I totally did this Saturday night at a parking garage. Didn't have much choice as to where I could park, but I wanted some documentation of my neighbors lol.
I agree, sooner or later you will get rock dings etc. The dealer can get you a bottle of touchup paint that matches perfectly. It won't be like showroom, but it will be unnoticeable unless your very close. There's a thread somewhere on tips as to where to park too. I've gotten used to a little more walking, parking next to flower beds, on the end, next to handicapped spots, next to very nice cars "they also don't want scratches" etc. Alan.. Sent with Tapatalk 2
It doesn't surprise me that the driver hit your door and took off. Was watching the news about a driver who hit a bicyclist and killed him. The driver got out to pull the wedged bike from underneath his Mercedes SUV, then DROVE OFF!
At least for me and the few times I have parked or drove by a Hummer up here, they have been quite polite. Always giving plenty do distance when passing/pulling in. Hands down though, it is Chevy/GMC truck drivers that are the most inconsiderate/dangerous and second to that are other Prius drivers.
I cringed when I read your story. Really sorry to hear what happened to your Prius. Looks like the same color as mine too! At less than 2 months new, I am dreading the first scratch / ding my car will get. I've been super cautious where I park pretty much everywhere I go, but am resigned to know that sooner or later, someone will open their door and hit my car. Thankfully, I haven't seen a Hummer in a long time. However, I have been noticing more people who aggressively accelerate and brake. Oh well, it's their extra gas money that they're burning up.
Hummers don't ding cars....People ding cars. I can't help but look at posts like this without thinking "Man...what a jerk! Who would judge somebody by what they drive?".....which of course makes me just as base as all of the other humans on the planet. I do offer very sincere regrets both for the fact that your car got thwacked (presumably?) by the Hummer and for the unkind thoughts that raced through my brain when I read the first part of your post. I'm only human! btw....no. I don't have any stick time in a "Hummer"...but I do have tens of thousands of miles in a HMMWV...which is a different critter. (My doors were a lot softer....)
Interesting article on what you're car says about your personality. What Does Your Car Say About Your Personality?
Theres only so many black H2's where you live, but theres only one with matching paint on his door at the right height. People are creatures of habit, keep an eye out and chances are you will see the same rig again.
From the photo it doesn't appear to be dented. Given the paper thin sheet metal in the Prius, that really tells you that it wasn't a significant shunt. If there is a minor dent, I would go the paint-free dent removal route. Also hard to tell from the photo: is the light spot the primer on your car or is it paint transfer from the perp? If it's paint transfer, most of that will rub out. At the end of the day you may need some touch-up, but this would be preferable to me rather than a respray. When you break the face of the factory paint, no respray on the planet will match it. My Toyota dealer installed a similar damage on my driver's door. They offered to respray it but I opted for the dent repair and touch-up route to avoid the respray. Good luck and sorry for your damage.
I have a Black Prius, and a white bmw x5 SUV that I drive equal amounts on a weekly basis, what does that say about me?
Dual personality? Paranoid and sublimated? Glutton for punishment when driving the Beemer to the gas station? All of the above?
That is horrible. It is hard to say whether it was intentional, but that is definitely something that will ruin a day regardless of what vehicle you drive. It is amazing how rude people can be. There is no way that they didn't know that they caused that damage.
Here in the DC area we are folks that seem privileged over others. As long as their ride is OK, then they don't care.... Big SUV's parking in spaces at the mall clearly marked for compact cars... Because of that I have learned and enjoyed the extra walk in parking away from these "entitled" a-holes when possible. I had a nice large scrape of paint taken off my Baja bumper due to someone that didn't care. I know I am tempting fate, but a year and a half my Prius still looks like it did after driving it off the lot. Given the OP's post, it could be a case of I have mine rage....
I have to park next to Hummers every now and then, I go to a gym out on a local Army base , and they are usually a few around. A friend of mine I were commenting on one sitting by our cars, and I got to looking into the front windows, just checking it out, when the back doors opened and several soldiers got out. Heck, I didn't even know anyone was around, felt a bit foolish, like a window peeper. The military ones are really massive, I would hate to get door dinged by one of them, with all the armour and all . They aren't concerned about fuel mileage either.
I suspect this is why Toyota took away our keys and replaced them with FOBs. It takes away the temptation. *wanders off to PriusChat Shop to see of they sell shivs for Prius owners*
In uk car parks, there are normally car parking spaces which are reserved for cars containing persons of restricted mental and physical ability. In this way, people who have children in their car can have a little more space to allow them to fling open their doors with little or no regard to their surroundings. Likewise there are spaces for physically disabled. The problem with this form of "mollycoddling" is that when these cars containing persons of restricted abilities park in a normal space they forget how normal people have to carefully climb in and out of their vehicles and fling open their doors in the usual absent minded manner. Hummer 2..... there you have it . UK ladies and young mothers love to be let loose in vehicles which are beyond their abilities to know the width of and enjoy the false sense of safety the additional height of a 4x4 gives them. Is it any wonder that a 4x4 driver was responsible for carrying a passenger of restricted mental capacity( a child)? To me, encountering a 4x4 on the UK roads and car parks alerts me of the need to take extra care due to its driver being less able to control the vehicle due to its size, lack of ability and the distraction of younger passengers. The idea of segregating these people in car parks seems to work very well especially at the shops where shopping trolleys abandoned by these people are very good potential damagers when the car park are sloping or there is some windy weather. My attitude is to always give any 4x4 a lot of space. try to park as far as possible from the shop entrance and try to select a location which is on high ground and therefore out of range of the windblown shopping trolleys carelessly abandoned by the occupants of other vehicles. These measures minimise freelance hit and run damage but don't rule it out entirely. Sometimes there are shop security cameras which cam isolate these freelance hit and run types number plates. These are also useful in avoiding damage.
Here in America we do car parks (we call them parking lots) completely wrong. Rules vary by state, but there are generally a dozen (or more) groups of people who all passionately feel that they "deserve" spots close to the front of the store, which makes for a dizzying array of signs and labels. I was in Brentwood (Nashville) last week and they had "compact" spaces in one of the parking lots close to the front of the store. The spaces were exactly the same size as the others, but I guess the store owners felt that compact cars were (insert air quotes) "better" than other cars....and (of course) there were 2 Priuses, a Hummer H2, and a Range Rover in those spots. Guess What? They were ALL improperly parked! That's because Priuses aren't "compact" cars. In America there are usually a dozen (or more) handicap spaces that are a little bit bigger to allow for loading and unloading wheelchairs and such. The trouble is.......here in America 99.9999999999999 percent of the "handicapped" people are cardiac or joint replacement patients who got that way from a lifetime of over eating. The really delicious part (pun unintended) is that if they park in front of a grocery store, and are juuuuuust able to waddle up to the front door? The store owner is obligated to provide them with an electric cart with a large basket in from of it!! Folks on your side of the pond have been cracking jokes at us for years over it. Been there. Heard the jokes. Me? I park as far away from the front entrance as I can under a light and in the open where possible, and if I were King For A Day.....I'd make obese people park there too, and instead of an electric cart, I'd make them use a treadmill before letting them in. ...Juuuust sayin.
