. Leaving a note under the windscreen wiper isn't sufficient - it might blow away after all. Failure to stop or report is punishable (in theory - if you seriously injure someone and then flee the scene to avoid a breath test) by 6 months in prison or (more likely for a minor shunt) a fine and points. The relevant law is here - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/170 (NB a private car park is still a public place if the public have access to it).

Hitting a stationary car probably meets the definition of careless driving, though in general the police have better things to do than prosecute over minor car park bumps and will normally leave it to the insurers to sort out, provided details are exchanged.

Thank you for pointing this out. Should I be concerned that I didn't call the police (especially as 24hrs have now elapsed)? I have had contact from the owner of the car, so I know that he got the note, but this will be good to know incase anything like this ever happens again (though I sure hope not!).

gilbert_and_sullivan

Hopefully you can afford the repair without having to claim on the insurance, but don;t hold your breath.

Whatever happens well done for putting your hands up to it, sometimes doing the right thing can end up with the experience turning out to be not that painful, hopefully the owner of the car will do their best to keep the costs down.

All you can do is learn from this and in future reverse into parking bays.

By the way don't expect the same courtesy if your car gets hit in a car park, people of honour and integrity are increasingly rare beings, as you will find out as you travel life's path.

Baileycat

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Hopefully you can afford the repair without having to claim on the insurance, but don;t hold your breath.

Whatever happens well done for putting your hands up to it, sometimes doing the right thing can end up with the experience turning out to be not that painful, hopefully the owner of the car will do their best to keep the costs down.

All you can do is learn from this and in future reverse into parking bays.

By the way don't expect the same courtesy if your car gets hit in a car park, people of honour and integrity are increasingly rare beings, as you will find out as you travel life's path.

The more I mull it over, the more I feel I am likely to have to claim on my insurance, but that's fine. It was completely my fault and there's no way I would be able to scrape that cash together without it, so I may as well.

Thank you for that, I don't feel half as guilty as I did yesterday now that I know I did the right thing, I just hope they can fix it so that it's still "good as new". Perhaps it'll be a good thing if it costs me a small fortune, it might teach me to be more careful!! Either way, the scare of it should be enough haha... I was super-careful driving to & from work today, especially with this horrid wet weather and I'm even worse at reversing so I'll just continue as normal, but take my time and judge the space properly!

I do understand I probably won't receive the same courtesy if someone did it to me, and I'd be furious if they just drove away :mad: but I couldn't have done it myself, I'm just too honest. It's karma though... perhaps now that I've owned up to my mistake, and I'm going to be paying for it til I'm 80, then the sun might shine on me & I might get a lucky phone call saying I got the job