I park in a parking garage at my office. The space I park in is one of two that are sandwiched between two block walls. There is room for two vehicles to fit in the area without having to squeeze out of the door. I normally park well to the right against a wall so the person in the other space has plenty of room. This is usually another employee I work with, or if they’re late, some guy with a big red Dodge pickup truck, who swings wide because he won’t back up and straighten out to pull into the space.
So today as I’m pulling out of my garage I hear a big “pop” sound and realize I forgot to clear a plastic container with a set of old H4 bulbs in it. Realizing that the metal part of the bulb might have damaged my right front tire, when I pulled into my parking space this morning I moved towards the middle of the space, evenly spacing my car between the yellow lines, with a good 8”-12” on each side of the car between the car and the painted lines. That way if I had to change a tire should it have been damaged and leaked down during the day I can get to that side of the car. Wife had doctor’s appointment I was attending, so about 9:40 I go down to get in the car. There’s a note stuffed in the gap between my doors: "Sorry, but I scrapped (sic) against your car this morning. It doesn’t look bad, but please let me know what to do and I’ll work things out with you.” (phone number) Arrgh. Left rear quarter is scuffed and left rear taillight is cracked. When I got it out in the sun I could see a dimple in the middle of the panel. The trailing edge of the fender where the tail light opening starts has the paint rubbed down to the primer. I took plenty of pictures of my car, its’ position and the big red truck, which was clearly swung way over into my space when it pulled in and had black paint on the bumper where it had rubbed against my car. So I called the guy and he was pretty contrite. He said if it was below his deductible he would just give me the money, otherwise I could file a claim with his insurer. I told him to put it in writing in an email, which he did, even admitting fault and including his insurance contact information and policy number. (Nice!) So I went to the local ding and dent place, a chain called “Carsmetics”, for a quick estimate. Around $475 for the paint work. LKQ has no left rear taillights for my car, so the only other choice they have is to go with new from MBUSA. +$1100.00!!! I had them write up an estimate with and without the tail light. I’m thinking if his deductible is $500 I’ll ask him for $550 and I’ll source the tail light assembly (easily found on eBay for $60-$80.) But only after I give him the $1700.00 estimate. Dan _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com