<p>Here’s my saga . . . Last night at the high school football game I park my car, get out go watch the game. Come back to the car after the game and another car (a rather big car) has parked very close to mine. In opening my driver’s door, I bang my door into the other car. I was being careful–I mean not exceptionally careful, but it was not possible to open the door enough to get in without my door at least touching the other car. I don’t think my door hit her car all that hard but apparantly it was hard enough to leave a dent in the door. Now the owner of the other car called this morning and said she is taking the car into the dealership to get an estimate on how much it would cost to repair. I really didn’t say anything except a lot of "uh huh"s. </p>
<p>I am sure she is expecting me to pay for whatever it costs to “fix” her car. And in one sense, I did cause the damage to her car. But I feel she is partly (at least) to blame because she parked her car so close to mine. </p>
<p>Already - I’m sorry about your predicament. If you damaged the door it’s your responsibility to remedy that. But did you actually damage the door? Until you’re clear about this, good advice will be hard to provide.</p>
<p>PS, Yes the other person is being a D***head about this, but that’s not really relavent IMHO.</p>
<p>How did the person know it was you who hit their car? Were they in it when you opened your door? Otherwise, I have to wonder if the KNEW they were parked too close to you and in advance wrote down your license number or something “just in case”. If so, then I think they knew full well that they were too close to your car and should assume some of the responsibility. Are the parking spaces lined? was she on or over the line? These could all be relevant. Good luck</p>
<p>I suspect that the other driver knew it was my car parked next to her either because she recognized the car as mine (it’s a small town and just through experience I would recognize certain cars as belonging to certain people, although I did not know whose car was parked next to mine) or because she was not too far behind me leaving the game and she saw me in the car. I definitely am not going to deny that I was parked next to her, or that my door bumped into her car. As for whether my car actually caused whatever dent might be on her car, I have no idea. I really do not think my door hit her car that hard, but who knows. I do harbor some doubts that she is just taking advantage of the fact that my door hit her car to get dents that were caused by other things repaired. But I can’t prove that.</p>
<p>“In opening my driver’s door, I bang my door into the other car”</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like a “set up” to me. The OP should take responsibility. If the paint wasn’t chipped, and the dent is relatively small, it should be minimal to fix. If the repair quote seems out of line, definitely look at the car before writing the check! You should also have the right to get another quote.</p>
<p>Edit: After reading the above post, definitely ask to have a look before they do any repairs.</p>
<p>">>And in one sense, I did cause the damage to her car.<<</p>
<p>That says it all."</p>
<p>For some reason, this annoys me. If the facts had been different, and she had for example driven her car into mine, then is some sense my car would have caused the damage to her car, because without my car being there, her car would not have been damaged.</p>
<p>My car door hit her car. But her car was parked too close to mine (and she parked it there). It will bother me if I end up paying for all of the damage when it seems to me that we were both at fault.</p>
<p>Were their lined spaces or just a free for all? Around here people park everywhere at the football games and if you aren’t parked in the lot the spaces aren’t lined.
To me, this is crucial. If she was within the lines of a parking space and you were too then it is your fault.</p>
<p>Now wait a minute. The OP doesn’t recall damaging the other car and doesn’t think she/he opened the door in a way that would have damaged the other car. But now the OP is presuming she/he damaged the other car because why? The other person says so? </p>
<p>Before we get to whether there is shared fault because the other driver parked too close, the OP needs to know if she/he really damaged that car or if it is possible the car was already damaged. (Not saying the other driver is trying to scam the OP…but perhaps they had damage they didn’t know about.)</p>
<p>If neither party can definitively say when the damage occurred, then I don’t think blame can be assigned. And in those cases, the driver of the damaged car is sadly sol.</p>
<p>It’s clear you’re at fault in hitting the car with your door and you should pay for any damage done. It doesn’t really matter if they parked ‘too close’ or not. You could have been more careful, gotten in from the passenger side, etc. but you know this. In situations like this I often will put my hand on the apex of the door to be certain it doesn’t hit the other car for two reasons - to avoid damage to their car but also to avoid damage to my car. I rarely have this situation since I park away from others as much as possible but that’s hard to do at some HS football games. It’s easily possible to put small dents or divots in an adjacent car by opening a door into it.</p>
<p>However, you need to know what the damage actually was. You should insist on inspecting the car ideally (and bring your camera when you do), or at least seeing very clear photos of the damaged area and surrounding area. It’s not unusual for people to ‘tack on’ getting other existing damage fixed at the same time. You should only pay for what you damaged. Body work is expensive so you don’t want to get hit for more than you’re obliged to.</p>
<p>Many cars have a rubber or polyurethane guard on their doors so that if you open your door and hit another car door, it’s just something soft hitting with no damage to the other car.</p>
<p>My opinion is that if you have a large car and you park in a spot that doesn’t give another driver room to get in and out, then you are basically asking for trouble. I have an Avalon and there are loads of door dings on it from the YMCA (where there are lots of kids getting in and out of cars) and the supermarket (likewise). If you don’t want door dings, park in the far corner of the parking lot (my friends with expensive german vehicles tend to do this) or get the optional plastic cladding to protect your paint.</p>
<p>You said that the other person has a large car - were there already a bunch of door dings in the car? Does the color of the paint on her car match the color of the paint on yours? And do you see signs of her paint color on your door?</p>
<p>Original message said she damaged other car. What the damage was isn’t stated nor documented by OP. I agree with ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad that you need to examine damage to see that you only pay for damage caused by opening the door.</p>
<p>I know it is annoying to come back to your car and be squeezed in! Ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad’s suggestion that a person put a hand in or maybe a blanket, jacket or sweater in the breach is a good one…than at least you could say, “no, I didn’t cause the damage because I did xxx,” and then it would be the responsibility of the bad parker to prove that you did cause the damage.</p>
<p>Or you could have waited for the other driver to move the car first. This is similar to if you have hit someone from behind, there is no reason you could give that’s not your fault. It could be because the car in the front made a sudden stop for no good reason, it would still be your fault if you hit the car in front of you. In your case, you made a judgment call that you had enough space to open your door, but you were wrong. If you have indeed caused the damage then it is your fault. I do agree with some posters here that it should not have caused that much damage. I would want to take a look at the car before she makes any repair.</p>
<p>“Or you could have waited for the other driver to move the car first.”</p>
<p>It appears to me that the other driver wasn’t there. You could potentially wait quite a long time for the other driver to show up.</p>
<p>“This is similar to if you have hit someone from behind, there is no reason you could give that’s not your fault.”</p>
<p>What would you say if someone cut in front of you and then slammed their brakes on you. Or pulled off insurance scam maneuvers that basically forced you to hit one of their vehicles?</p>
<p>“In your case, you made a judgment call that you had enough space to open your door, but you were wrong.”</p>
<p>Please reread the original post.</p>
<p>This is similar to if you have hit someone from behind, there is no reason you could give that’s not your fault. It could be because the car in the front made a sudden stop for no good reason, it would still be your fault if you hit the car in front of you. In your case, you made a judgment call that you had enough space to open your door, but you were wrong. If you have indeed caused the damage then it is your fault. I do agree with some posters here that it should have caused that much damage. I would want to take a look at the car before she makes any repair.</p>
So the OP didn’t say they ‘damaged’ the car - just that they “banged” the car with the door. Unless the other car had one of the door protector strips, and it was positioned in the right place for the hit, then the OP’s door almost certainly caused some damage. The question is how much damage and the key is for the OP to make sure they assess the real damage from their hit (by matching paint color if possible) so they don’t end up paying for all kinds of previous damage. In all likelihood that car has previous hits since they were willing to park this close to another vehicle in a HS parking lot (dangerous places for hits).</p>
<p>He claimed his door touched the other car. I just mentioned one option he had - wait for the other driver (a football game, very likely the other driver would come soon), the other option would have been to get into his car from the passenger side. Like I said, he made a judgment call, and it was a bad call.</p>
<p>My husband went out for one early Sun morning. There was black ice on the road, which he was not aware because there was no snow on the ground yet. He was going way below the speeding limit, but he couldn’t stop at a stop sign and caused an accident. He didn’t break any law, but he was still viewed as at fault because HE made the judgment call it was safe to drive, and it was a bad call.</p>
<p>A good friend of mine let his brother borrow his car. The brother went through a light right as it turned from red to green, while another car went through a yellow light. They collided, the woman in the other died in the accident. The woman’s estranged husband sued my friend (not his brother because the brother was penniless) for making a bad judgment call of lending his car to his brother who was viewed as a reckless driver.</p>
<p>Another one - my father hit car A, car A did a 180 into another lane of on coming traffic, car B hit car A from behind because it swirled unexpectedly into car B’s lane , car A is suing my father (rightly so), also car B because it hit car A from behind.</p>
<p>Someone else’s bad action does not justify your bad reaction. If he truly felt there wasn’t enough room to open his door, he shouldn’t have open it.</p>
<p>“Unless the other car had one of the door protector strips, and it was positioned in the right place for the hit,”</p>
<p>There are protector strips and polyurethane protectors that go over the edge of the side of the door at the widest part of the car.</p>
<p>“then the OP’s door almost certainly caused some damage.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think my door hit her car all that hard but apparantly it was hard enough to leave a dent in the door.”</p>
<p>The original poster appears to be assuming damage because the person called stating that they were going to get an estimate of damages the next morning. If you read the OP’s first two posts, it’s clear that the OP thinks that he or she might have caused some damage but has doubts about this but the other person calling has caused concern that he or she might have caused some damage.</p>