I have hit someone's car

[OhNoForever]

Please, talk me down. I was trying to park in a rush today and I have hit someone's car in a car park. I left my details, I scratched one panel. Please someone tell me it's going to be OK because i am devastated 😭

Or tell me about stupid things you have driven into and cheer me up.

Don’t be daft, “devastated” indeed. You accidentally scraped a bit of metal that can be fixed. You didn’t kill or injure a person or animal.

I hit every panel on a column in a car park. I was too busy looking around (wondering where that awful scraping noise was coming from) to notice… 🙄

Yes, well done OP, I’m glad to see that some people still have good morals.

I went from an automatic handbrake to a manual and even 6 years later still forget to put it on. It's hit 2 cars, a wheelie bin and also my partners car. I try and tell myself it's not my fault as I wasn't in the car 🤣

I reversed into a car in a car park once - left my details, lady texted and said don't worry about it (though she did leave me bricking it for about 3 days before she did!).

OP, you'll only have to pay the insurance excess amount if the car owner makes a claim, however much the actual repair cost is. And your premium will go up a bit for a year or two. But it's exactly what insurance is for!

I also once reversed too far down my own drive and hit the garage...

Please don't worry OP.
When they contact you make sure you go through the insurance - don't try to privately agree how much to pay. That often goes tits up.

The insurance will handle it.
You will lose your no claims bonus which is a pain but nothing serious will happen

Not sure why you find your driving incompetence funny, you're lucky that you haven't hurt anyone. You're right, you shouldn't be trusted with a car.

Good on you OP for leaving your details - many people wouldn't. You did the right thing.

I was on holiday a few years ago and left my car in the car park and went for fish and chips and a wander round the amusements. Came back to my car at 10pm and it had been hit so hard that the bonnet was popped open, windscreen was cracked, alarm had been set off and the reg plate and grill were broken. No note and the battery was dead because of the alarm. We were 8 miles from our campsite. We were due to drive home the next morning. It was a nightmare and I still bear a grudge. So well done for leaving a note!

@KeepSmiling89 that's hilarious 🤣🤣🤣.

@morag1234 glad someone else is able to laugh at it!

@Scalottia thanks for the guilt trip! I've already felt sh*t about all my accidents and paying the price from the write off with nearly constant back pain and an increase in my insurance premiums. If I didn't laugh, I'd be a miserable sod!

Ꭰid my driving test in an area I didnt know that well. So flustered that on my first right turn , I bounced up onto the kerb , panicked and hit the post box . There ended the test .

I always worry ... If I ever needed to leave a note in the future, would touching the windscreen wiper set off a car alarm?

I hit someone's car in a carpark once.

I was late for an appointment and this space appeared to be the last one.

The other car was parked right on the line and had left very little space for anyone else to manoeuvre in.

My fault for chancing it, and I bumped the side of the car on the way in, and again on the way back out of the space in panic

I left my details tucked in the wiper and went home in a tizzy. I cancelled my appointment that i was too late to make it to if I looked for parking elsewhere.

I had a missed call off the car owner when I got home but my husband offered to call back and speak to the owner as he is more level headed and clued up with these things whereas I just panic and don't want to be in trouble

The owner was quite chilled out with my husband, said it's not a big deal and his car is dented all over anyway. And left it as though he wouldn't be pursuing anything.

Later on he text me asking to see a photo of the damage on my car to compare to his car. He suddenly decided he did want me to pay to repair it after all because it will affect the value of his car (it was an absolute shit heap, about 15 years old and was clearly being used as a messy work vehicle.

I was disappointed after thinking it was all going to go away but of course agreed i would start the process with my insurance company.

He said he didn't want to go through insurance. He wanted to get a quote and I give him the cash.

I refused and said I don't have spare cash and I would rather have the security of having my insurers deal with it all.

He was a bit arsy and asked me for a few hundred quid a few more times but stopped after my husband left him a voicemail telling him to stop contacting me and said he should contact his insurer if he wishes to take it further.

I heard nothing more from him. But when I looked his vehicle up online it was SORN and not taxed. Yet parked in a busy town centre carpark that day so glad I didn't panic and bung him a load of cash 😂 absolute chancer.

I once knocked a car trying to parallel park on a residential street (it was the day I passed my test too!). I left my details and the guy was super nice, just perplexed as to why his car was in this part of town and was more interested in exactly where his car was in relation to the leisure centre (miles away), and nothing ever came of it.

I knocked my door mirror off. I can think of more interesting things to spend £300 on, but it's a vital thing. Garage man did it within 24 hours as it's an MoT fail if it's going in for one.

My OH once reversed into the garage with the door open - not just the garage door!!

My sister in law kindly allowed us to store some furniture in her garage while we were in the middle of a house move. My husband repaid her by driving a rental van into her garage door and supporting brickwork 🙄

It cost thousands and all SIL said was, "Is my idiot little brother okay?"

It happens to us all.

20 years or so ago I reversed into a car in an otherwise empty car park, and I was in a 4x4 so made a right mess. The witnesses - it was at a restaurant - said I should just drive off. I didn't, I found the owner and admitted what I'd done. All sorted through insurance and I got a text from the owner later to thank me for being honest and not driving away.

I'm now very careful about reversing!

This was at school pick up in front of all the parents. I was sitting at the entrance to the carpark waiting to leave when someone tried to pull in and couldn't quite fit. So I reversed a little bit more to be helpful right into another mums car.

Always protect your NCB! Often it’s quite cheap, costs me £20.

I left my car in a car park, went shopping and got back and it was gone. It had rolled down hill into a really nice car.
I left my details and he contacted me with an outrageous quote and said that he would settle for less if I didn’t go through my insurance!
Obviously I did go through my insurance and it turned out that he wasn’t insured!
I still felt awful!

It’s going to be fine. You did the right thing. If you haven’t done yet you should report to your insurer. (Lots of people will start saying now “don’t do that…pay for it privately”; however, you have an obligation under your insurance policy to report, repairs always cost far more then people expect, and they may just ring their insurer and then they will contact your insurer if they have your details. Then let your insurer deal with it - that’s why you pay the insurance.

I hit another car in a car park opening my door on a windy day (gust of wind and it smashed into other car). I left a note but also rang my insurer, who contacted her insurer, which was good because my note blew away in the wind (I found out because the lady asked the insurers to pass on the message thanking me).

I hired a van to move some furniture into storage, I smashed into a wall on our property. I had to return and then they had to inspect damage (lots of “oooh” “ahh” “that will be expensive”, but that actually had a silver lining, because I got a report with all the damage on and photos. I actually paid to drop the excess to £0 (so no issue). I then got a letter from the hire company saying they had to pay the DART charge for a vehicle I had hired. Sent DART a charge with photos (I had not gone over the Dartford Bridge) II was able to go back and say while the vehicle reg plates are the same, that’s not the vehicle I hired (completely different type of van) - see the pictures.

I once reversed into a boulder at speed. Wrote my financed car off, I'd only had it a month. Turned out it was previously written off (I was young and didn't know to check). I got the sum total of fuck all and couldn't afford another car as I still had to pay the finance.

You've left your details. Accidents happen. It's literally why we have insurance.

Shit happens! Let the insurance company take care of it and don’t worry any longer! A few years ago I managed to reverse one of my cars into another one of my cars, I dealt with it by having a good laugh at myself and shared with my petrolhead mates so that they could take the piss 🤣

I reversed into a bollard the day after I moved into my flat. Huge dent in the bumper but the body shop did an amazing job fixing it.

Reversed into a lamppost last year. A few scratches to the rear bumper but I didn't bother getting it fixed, I just applied some T Cut to try to make it look a bit better. Car was 10 years old by then so I wasn't too bothered.