Solving a parking riddle

I'm more surprised you opened your car door to a stranger. If a stranger came up and asked me to open the door where my baby was, no way i would do it.

This. He won't want to go through insurance as it'll be a massive faff and possibly lose him his no claims bonus. So wait to hear, and then respond by saying you think it'd cost £30 max to polish or buff the mark out, and that's what you'll pay, unless he would rather make a full formal claim.

If it's a tiny white mark, it should buff out with a cutting polish such as T-cut. I've buffed many a scratch out of my car doors. General rule of thumb is that if you run your fingernail across the scratch and hear a click, it won't buff out fully and needs spraying. If he tries to fleece you, tell him to do it through his insurance and remind him that his premiums will increase anyway (even though it wasn't his fault). If he is trying it on, he'll think again. Fact is though that you did hit his door.

Get a pool noodle and cut a 12" section off it and slice it length ways. Stick it in the footwell of the car. When you're parked close to someone else, slip the pool noodle on the door edge first.

God people and their cars

Not really the point of the thread but my DH often wears a hat. He used to quickly whip the hat off in these situations and place between the two vehicles to provide a bit of padding if it was tight to get a door open. Looked funny but worked!

Did you take a photo of the “damage”?

Sounds like you bumped into a nutter OP.

Yes, you touched his property. But sounds from what you said that it is a tiny mark which can be buffed out. And any claim by him puts up his insurance as well as yours.

I too try to put my hand between door and neighbour as others are saying.

I don't know what you do if you cannot fit in as 1 person with 1 childseat - you can't easily pop the child down on the floor a pull the car out, to then put the child in with space. Unless you ask a stranger to look out for your child...

Of course the other issue is the gargantuan cars that so many people drive these days being too big for spaces...

So because he didn't magically know that you wanted him not to park in a certain way, you think he's done something wrong?

You marked his car. Park elsewhere or be more careful.

If he does send you a big bill, send it straight back and tell him to go through his insurance. A tiny scratch like this is likely to be polished out and cost no more that £30. I know because exactly the same thing happened to me.

If you can’t find a Parent and Child space then you need to find a space on the end of a row and park either forwards or backwards in it so your child’s door does not have a car next to it.

I wonder if the bloke will actually claim. Surely if you've just left a minute mark, that can probably be buffed out, it's not worth him claiming and putting his insurance premiums up? These things happen. A woman with a toddler bashed my door gently recently while I was in the supermarket car park. She looked mortified but I smiled and left her to it as it was an accident. My car is not cheap, but it's just a car.

I guess next time it might be best to not apologise, because for all you know that mark could have already been there.

same, I wrap my hand around the door

Well it's not really a riddle because you damaged the car and should pay. I wouldn't be in the slightest bit bothered by that because my car is old and has a couple of scratches on it anyway so I'd not be worried but if it was a new car I was paying a lot for and in good condition to start then yes I'd be annoyed you damaged it too and expect you to pay for the damage.

If the riddle is how you get your child in & out in tight spaces well you do it carefully, get the strips for the doors so if you do touch another car it's less likely to leave damage and look for end spaces etc while he's young enough to need you to put him in the car. That's your responsibility to sort, not expect everyone to just put up with the damage you do to their car.
Screaming and shouting about it would have been unreasonable but doesn't sound like he was , he's taken your name and number to contact you to pay for the damage you caused. He was at no way at fault here, you may not have done it on purpose but you did do it, so that's your responsibility, it's not his issue that you need to get your child in his seat, that you're a mother and have a million other things to deal with, to the extent that he shouldn't say anything if you damaged the car or not expect you to pay for it.

No idea why you're gunning for me here.

I'm not responsible for the damage. 😂

As for people leasing their cars or whatever, I really couldnt give a flying fuck. 👍

Oh come on, bashed? How dramatic.

I usually try and get my finger in-between my door and the other car if it's tight - that way it can't make a mark.

A lot of people lease their cars and are charged for every single mark on their paintwork when the lease is up so hardly trivial to them.

Absent details from the OP as to whether the parked car had a 360-deg motion detecting dash cam - the balance of probabilities applies in situations like this.

And thats what insurers would weigh up.

At no point did I say the OP shouldnt pay up. I just find it amazing people would pony up all their personal info so freely on something this trivial (according to the OPs version of events).

I'd have driven off and given the grand sum of zero fucks. As said, this wasnt a 5 car pile up.

That’s what 360 degree motion detecting dash cams are for and that kind of attitude is the exact reason why people park in the middle of two spaces, making less spaces available in car parks. How about people own up and pay for the damage they do to other people’s property?

You occupy more of the right side of your bay, so did they 🤷🏻‍♀️ either use parent and child spaces, park on the far side of the car park where it’s less busy, get bumper strips for your car door to stop marks or get used to paying for damage you do to other cars.

Im not sure why there’s always people on car threads acting like taking paint off / scraping your paint onto another car isn’t damage. It can’t have done that from a simple touch, it would have needed a certain level of impact to damage paint or leave paint behind.

Did you take HIS details, take photos and his reg plate details too?

Yabu. You damaged the car and have to give details.

Stuff like this is 50-50, he said/she said.

Unless of course the other driver had evidence to show his/her insurer.

OP is still a bit naive to freely offer up their details willy nilly TBH. Data protection and all that. This wasnt a 5 car pile up.