AIBU for staying in my car when an angry driver confronted me?

Not getting out and checking when someone is being aggressive is completely reasonable!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

That's interesting.
I always thought they had no jurisdiction in private car parks.

Not true. Someone reversed into my car in a supermarket car park recently, scratching the paintwork and driving off. I reported it to the police and they have definitely taken it seriously.

I think staying in the car was very sensible and probably the best reaction you could have had to the situation. He was aggressive and you were at a disadvantage, therefore you protected yourself by staying in a safe environment where he couldn't get to you. I don't think it matters whether your car and his car were touching or not - the issue at hand was that an angry man was behaving in a threatening way to a lone woman. You are not required to respond to that behaviour and you are absolutely entitled to get yourself out of there as fast as possible so you feel safe.

More women should learn that they do not need to engage with ridiculous childish men.

People are very quick to flare up. Sometimes calming the situation down by appreciating their concern helps. Had a similar experience and he ended up apologising for swearing. But no harm had been done to the car at all.

Absolutely, no need for him to be so aggressive about it! I probably wouldn’t have got out in your case either.

however it’s unlikely you done any damage so all good! ❤️

Best answer! Did you check your car later,OP?

To be fair I did do this in my local Tesco, I touched the car in front. I didn’t notice, my teenage son didn’t notice either and the parking sensor didn’t go off.

We didn’t realise until the man approached my son, who was still sitting in the car. My so phoned me to tell me and I was thinking there was no way I touched his car, this is a scam. But I actually had, I could then feel it when I reversed back. But no damage either cars thankfully and the man was very nice about it. I was scared coming back to the car though

She probably posted it on a local group. Someone posted a photo of me "not picking up after my dog" one time. My female dog had only done a wee and I got to educate them about female dog anatomy. Absolute nut job. I also got the post removed.

That said, I wouldn't say anything if they haven't posted a photo.

No, you were right not to get out. I did once drive into a van in front of me in a queue of traffic. I waited until I saw the reaction of the driver as he got out of the van. If he had been aggressive I'd have sat with my window up and exchanged details through it. Fortunately he was a young man and had a relaxed demeanour I could see as soon as he got out. I was very apologetic, we exchanged details and took photos. There was no damage to the van, I just cracked my own numberplate.

My current car would be shuddering, braking, and beeping at me if I got near another car, it would definitely let me know if I'd made contact!

Noticing a significant impact is entirely different from not noticing if you'd driven up to touch. But I've been hit twice by a vehicle where the driver didn't notice but I certainly did. And have seen several others similar knocks on CCTV (due a job I had that involved looking at accidents some of the time) with drivers who, judging from their behaviour, are oblivious to small knocks. It's surprising what people don't notice sometimes.

From what you've described, it sounds like the guy came back to his car to find another car touching it, he wouldn't know what the impact was like either, he just saw your car touching his (and behaved like a massive cock about it).

Of course the idea that it was you who hit his car (however slowly) is itself probably a big assumption. Was his car there first or did he hit yours? He could have driven up to touch your car without noticing too. I never register which car is in front of me when I park.

Getting out of your car would have been very unwise when confronted like that. Same would have been true for most men too. You very much did the right thing there.

Ideally, you'd have taken his details, but in such a stressful situation there is no way you could have done that.

Best advice is to contact the police.

It's possible you touched his car without noticing. If so, it must have been so lightly that it would be very unlikely to have caused any damage.

If it DID cause damage, then if I were him I would have noted your registration as you drove away, taken a picture and followed it up via insurance, not with a stupid facebook post.

And whether it caused damage or not, he had no right to be aggressive toward you. He could have just politely signaled to you and asked you to get out and have a look. If people are going to behave with unnecessary aggression rather than basic civility then others have every right to ignore them, regardless of the facts of the case and especially where male-female dynamics and perceptions of safety are involved.

You've clearly done nothing to his car or he would be doing something about it. The world is full of nutters, for many of whom their precious car is a peculiar focus of their nuttiness. Laugh it off and forget about it.

My gut feeling tells me they had damage to their car and are trying it. I mean, I don’t know how I’d react in that situation, but I would have wanted to take pictures / probably film him being abusive in case they reported my plate to their insurance.

Take a video on your phone of your car all the way around indicating no damage. Did you have a dashcam? If not you should get one for the future.

I'm confused - how did you see her Facebook when you don't know her?

No, not U to stay in your car when you're alone and a man's being aggressive.

Do you remember if he was there first or you?

ie. did he maybe bump you and then try to cover it up?

I once had a lady chase me around the turning circle at my child's school yelling that I'd hit her car (it had a massive scuff down the back door/wing). I knew I hadn't hit her. I did pull over and get out and show her that my car was entirely undamaged (and filthy - not even the dirt disturbed), that the paintwork on her car looked to me as though it had been taken off by a stone wall rather than another car (no paint transfer, and it was uneven).

We both took pictures, exchanged messages (with the pictures) and I never heard from her again - not even an apology (although I fully understand that she was panicking and upset, so I'd kept calm throughout and pointed out all the logic and reason that showed it wasn't me, so she was probably just embarrassed)

I would get out to take pitures to prove I hadn't hit his car.