Dozy Woman Has Reversed Into My Parked Car.

[DJHawkes]

My car was parked outside my daughter's BF's bungalow and the sister of the woman in the next door bungalow reversed out of the sister's driveway and bumped into my parked car. We were inside talking and knew nothing about it but the neighbour next door but one was having a job done on his car by a local mechanic and the local mechanic watched the neighbours sister hit my car, pull up, get out of her car, look at the rear of her car, look towards my car, get back in and drive off,
A minute later we came out to go to tescos and the mechanic was just coming to the door to tell us about it. I went to the sister next door, who is in her 80s, and she took my phone number and said she would ring her sister when she got home.
My insurance comoany can't start a claim until I have the full details, I only know the drivers name.
Should I let it go because she's a pensioner and my car is only slightly bunped, the bumper is split and the headlight has been pushed in under the lip of the bonnet but it still works.

[starone]

I backed into someone's car once and the bumper was pulled up. I waited until the owner came out of the shop and apologised to her etc. She said 'that's all right' put her foot on the bumper and pushed it into place, got into the car, and drove off. I was left standing there flabbergasted. I presume she had no insurance etc. but did not take any details because I was not expecting this. Just saying!! With regard to your problem dotty, she should not have driven off like that. Very rude of her. I would pursue it because of her deceit and obvious desire to avoid the consequences of her action.

[DJHawkes]

I definately am glad I have put the claim in to my insurers, they are collecting my car from work tomorrow and leaving me a curtosy car, if they can't fix mine tomorrow i will have the curtosy car til tuesday. I won;t uncur any costs and my premiums will not be hit, she is insured with saga which is a sister company to my insurers and shares the same office and so it will be very quick. The lady has phoned me and apologised again and said she just didn;t see my car because she was concentrating on the van parked in the neighbours driveway as she back out, my car was at least 20 feet from her sisters drive. sounds like she really isn;t a very good driver.

[EDDIE51]

Similar thing happened to me, an 80 year old woman did a U turn straight in front of me. I braked as hard as I could but still hit her car side on. The front of my car hit hers exactly between the front and rear door. She got out and said ''where ever did you come from, I didn't see you'' . I explained that I was behind her when she did a U turn directly in front of me. Then she said ''well you couldn't have had your lights on'' ( it was daylight but raining) , I pointed to my car and said ''look the lights are still on now !'' which was true. She had a woollen hat pulled down so far it was half over her eyes and glasses like the bottom of a milk bottle
We swapped details and she dove off.
Later I got the insurance claim, she claimed I had run into the back of her car when she stopped so it was all my fault. Luckily I knew where she lived so I took a photo of her car with damage between the front and rear doors and the back untouched and sent it to my insurance company , I took one of my car as well with the front end damage .
5 Days later I got a cheque for £500 to cover the cost of my car and a letter saying she had accepted full responcibility.
I think your 'old dear is of the same breed.
By the way my car was an old Ford Escort that I had paid £50 for so I was happy with the £500 , I even sold the damaged car for scrap and got the £50 back.

[DJHawkes]

Mine isnlt a new car by any means and I really think that she's looked over at it as she's got out of hers to check her damage and she's thought that it didn't matter hitting my car as it's an older model. I also wasn't very pleased that she tried to sweet talk me into letting her nephew look at it rather than giving me her details. that's why I've taken the insurers advice.

[craft1948]

When one of my neighbours reversed into me and put a big dent in my wing her husband didn't want me to go through the insurance, and said his mate was a panel beater and he'd sort it out.............Smart cars are made of plastic.

[DJHawkes]

After listening to the insurer person it's actually very dodgy to get someone to 'sort it out' without telling the insurance company, they really don't seem to like the idea and say it could invalidate insurance if there was another claim and the vehicle was found to have dodgy repairs.

[EDDIE51]

As said a split bumper and damaged wing/ headlight are not going to be cheap. I would not expect any change out of £500 or even £1000. If your car is over 5 years old they may well write it off.

[DJHawkes]

I hope they don't do that as I have trouble enough finding a small automatic car, it's not easy and as i am only licensed for autos it is essential.

[craft1948]

You'll have to get a Smart car dot............

[EDDIE51]

If they write it off you can probably buy it back and get the repairs done yourself. I know someone who did this recently , he was hit from behind while stationary. The car was a large 4 wheel drive and the only damage was to the tail gate door , they still wrote it off. He collected £1500 for the car , bought it back for £250 and bought a new tail gate for £50 from a scrap yard.