Did Your Car Get Damaged In A Parking Lot? Things That Happen And How To Fix Them
Posted on: 30 March 2017
Cars and retail or grocery parking lots; at some point this is everyone's headache. Why? Because parking lots are all designed to slope down to avoid collecting water, which contributes to shopping carts heading the same direction. The only thing that stops a rolling shopping cart is another solid object, which is usually a car or another cart. If your car was recently damaged in a parking lot, more than one object could be the cause. Here are the many things that could happen, and how to fix each of them in an auto body repair shop like Coachman Auto Body.
Shopping Carts
Shopping carts are the number one cause of scratches and dents in your vehicle when you park in a public parking lot. Shopping carts roll, and they can easily get away from people or begin rolling through a parking lot with a good strong wind. Some carts have even been known to roll away from the shopping cart corrals and right into parked cars behind or to the sides of the corrals. Thankfully, the damage a shopping cart does is easily buffed out, and a little vacuum suction can pop a dent left by a shopping cart.
Shopping Cart Corrals
It might surprise you to learn this, but shopping cart corrals also damage a number of vehicles every year. Why? Because of their design. Some stores use abbreviated corrals that cause drivers to think that there is an available parking spot when there is not. They turn quickly into the corral space and smash the fenders. Then there are the double-wide corrals that leave very little room for passengers to exit, causing bad scrapes to car doors and panels. Sometimes, drivers even cut it a little too close to the cart corrals and scrape up entire sides of the vehicles. Again, a little buffing work, a little paint a fender replacement, and a little polish in the auto body shop and your car looks new again.
Other Vehicles
Finally, people in a hurry or people who drive straight up the middle of a parking lot aisle cause damage to vehicles too. In these instances, you at least have the recourse of car accident insurance to assist you with the repairs. If your car was damaged by another vehicle while you were inside the store, and the other driver did not leave a note, you can file a police report right there. Doing so will allow the officers on scene to review parking lot footage of what happened, and possibly give them a license plate number to track down the other driver.
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