What would you do "IF" happened

[BobbyDee]

Yesterday night at the parking lot in my 86, somebody pulls up next to my car, and their passenger opens the door on my front right fender As ironic it may seem, the moment I saw the car pull up next to my car, 1 millisecond of thought said in my mind, I hope this person opens the door carefully. But it was too late, I watched her just open her door carelessly into my car. She replied back "oh! nothing scratched, woops, sorry." And than awkwardly walking away nervously with her other 2 friends as I give them the stare like "really..."
In my mind, she opened the way she did, because she thought nobody was in the car(asphalt with tints all around) She seemed more shocked the fact that I was in my car and caught her in the act when I opened my door to check the damage. Luckily... no dings. I yelled back, "you seriously need to watch your surroundings, and be careful about opening doors around you!!"

As I drove home, while getting over the situation, I wonder if she really did dinged up my car how would I go upon the situation. Because I know door dings are really hard to avoid if your car is your daily driver, but if you were me and you saw this happen to your car AND it did indeed give a decent ding on your car, what would you have done?

Would there be a case where the driver is at fault because they are his passengers, there for he gets all the blame? (basing off an example if your friend doesn't have a seat belt on, you get ticketed for it instead of your friend)

Would you try and make the passenger pay for the damage? Maybe a paintless dent removal. (but most of the time passengers of their friend's car wouldn't even take responsibility and try and make some BS not to pay) So is it worth taking to small claims court for a ding?

Or would you go ahead and take the ding, and accept it and fix it with your own money.

My philosophy is: "If I didn't do the damage, why should I have to pay for it?"

[STV3]

My guess would be get a cop to file a police report and exchange info then have the other persons insurance pay for it.

[Tcoat]

Not sure about everyplace but it is most common that under the law the vehicle operator (driver) is responsible for anything that happens. This would apply even if done by a passenger.

[HotLavaFRS]

Would have gotten out of the car to check to see if she scratched or dinged it. If she did, someones giving me some insurance information.

[soulreapersteve]

Yeah, insurance, license, police report. Also pictures of dent and picture of license plate.

[xtral]

in china we generally ask for a compensation in cash with that case (sth equivalent to 20 USD? if that's a luxury sedan that could be more than 80 USD) .. because if we call the police and assurance, it will be longer and it also affect the insurance fee for the following years..

But I believe giving cash to stranger is illegal in the US

[strat61caster]

Life is too short.

[Spectral Entity]

Originally Posted by xtral

But I believe giving cash to stranger is illegal in the US

Only if the person is a lady selling access to her lady parts, or someone selling drugs.

[Chimera]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Life is too short.

I generally agree although last week I went outside to the car to find a new dent and scratches on the drivers door and had about a 5 minutes melt down before getting in and driving with the radio loud and tires squeaking.
It does kill me a little though all the idiots damage.
:/

[MJones_RB]

From what I understand, cops no longer come out to such incidents unless someone is hurt or drunk, at least in California.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by MJones_RB

From what I understand, cops no longer come out to such incidents unless someone is hurt or drunk, at least in California.

Same here.
You have to take your car to a reporting center (only one in the whole city), wait in line too file a report, fill out a massive report with every single detail you can think of, wait for them to review the report and tell you it is no good and start over, wait for them to review the report again, wait in line with the car to have it inspected, wait for the inspector to look at the car, go back in and wait with the inspection report to attach to the accident report, wait while they try to find the report that you just handed them an hour before the inspection, hope the other person shows up (or hope they don't if it was your fault), register the report with the insurance company, wait for their guy to show up, get 3 quotes, send those to insurance, wait for their decision and maybe (just maybe) you can get your dent fixed.
Count on at least 2 or 3 hours at the center and a couple of weeks of waiting for the whole process to catch up to it's self.
I would ask them for $50 and walk away. If they refused I would just walk away and depending on how bad it was get it fixed or just live with it.

[Curtski96]

I've had this happen in my other brand new car a while back while I was walking up to it I watched them pull in and fresh green paint on my door. I proceeded to key their door in retaliation. I was in the heat of the moment and would definitely not do that again.

[soulreapersteve]

Originally Posted by MJones_RB

From what I understand, cops no longer come out to such incidents unless someone is hurt or drunk, at least in California.

People have been telling me this also here in Wash. State - with regards to accidents. If no one is hurt, don't bother calling the cops. Just get all their info and if you want to file a report, go to a station.

[Marco_86]

It's just a door ding. Relax.