This is the second time this has happened in 5 years to my RHD JDM FD!!!

First time:
The first time, the car was parked on the curb in a quiet residential street. An old guy (probably late 60's) backed out of his driveway, backed across the street and smacked into the passengers side (Drivers side in the USA) and dented the rear quarter panel in about 2 inches right on the fuel filler flap location. The old guy said "Oh its an old sports car, I really don't have time for this, I need to get to the supermarket" and he left me standing there staring at my smashed FD. The next day I call his insurance to get the car repaired and they tell me sorry, he said he hit a pole and it was a single vehicle accident....


Second Time:
The second time was last night. Went to a friends house, and parked across the street against the curb. My friends mother needed to go to the supermarket, so she gets in her car, backs out of her driveway and backs out into the street, hitting the drivers side rear quarter panel of my FD! (passengers side/non fuel filler side to you USA guys).
I come out of the house, just seeing this, and have a look. My rear quarter panel is pushed in about a half inch right above the rear wheel. No paint damage. Her car is a lot worse and her rear bumper is split up and cracked open.
I said how did this happen? She says "Your car is small and its black so its hard to see. I forgot it was there." I said you have insurance don't you?
She says "Yeah but its a $400.00 deductible and I don't have that kind of money. Besides, your sports car is old and I'm not paying $400 to fix an old car."
....... So she goes back to look at her car. "Oh no, look at my bumper... I'll have to get this fixed real quick!!"
Absolutely no care that she's hit an FD insured for $30,000.00. She's worried about her $3000.00 4 cylinder Geo hatchback's bumper.

What the heck am I going to do? My wife and I are friends of this family and we don't want to stress the friendship, but on the other hand this lady's hit my FD and doesn't want to fix it. The damage is not severe. The paint is okay. A paintless dent tech could probably take it out, or I could do it myself. But its time, money and heartache I don't need/want to deal with.

Are black FDs the worst car to drive on the road as far as other drivers just not seeing you? This is the second time its happened and the circumstances are exactly the same both times. It makes me nervous to take the car out, as I'm so paranoid now that everyone will keep hitting it. It really cuts the enjoyment factor out of owning it.

 

I feel your pain, it happen to me too...but worse...hit & run
Locals BodyShop were quoting me 2200$ to fix it...
I got lucky and met a body guy that owns an FD
Made me sweet deal for 400$

I wish you luck brother.

 

i feel your pain too, i've lost track how many times i've had a car hit since i moved to this house, its at least 20 times in 5 years. 3 notes+1 apology; BTW.

 

Thanks guys. I just get the feeling there's no care/respect for the FD amongst the non-car enthusiast public.

Its like they're all excited to see one, people go "Oh thats cool" and want to talk about the car. But when they hit the FD by accident, it suddenly turns into "Oh its just an old car, I don't have time to help fix it or pay for it."

And what really cheeses me off this time is the lady being all heartbroken about the bumper on her very average, very common, very cheap little 4 cylinder car, and going to go and get it fixed straight away, but she doesn't want to fix the damage she caused to my car?! What about my FD?? I didn't do anything wrong?? I didn't cause the accident??

Why do people always get their own cars repaired when they're at fault, but they lie to their insurance and say they hit a pole or something and never ever want to repair the FD??? They have to pay the $400 deductible anyway?! So what do they gain by lying and not fixing the car they damage??

Sorry for the rant. Its still fresh in my mind at work today. Its the principle of the thing.

 

This is why you always get the police involved!

On my daily, I was less than a mile from the house and the genius in front of me stopped in the road. I live on a two lane two way back road with a speed limit of 55.

I stopped 2 car lengths back. No sooner had I stopped, they put it in reverse and floored it. Apparently, they were looking for the driveway I had already passed.

They of course try to be real apologetic, and their insurance will handle it. They were driving a real pile, and looked like hell. ..

So, I called the state police to do an accident report, and took pictures.

They admitted fault to the officer, information was exchanged, and I went home. Figured I would call it in the next morning since it was Sunday.

So, of course when I called it in, they claimed I hit them when they were backing out into the road I then reminded them that even if that was true, they would still be at fault. Once I informed them that the police had been involved, they sent an adjuster with a check

Vince

 

If doesn't want to pay then she's not a friend. You should have called the police. You may be screwed. I'm angry just reading about it. The nerve of people. It's not even so much that she disrespected the "FD". You should be pissed that she completely disrespected YOU and had complete disregard for the damage she caused you.

 

It sounds like its right here in the same spot as this guys dent.
Take a look...and see if this can cure the issue.
Keep in mind if its creased it wont work.

 

I find it is better to just be cold.

When you get hit
#1 Tell them you want to see there License Right now (Take a photo of it Right away)
#2 Take photo of the damage to there car and yours
#3 (Queensland i don't know other state laws) if its over $5000 damage call the police station right on the spot and do not let them leave, if they attempt to leave inform them you have called to police and that if they leave they will be charged with fleeing the scene
#4 Call your insurance company right then and there tell them everything

I know its hard when its a friend but don't talk to them till the steps are done, then ask them if they understand that they have hit your $30,000.00 collectors car. If they are truly friends they will understand and take responsibility for there actions and will not give you any bullshit and will not try crap like tell you they will pay to fix it out side of your insurance. BTW that last part is the biggest no no never agree to this.

As for where you stand now get a photo of the damage call your insurance and report it.

 

If a friend hits your parked car, then blames it on the color, type, and model year of the damaged vehicle, as justification for not paying you, you need new friends. Pretty sure you can find this exact scenario in the text book next to the word sociopath.

Ridiculous. Call the cops on both of them if they don't pay, none of this back story nonsense matters in the slightest, right is right. If they cannot afford insurance deductibles they can't afford to drive.

 

if it helps one of the car that i had get hit was a 1958 Tr3. i drove it to dinner or something and parked it, when i came out in the morning it had a huge dent in the quarter panel. no note, and that car was RED!

 

You need to value the family friendship vs. your car.
Is this so called "friend", that had total disregard for your property and feelings, a person you can count on a difficult situation???

If No, then time to collect from her, forget the friendship and pick better friends.

If Yes, then lick you wound, fix the car, change the color to neon pink or sell it.

 

Friends mom hits your FD and has an attitude about it = no longer friends.

 

I would go with collect !!! All the way after the reaction she had ...what a...
And a freaking Geo...sh*t...panel must worth more then her entire car...new ..lol

 

If she's hot..ask your friend's mom if she's willing "to take it out in trade"..either that or fix your car.
you already got screwed by the 60 year old guy..(no offense!)

Not paying attention to driving is NOT your fault and you shouldn't be forced to eat it every time some Dick is not looking where they are going and ends up hitting YOUR car..especially when you are NOT in it!
Black car is NO excuse.

 

Obviously he cannot depend on her in a difficult situation because she put him in one and is not helping.

 

Agree, this is no "friendship" with a mons-ther like that.
OP says, he doesn't want to strain the "friendship" by going after the mother of their friends.
I say, if they were real friends and value the OP friendship, the kids should have jumped on their mom's a$$ to make her pay their wronged friend.
Obviously, the "friendship" with the OP means/worth NOTHING to this kids, from my point of view.
Who wants friends, that won't stand up for the right thing, even if it's against their mother???

 

sucks man! i feel your pain however I did the damage to my own car with a door of an '14 Camaro XD XD

 

Are you the guy who works at Clear Lake Mazda?

 

Not sure how your insurance works in Australia, but can't you just report the incident to your insurance provider and provide their plate numbers? Then they can investigate it.

Money shouldn't come between friends. They should own up to the situation. If they don't, then they aren't your friends.

 

Just to give a resolution to the situation, I took the car home, took extensive photos of the damage to the rear wheel arch & quarter panel, and then went about fixing it myself.

I took most of the damage out with a heat gun keeping the paint soft to avoid cracking, and then used some machine cutting compound on a buffer pad carefully to take the paint transfer off my car. Total was about 2 hours work and $0.

I'm left with a small extremely shallow dent about 1/32" deep, about 1.5 inches in diameter which is noticeable in the light. I'm going to get a paintless dent repair technician to come out and remove the rest of that, at a cost of about $88.00.

I'll then send that invoice off to the lady that hit the car, as this is less than her $400 excess and fixes my car. I noted that she didn't end up fixing her car, its still being driven around smashed.

If it were worse damage, or I didn't have the skills or resources to have fixed it myself, I would definitely have gone after her to get it fixed. I'm a bit hesitant to leave the car at a body shop though, as last time that had to happen, I believe the workers beat the car around the block pretty mercilessly and I would rather fix it myself than let that happen again..

After this last incident, I'll be leaving the car in the garage 95% of the time, as I'm now too worried to just take it out and park it anywhere. A bit of the joy of owning it has left me, as I'm now too paranoid about everyone else's bad driving abilities and I don't want to come back to the car destroyed in a carpark or something. Its a real shame that people's driving ability, judgement and care factor have dipped so low in recent years. People can't have nice things anymore because someone will come hurtling down the street and smash into it without a moment's notice.