[sad] [angry]

anno it can't possibly be your fault that your Yaris has a few scrapes as mine has quite a lot as well. I think that they just go out to play now and again and it has nothing to do with the garage walls moving as I reverse in.

I don't have a garage tiggypro, but I do believe that Waitrose car park in Cheadle Hulme has a grudge against my car!

anno That's because you should be in the 'other' Waitrose!

Once drove a brand new car to a cash and carry car park, having just picked the car up from the garage. When we came out there was a heavy flatbed trolley at the driver's door, with a big dent in the door.
Surprisingly there was no CCTV on the car park.
Very annoyed.

Shopping in Berwick upon Tweed a few weeks ago I watched in horror as an elderly lady woman deliberately rammed her trolley into another car with so much force. I couldn't believe what I had witnessed and shouted over to make her aware that I had seen her. She got into her huge 4x4 muttered something under her breath and drove away. I was totally gobsmacked.

I can totally understand how you feel petallus I had my car badly scraped in an Asda car park a few years back and went to see security about it only to be informed they do not cover the car park with CCTV and that shoppers park at their own risk.

I was hit while parked in a Sainsbury's car park. Came back to find dents behind the petrol cap. A few days later I had a letter from Warwickshire Police accusing me of hitting another car in the car park and not reporting it.

Luckily the position of the dents at the back of my car proved I couldn't have hit him. He said I failed to stop and hit him in the rear! The insurance company pointed out I would have had dents in the front of my car if this was the case.

He had obviously backed into me while I was shopping. It turned out he was a disabled driver with one of those car grants and had already had another accident which was going to affect his insurance, so he thought he'd offload this one onto me.

Comments have been a great help and I'm getting over it now.

I've been on edge with the car in the few weeks since I bought it, examining it fearfully when I got back from leaving it parked and even going as far as cleaning it by hand on one or two occasions

This sort of thing is why I was loathe to give up my old battered Peugeot because if it got scraped I didn't care. I had put several bumps on it myself. But recently it needed a new clutch and it wasn't worth it so I replaced it with a newer model.

Ironically, the old car never did get scraped in the car park.

Incidentally, Waitrose have at last become aware that their car park where I live has become a nightmare for parking. Some people have even started shopping elsewhere because of it. From yesterday they have changed their 'regime' and now you have to spend £10 before getting free parking and after two hours you pay £25.

They may have been spurred on by the fact that a new M & S food is opening right next to them.

We stopped buying new cars years ago, it was just too stressful. I had my car keyed, and another had its hub caps stolen, another had the ariel bent before they started to make retractable ones. Some people do hate to see a new, nice car.

I think once you have had your first ding, you do start to relax a lot more, though. We never spend more than £3-4000 on a car now. We call them our Pay As You Go cars.

I only ever have old bangers. A) because they are all I can afford, and B)
Little scratches and bumps don't bother me too much, whereas if I had a newer, posher car I would be very distressed indeed.
This plan works for me.