Bad parking, damage caused

[Miss P]

If anyone happened to see someone bump into an otherwise immaculate silver SLK over the bank holiday weekend in the North Cross Road area, and if you happended to take down the details of the offending car, please could you pm me? My (ten year old) little car is my pride and joy and now has about 30% of the back bumper scratched beyond any help t-cut can give. Quite upsetting and really unnecessary given how much space there was over the weekend. I really object to people who have no regard for other people's property - just because you don't care about your stuff, doesn't give you the right to ruin other people's. Bumpers aren't there to bump into when you park!!!!

[i*Rate]

Miss P,

Sorry that I can't help but I do feel sorry for you. The new back bumper of my treasured 22-year-old car was rammed one day by someone in a Mercedes saloon (solid built cars!), then hit again by, probably, a huge people carrier or something similar sometime in the day. That's how it is here in London, the days are gone in ED when the roads where half empty of cars and life was tranquil (and boring).

Cheers.

[macutd]

i always find it's good to get your first bump out of the way. Otherwise you are living in fear waiting for it to come!

[minder]

Being a bit thick here but what does SLK stand for? Hope you get your bumper fixed!

[ClareC]

Saw someone do the same to my partners car - there was around 10m of clear space in front of him but rather than pull forward, straighten up and then reverse back a bit he just tried to use the 1m of space behind him and failed. He bumped the bumper just as I walked past with a friend.

I took photos and his number plate and asked for his insurance details which he was reluctant to give. I threatened to call the police at which point he was v apologetic and claimed there was no damage.

There didn't appear to be any damage (slight crack in number plate), I was more angry at the total disregard and lack

of care. Sadly seems to be very common in London.

[Jeremy]

minder Wrote:

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> Being a bit thick here but what does SLK stand for?

Something in German. It's one of those little sporty Mercedes things.

[the-e-dealer]

What is a SLK?

[KylaKevin]

No! i Don't see but feeling sorry for your car's back bumper scratch.

[Miss P]

Looks a lot like this, but my bumper is scratched to bits. Very sad, it's managed ten years with hardly a mark and a few months of London life has resulted in a couple of hundred pounds worth of damage. It is the total lack of care, as ClareC refers to which irritates me the most. I can honestly say in 20 years of driving, I've never used other people's bumpers to guage the size of a parking space......grrrr.

[KylaKevin]

Feeling bad what can we do now, just relax OK.

[the-e-dealer]

Well I think bumpers were precisely for bumping - hence the name. Then the Manufacturers started painting them thus making them a scratchable item.

In automobiles, a bumper is the front-most or rear-most part, ostensibly designed to allow the car to sustain an impact without damage to the vehicle's safety systems. They are not capable of reducing injury to vehicle occupants in high-speed impacts, but are increasingly being designed to mitigate injury to pedestrians struck by cars.

[Miss P]

I think you might find bumper cars are made for bumping, but I don't agree that the purpose of car bumpers is for people who can't be arsed to take a bit of care to merrily bang into when parking their vehicle.

[the-e-dealer]

Funnily enough if you go to the fair and ride the bumper cars they usually have a sign saying "NO BUMPING!"

[gallagher]

yep!

[sillywoman]

Miss P Wrote:

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> I think you might find bumper cars are made for

> bumping, but I don't agree that the purpose of car

> bumpers is for people who can't be arsed to take a

> bit of care to merrily bang into when parking

> their vehicle.

Well you can't be sure it was someone who couldn't be arsed though can you? That's just your guess. There's all sorts of reasons why someone might have bumped into your car & scratched the bumper, one of which is 'can't be arsed'. Unless you saw it happen you'll never know. I feel a bit sorry for you, but also that this is the reality of car ownership in London (and some other large cities too). Like macutd said - best to get it out the way. Unless you park your car off road, in London you'll doubtless have more bumps & scratches to come. On our overcrowded streets in our overcrowded city it's sure to happen.

[Jeremy]

'can't be arsed' and 'shit driver' are the only two explanations I can think of.

But yes, I agree with your summary that such things are sadly inevitable.

[JohnL]

I used to head at top speed for the person who looked most frightened.

the-e-dealer Wrote:

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> Funnily enough if you go to the fair and ride the

> bumper cars they usually have a sign saying "NO

> BUMPING!"