Hit my neighbours car ... puzzled by his response ?

[Glitterzzz]

Hey everyone. I feel awful! Came home from the school run this morning pulling into the space as normal, I got destracted and somehow ended up too close to the neighbours car already parked and hit the wing mirror ( so I thought )

Upon getting out I could see his car already has extensive damage to it on different spots but looking at my side of the car that has obvious long scratch marks in differential places where I’ve hit his and some scuffing to the front wheel I’m not sure how much of this I’m responsible for.

Some is clearly old, or in spots where it’s nit likely to be me. I knocked on his door apologised and explained that I’m sorry I’ve hit your wing mirror and I’m not sure of the damage.

He was super nice,,, didn’t want to come and see for himself and told me not to worry.

I am worried! The cosmetic damage to my car is my own fault and I will get it fixed in the coming weeks but having taken both photographs of his and my car and excluding what I believe to be the the older damage I can see I did more than just the wing mirror.

He has since come out and left in his car. I expected him to come knocking the door but nothing. I just feel it’s a bit ... odd ? I have admitted it was me and said shall we swap insurance ? And he was all smiles and said no problem forget it and have a good day...

Am I wrong to think he doesn’t have insurance 🧐 I still feel so bad for the damage I have caused

Drop him in a bottle of wine.

if you knocked on his door and told him you clipped the wing mirror i can see why he'd not be bothered, however, you keep mentioning scratches down your car and 'more than just the wing mirror' I'm now wondering if you actually let him know the extent of the damage you caused?

I hit a car in a super tight space a few weeks ago, I had to reverse out and park somewhere else which was a fair distance away. I took pics of the damage to both cars and left a note explaining and with my number. The woman called and was super lovely, said it was okay they weren’t going to bother with the damage and no to worry about. It was a Lexus too and didn’t have any other damage I could see! The woman who called me was appreciative that I’d left a note so maybe your neighbour is appreciative but won’t bother as he’s got existing damage.

If it was only a little bump I wouldn't be bothered with an insurance claim. My car is at the point where practically any claim would be declared as a write-off :-( I love my car! I don't want it scrapped). I might ask you to not put in a claim (especially if you had a large excess) but if you'd cracked my wing mirror, I might ask you for a tenner to replace it.

Similar thing happened to me. A neighbour scraped the wing of my car parking hers. She seemed worried and shaken (and was clearly having a bad day already). My car was already scratched on the wing (thanks my own argument with our garage wall) and I had already decided to scrap it before the next MOT (not just because of the scratches- it was ancient). My reaction was therefore just to tell her not to worry, no harm done.

She did buy me wine to make up for it, which was nice

I'm fully insured but it wouldn't really bother me either. My car is 12 years old and third-hand - it's covered in scratches and bumps, but as long as it starts and runs well, I'm happy. Some people are really precious about how their cars look, but living rurally where I often have to pull over into hedges to let tractors etc. passed, I can't really afford to worry about a few scratches!

Meh! Our car received a scratch almost the full length of the body when we was attending a party that the local village idiot had not been invited to. He scratched every car in the field (incredibly rural overnight party)
Did we even bother to try to polish the scratch out?.....no! Not bothered, the car still went and we are not petrol heads. Not to say we don’t own nice vehicles, we just don’t worry about cosmetics. It seems, maybe your neighbour has the same outlook. Buy him a chocolate bar/ bottle of his favourite tipple etc and say sorry. Then be grateful you have such a lovely neighbour.

My husband had a small scrape against a neighbouring car door in a car park. The car was absolutely covered in scrapes and dents already but he thought leaving a note with our contact details on would be the decent thing to do.

The driver then called up repeatedly to tell us the 'lowest quote for fixing the damage' my husband had caused was nearly £1,000! That included a rental for a week while the work was carried out. Eventually he dropped it to £500 to 'respray the entire door panel'.

It was a tiny scrape. I'd be grateful your neighbour isn't a money-grubbing, grasping little git!

Exact thing happened to me. Neighbours hit my car. I just don't care. It's a car.

Reminds me of the time I made a neighbour shit themselves.

They clipped my wing mirror - their fault. But they got out of the car and cacked it as the sight of all the scrapes down the side of the car.

Took me about two years to get around to sorting those out.

any car over a few years old will be an instant write off due to the repair stitch up. He wont want to lose a perfectly functional car.

Exactly this. He'd be out of pocket as he'd never ever find a car just the same for the meagre amount the insurance will give him. Meanwhile the insurance co will sell it on as a do-er upper for a profit.

I wouldn’t worry, obviously his car had already taken a battering and he’s not fazed by the extra damage.

I had this happen to me once, my handbreak failed and my car rolled down the hill into another car, I knocked on the owners door and was told ‘don’t worry about it’, I had left a bit of damage (scratch and a small dent) to the side of their car but it was a old car and they just were not bothered.

Haven't read the thread yet, just wanted to say that the exact same thing once happened to me. I put a small dent in my neighbour's BMW, left a note, and when he came to see me and I showed him the dent, he said, "Oh yes, that's a new one." Car did have a few other scratches and dents that I hadn't previously noticed, it was generally a nice car. He wasn't bothered at all and didn't want anything for it. He did replace the car with a new Range Rover not long afterwards.

I think he's probably too wealthy to care. (Both his nice Range Rover and his flat worth several hundred thousand are often left unused for several weeks at a time.)

It did throw me that he wasn't bothered, and all I could think to say (after he graciously let me off) was to get back to me as soon as possible if he changed his mind, so I could tell my insurance. I still cringe a bit when I remember that.

I used to drive an old banger. One day when I came out of Sainsbury’s, I found a not on my car saying they had bumped it and giving a mobile phone number. I rang it, amazed at their honesty, and told her so and that a couple more scratches simply didn’t matter!

He’s obviously the same. Nice man!

I think unless it's a swanky sports car or brand new not many people care about scratches and small dents.
Scratches and dents don't affect the functionality of the car really so I'd be the same and not be bothered about them.

Think my limit is if I can fit my fist or more in a dent then I might go insurance route.

I wish my neighbours were like this... I bumped their car while parking, so left a note as I wasn’t sure who they were.

They got quotes from garages and they suggested cash so as not to go through insurance. £130 for a small scrape ☹️

And they never actually got it fixed.. just pocketed the money.