Reply With QuoteCheck out the Toyota Prius.
I woke up this morning to find someone has smashed up my car - wing, doors, mirror, alloy wheel, all smashed up. Of course they've left no note. I have one piece of evidence, their wing mirror cover. Just on the off chance, does anyone recognise a make or model from this? I know I stand little or no chance but my neighbour has good cctv and you never know. Thanks
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Check out the Toyota Prius.
Yep, Prius. Bloody tree huggers!
Toyota IQ i reckon
Wow - looking at eBay that's definitely looks like it could be it! Good one!Originally Posted by unclealec
I will have a drive round the town and see what I can see.
Yeah, I'm a genius.
I googled the ref no.s on the plastic moulding.
Those who know me know that I barely know what a car is, never mind a Prius. Not a modern one anyway.
Good luck with the search.
So annoying when feckless idiots do this. Happened to me – front bumper, wing, headlight, and took out the power steering fluid bottle for good measure so I couldn't actually drive it to a garage. I suspected the culprit but no proof. Most expensive Christmas I ever had.
Hope you catch them
Make sure you tell plod for what it's worth. Failing to stop minimum - quite possibly because the driver was drunk if it happened overnight. No idea how easy it was to avoid your car where it was parked.
Found the suspect car!!! Do I call police or knock on their door?
My car isn't worth a lot so could do without insurance hassle as will affect other cars and bike I run. Would you get in to cash settlement?
I would call the police on the basis of it being leaving the scene, lets hope you get someone helpful and doesn't say "did you actually see the car hit yours" its either that or go there with some large friends.
I'm hoping one of the neighbours saw you find the wing mirror, it might be that its the smoking gun.
If it fits the damaged car in some obvious way, like a jigsaw piece. it would be heard to argue it didn't come from it.
Try to find out if the guy works or lives where the car is parked. (Pref work). Leave a note under his wiper saying that you're the guy who's car got smashed and that you've evidence that he's the culprit. Leave a phone number and wait for it. Two days. Then go over to his work and ask for '... the owner of the Prius who smashed my car and drove on...' If it's house, leave a note in the letterbox saying you want him to contact you.
Reason for this: most Prius owners/drivers are not the scum of the earth and most are not used to handle this sort of pressure. For sure he doesn't know who you are and what you're capable of... You have an advantage now.
Menno
Some years ago leaving a shared house in the morning and going to get in the car I found that windscreen bore the hallmarks of having a human being go through it. On closer inspection there was also light marking to the bumper and scramble marks in the dirt and dew on the bonnet. After my initial confusion as to why joy-riders would nick the car, have a crash and then park it back where it was I spotted the big clue to what had happened; the bicycle pannier in the of the road beside the car.
My suspicions were confirmed by the girl who had the bedroom overlooking the road, she was woken by a thump outside at about 02:00 and when she looked out the window she saw a staggering figure climbing onto a bicycle and wobbling off. Not being able to see the front of the car from her position she didn't see the damage and just went back to sleep. The late hour, staggering and wobbling all pointed to a drunk cyclist, but given the damage to the windscreen they must have been travelling at some speed when they hit the car so it possible that they were unsteady because they had injured themselves and like a wounded animal were crawling home to quietly cark it under the duvet!
I went and reported it at the nearest manned police station, and handed the pannier (complete with very heavy duty chain and lock) to the less than inspiring police staff worker as evidence of the collision which the perpetrator had not reported. Having already given the impression that she didn't have a firm grasp on what had been said she blurted 'Oh, do you want us to return this to the owner?'. It's the closest I've come to swearing while at the front desk of a police station, but I limited myself to explaining that I didn't give a toss what they did with it but if someone did try to claim it they might want to discuss the collision with them.
Thanks for the advice guys. Their car was a few roads away from mine and parked long way up a drive. I couldn't inspect it without going right up the drive, which is what I've just done. Clearly it was the car that hit mine so I knocked on the door. Got a full confession. I recorded this and told them I was. They said they thought it was just a mirror - no chance! Given they are elderly and my near enough neighbours, i have given a choice how they want to deal with it. I'm furious, but the car is only worth £800.... if it was my other car it'd be a differnt story. We all make mistakes and whilst a call to the police is deserved, I don't know what purpose it would serve other than punishment. If I genuinely felt it would change their behaviour next time I'd report it but if you're the kind of person to do a runner you'll always do a runner. Anyway, long story short I have £700 off them to fix it or whatever... thanks for help and advice, Pretty certain I wouldn't have got there without the Prius link and some good luck. Still got to sort the car but at least I can buy from eBay now and not be out of pocket.
Where do I send my invoice?
Ha! You get my love and thanks and some good Karma, and of course some beers next time I'm in Manchester. I think the fundraiser is owed some thank-you pounds!!
If they are unsafe to be on the road, you might save someone from being run over and killed.
That was my dilemma as i do like to do the right thing. I have reported people before where I felt there was a genuine risk to others but in this circumstance it was dark, a fast stretch of road on a corner and ill judged lane positioning. I'm not happy at all she tried to get away with it, that's not tennis.
Worrying to think that they've done so much damage to you car but they only believed it to be just a door mirror. In saying that what a old bugger not to say antpything......and we thought the older generation were the honest ones,
Yeah, there was no way she thought it was just a door mirror. I've got a 4 inch square chunk missing from my alloy wheel, that wouldn't feel like mirrors hitting. She was just freaking out about failure to report so stuck to the story of "I thought i just clipped your mirror"
Their car must have been badly damaged too?
Good job it wasn’t central London you would have had 4.5 million Prius to check!
RIAC
Yep, but they claimed they hadn't noticed it and thought it was just their mirror. Their Wing mirror was destroyed, scraped their paint about 12 inches high from bumper to door, their alloy was badly scuffed and dented and side wall ripped open. Funny how they hadn't noticed that.
I had an elderly person drive into the corner of my car once and he drove on without stopping. I followed him home (about 2 miles) and he managed to mount the footpath 3 times and parked his car half in the garden and half on the drive when he got there. I had no option but to believe him when he said he didn’t realise he did it after witnessing his driving!
Congratulations on finding out who it was and getting a result. My partner had her new car all of two days when somebody gouged a two inch wide dent across the front nearside wing, front wheel and passenger door whilst it was parked in the local towns central car park. Needless to say no note was left and despite the car park having CCT cameras nothing was seen. All we could deduce was that it was a white car that did the damage!
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