One year in, would you look at my wife’s car’s … scratch

/ July 9, 2015

My dear wife Karen’s beautiful red Mazda just turned one.

It should be a time to celebrate. It’s fast. Dependable. Big enough. Oh, the way it ferried us back and forth from Cape Cod last month, loaded with a week’s worth of us and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle to fill the Happy Cottage with no problems.

Low mileage, too, what with most of her driving concentrated around the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood and her commute to the job 3.5 miles downtown at SMG.

Knock on wood to it all.

Parked in a lot.

Parked in a lot.

I took that shot with my iPhone 6 in a nearby lot after we’d had a discussion about the Mazda. Yes, my pretty wife is in the driver’s seat. You are correct if you note a hint of displeasure in her countenance.

Damn ding.

Damn ding.

One parking lot prior to this stop, loading in our packages from our cart, Karen had noticed a deep mark in the bottom left rear of her Mazda.

We've been gouged.

We’ve been gouged.

It must have happened when she was food shopping a few days ago in the supermarket lot, my dear wife figures. It looks like it was left there by an errant shopping cart to us both.

Doesn’t it figure?

I will be shopping the auto parts stores this week, asking the help there what might be best to purchase from them to self-address this issue. I’ll have these photos on my phone. The car insurance co-pay is mighty high, you know.

Have you had your car dinged in a parking lot, and if so, what were the circumstances? Were you able to work on a scratch like this yourself, and if so, what did you buy and how did it work? Would you like to scream along with us to let out some steam?

Related posts

68 thoughts on “One year in, would you look at my wife’s car’s … scratch”

  1. Oh, that stinks! I’m so sorry. I gave up worrying about dings when my son became old enough to drive and treated it like bumper cars. I feel your pain about the copay being too much. I bet YouTube has some good answers about how to treat it yourself. 🙂 Good luck! ❤

    Like

    Reply

  2. OH NO!!! NOT THE BELOVED MAZDA! Damn those shopping carts! Mrs. B must be bummed. 😦 It’s like a child, you leave it unattended for a bit and boom, something happens!!

    Coming out of hiding to finally catch up with my second Mr. B. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  3. I had a new Dodge Avenger in 2008. Man, was I mad when I got a lower side “ding” the first year. Then, I nearly got totaled in 2010 by a car driven by a teenager who entered out of a side street onto a bust Rte. 42. I saw him not look as I prepared to turn my car towards the rear side of his car I’d I had hit him broadside he would have been seriously injured. I was talking to my good guy friend about our trip to see Felicia who lived in Louisville in her first post grad job. We were going to leave that night. I calmly said, “Bill you know Freshwater Drive I am going to have to hit a car entering traffic. I left phone on speaker and he heard the huge crunch and even called 911 and his friend who is a tow truck driver. We rented a car and went to Kentucky. It was in shop for 6 weeks, all paid for by teen’s parent’s insurance. I still drive it and it is paid off and I now use cheaper white nail polish to cover dings and acratches. The first “nick” hurt but the crash just upset me a little.

    Like

    Reply

    • That crash sounds awful, Robin. It really is frightening when you see it coming and know it can’t be avoided. I’m glad nobody got hurt, and that you are still driving the car, my friend. ❤

      Like

      Reply

  4. I hate it when that happens! We had a car written off. It was parked and the first we knew was going to get in it to drive somewhere. No note. We asked a local builder – there was a big building project going on near where we used to live. We wondered if they had seen anything. Turns out they had done the damage. It took ages to sort out the Insurance claim. The day after the accident they put up a new sign ‘Considerate Construction’. Nowadays we have a driveway and I love it 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  6. Screaming!!!! And….done. Okay. We have a new car and I know it’s going to happen. So I’ll scream with you guys so when it happens to me it will already feel like it happened. And I won’t be stressed!!!!! 😉 I hope they can help you fix it. We had a scratch once and my neighbor came over and rubbed some stuff (on a different car) and the scratch disappeared. But it wasn’t as deep as DWK’s. 😦

    Like

    Reply

  9. How long have we had Bonnie Blue? Two, maybe three weeks? Uh, yeah. First day we visited my parents they had a hail storm! No damage. Then on the drive through Tallahassee we ran over debris several times (unavoidable!) No damage. We got home and had that crazy rain Sunday and Moo came in to announce, “A big branch fell on your car, but it’s okay, I looked.” No damage. It’s only a matter of time. Meanwhile, I won’t park it in the shade of our big maple anymore, lol!

    Like

    Reply

  11. That’s a great looking car Mark. Love the color. If you check with an auto body shop, I am sure they will be able to suggest a product that will make the ding disappear. All will be well. 😀

    Like

    Reply

  13. My car is obviously in a parking lot full of shopping carts (and rude and lazy shoppers) 5 nights a week, so it is no stranger to dents and scratches. Heck, the first weekend I had my beloved Neon, a cart blown around by a windstorm took out the front drivers side reflector. At least I got over caring about it’s appearance early thanks to that…

    I’m always adamant when I’m shopping with someone that the shopping carts get returned to the corral when we’re done. Everyone seems to think I’m just trying to make the job of one of my brethren easier, which just goes to show how people don’t realize the consequence of leaving their carts tucked between parking spaces is adding to the possibility someone is going to get dented or dinged by your unwillingness to walk a few extra feet and put the cart away….

    Like

    Reply

  14. So sorry to hear about the scratch. I know the feeling.

    It was my first new car, a Ford Fiesta bought to celebrate my first professional job. I parked it on the street outside my apartment in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. I’d had the car for all of one day and was just running upstairs to get one last package before heading to the post office to ship off a carfull of holiday presents. Not ten minutes later, I came down to find the side of the car bashed in, and every package gone. There was a note on the windshield: “I’m only writing this because someone is looking at me. Ho, ho.”

    My insurance fixed the car and paid for the presents, but I just never felt the same way about it after that.

    Like

    Reply

    • Now that is a f….in idiot, Barb. Sorry you had to share your neighborhood with that asshat. You managed to take my mind off the car and put it on the vandal. Grrrrrrrr. Yeah, that would ruin the Fiesta, for sure.

      Like

      Reply

  15. OMG! So if you remember, my Chevy Cruz brother, I just got my Cruz back in February and already got a some scratches that must have occurred while my car was parked in the lot at work. Not only that, but a couple of weeks ago, while I was getting off the freeway, some sort of debris his my car and left an unbelievably deep scratch. My husband doesn’t even believe that the debris did this kind of thing and is convinced I got into some kind of accident but no way because of where the scratch is positioned. Anyway, if your wife is feeling badly, just tell her my sob story!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. My back doors are dinged, mainly from years of M and his friends not looking before opening doors in parking garages and near other structures.

    Your wife’s car is pretty snazzy looking, I like!

    Like

    Reply

    • Yeah, the open-into is another car-beware, J, that I worry about every time I am a passenger in or drive this red beauty.

      Thanks for the compliment of Karen’s ride, my friend.

      Like

      Reply

  17. I remember when my brand new Mini Cooper was just a few months old- I came out of the supermarket to find a dent in the passenger side door from a cart on the loose. I was heartbroken. But then I put it in perspective and said there are worse things. The Mini is gone, my red scion (I love red too) fell victim to something that left 3 dents and scraped the paint off a door, a few years into my owning it. I bought some paint, covered it up, and try not to look at it!

    Like

    Reply

  18. Oh, no…Hate that. Love the red. It reaffirms why I park so far away from the crowd no matter where I go. That…plus, I’ll go out of my way to find shade, if there is one sad little tree to be found, and it is a few stores over, no matter…I’m walking here !! ☺

    Like

    Reply

  19. it is such a pretty car, that makes it all the worse. i guess it’s like getting your first scar in a way, a rite of passage, but not something that every makes you happy none the less –

    Like

    Reply

  21. Mark, this is a most calamitous event. Unfortunately, when you take such a beautiful shiny red car out into the world swarming with inconsiderate buttholes, these things occur. Do not despair. I am sure you will be able to fix it and everything will be right in the world once again. Please give your wife my condolences.

    Like

    Reply

  23. Luckily, they build cars strong enough to withstand such dings. Back in my day, cars would be totaled if a cat jumped up on the hood to take a nap… 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  24. That first ding on the car or on the piano – a heart breaking rite of passage. Just don’t get caught up in the depression that comes with once again being overwhelmed by realizing the impermanence of all things. Scratching and dings are most devastating things.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.