You dinged his car

[bigmrpig]

You're parking at the grocery in a relatively tight space. When you open the door, you ding the car next to you. It's not a particularly nice car, but it's no Pinto either. Let's say something along the lines of a medium-high end sedan. Nothing too fancy. You look where it hit, and see what could be a mark, but could be nothing. You're not sure.

You go about doing your shopping and come back, being careful not to hit the car again. You pull out and get ready to leave, when a ray of light catches where you hit the door. Apparently it did make a mark. As you consider what to do, a seventeen year old male walks up and notices the ding. "Oh well," he says. "Dad'll pay for it. He's totally loaded." He opens the door and his annoyingly bouncy girlfriend hops in.

What this kid is doing at the grocery store, you have no idea. You know it was you that dinged the car, and that it didn't happen earlier. He's rubbing the exact spot your door hit his. Do you tell him you dinged his car, or let his rich dad pay the few bucks to buff it out?

[foshizzle]

I'd tell him, hoping his dad would pay for it anyway.

[Dr Strangelove]

I would drive away, primarily because he is rich.

[WHY?]

U cant just assume that hs dad is really rich. He could be trying to impress his gf. True, he has a sedan, but that could still be from trying to impress others. Ignoring his response(which still could be trying to impress his gf), you have to look at the facts. A car is dinged. YOU dinged it. No other facts are surely known. So are u gonna accept responsibilty?

Greed says no.

[McCulloch]

I would drive away, primarily because he is rich.

From a moral prospective it does not matter if he is rich. For a well ordered society, there has to be a recognition of ownership (some marxists disagree, but we could debate them elsewhere). Part of that recognition has to be that if I willfully or negligently damage someone else's property, I must face appropriate responsibility. Anything else and you are on the road to anarchy.

[WHY?]

For this "dilemma", morally there is only one right answer (tell him). However, I think the real question is the weighing of the moral side and the practical side.

[Joanie]

First of all door dings seem to be the hazard of parking in a parking lot and I have yet to have anyone leave me their name, etc when my vehicle has been dinged.

Now having said that, my conscience would make me tell the young fellow it was I who dinged the door and deal with it. What does the fact he has a bouncy girlfriend have to do with it?

If it was me who was on the recieving end of the ding I would thank the person for their honesty and say that is the hazards of parking in a parking lot. I am sure there is probably more than one ding on the door.


I would have to say tell him and go from there. If you figure it could be buffed out then the ding is not that bad and buffing is not an expensive service.

For me, this is how I would feel or think if the proverbial shoe was on the other foot.

Btw, I don't think my son would even remember to tell me about the incident if he had a "bouncy" girlfriend with him.

[hamilrob]

Great stuff Joanie!

[Student Nurse]

Ha! it's happened to me.

I was in Florida. I was parking it a tight space, minding my left and right sides so I didn't hit them. Forgot about the front end till I watched the car ahead of me slightly roll backwards. Oops. I reversed, my heart pounding. It was at a mall. It was a nice car and mine was not. I checked and WHEW! no damage to his/her car. I cracked the plastic plate to my front license plate holder, but that was all.

How am I to know how long this person is going to be in the mall? I wasn't going to wait all day.

I did what I needed to do and left. Figured since there was no marks on his/her car then it didn't matter. I also figured that this probably happens quite often.

[WafflesFTW]

Who cares? Just walk away. To your benefit.