Had two Toyota's lined up to take for a drive. They were in Wgtn and I am not from there so already feeling a little stressed about the traffic as the dealer was right on a busy corner. The dealer was busy telling me about the perfect toyota and its in perfect mint condition. Well not quite now!. There was this terrible crunch as the car went down in the gutter. Imagine how I felt as he was standing there looking at me. The whole front of the car was scraped. I got out the gate but was feeling stressed and then had to negotiate the traffic, not knowing where I was going and driving a strange car. I had my daughter with me so we stopped up the road and got out and looked at the damage. Scraped! I didnt enjoy the test drive at all and just took it back. We didnt dare mention it but when we looked back he was out looking at the front of the car. Oh dear, I am put off test driving. I didnt take the second one out, just came home. I think I will just put off getting a new car for now.
seadubya,
Nov 26, 8:58am
You damaged someone else's car and didn't own up? I hope he took your license details before letting you off the lot.
grouch,
Nov 26, 8:59am
He saw me do it so knew.
seadubya,
Nov 26, 9:01am
How unfortunate.
lespat,
Nov 26, 9:04am
But driving off without discussing it with him. Surely you would feel obliged to pay for any damage. Oh no, someone else will fix it. Typical of a lot of Kiwi attitude these days.
snoopy221,
Nov 26, 9:14am
There was this terrible crunch as the car went down in the gutter. Imagine how I felt as he was standing there looking at me. The whole front of the car was scraped. I got out the gate
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Shoulda used the driveway huh?
kazbanz,
Nov 26, 6:47pm
grouch -YOU drove a car.Your actions damaged it and you just walked away without discussing the damage you did with the dealer? You felt no obligation to the dealer?
tamarillo,
Nov 26, 7:10pm
Grouch, did dealer tell you to drive off pavement in to gutter? Was that only option open. Sometimes cars are parked so that is only way out. Even then, not good that you didn't discuss it with them mate.
As a rule of thumb its best to get dealer to get car out of tight spot and into good position.
grouch,
Nov 26, 7:55pm
Yes it was the only option and felt he should have said how to get the car out or he should have offered to do it for me. We both said afterwards that I bet I wasnt the first or last to do that.
kazbanz,
Nov 26, 8:00pm
yet you walked away anyway after damaging someone elses car.
kazbanz,
Nov 26, 8:27pm
Im beyond gobsmacked that you would damage someone elses property then not at the very least let the owner know. apologise or even actually offer to pay for the damage that YOU did. Then to justify this by blaming someone else. REALLY?
seadubya,
Nov 26, 9:37pm
Not overly surprising. Over the last 2 years I have had 3 lots of damage done while parked. Two just drove off, the last one was outside a cafe with tables on the footpath, the offender (who put their towball through the front bumper and shattered all the mounting clips) left a note with a fake phone number and name. "I don't want to pay for my actions so I had better run away and blame everyone and everything else."
mals69,
Nov 26, 10:42pm
What is the point of this topic ? Is it a sad attempt to alleviate guilt ? Would your actions been the same with a private seller ? Makes no difference with this is how the dealer puts food on his table.
Miffed how someone with excellent feedback on here could do such a thing, suggest you contact him and say you are sorry and were stressed and take it from there .
trogedon,
Nov 26, 11:33pm
Agreed.
snoopy221,
Nov 26, 11:37pm
Dealer must be gutterred-she juss ain't the ole toyota hi lux in disguise.
tigertim20,
Nov 27, 12:15am
its not too late to do the right thing.
ring the dealer and apologize. perhaps offer to pay the excess on the insurance to it can be repaired.
I hope to hell you dont live in my town pal.
m16d,
Nov 27, 12:35am
You would have signed a declaration before the drive that if you were to damage the car,you would be responsible for the 1st grand or so. The dealer has all your contact details. you'll be getting a bill for the damage as soon as he's got a quote to fix it.
I've never driven into or out of their yard, but I have driven out of the KFC opposite plenty of times and IIRC the gutters are reasonably deep down that part of town.
Our 2015 Corolla gives an impressive sounding scrape noise if the underside of the front bumper strikes the pavement, which it does if you cross that kind of driveway crossing at anything faster than an absolute crawl. (I don't know why they felt the need to give the humble Corolla a long low-slung nose cone that looks a bit like the Lexus LF-A, our big heavy old LWB Ford Falcon clears almost any kerb or driveway no trouble at all!)
Fortunately our Corolla - like most modern cars - has a matte black plastic underside to the front bumper skirt, designed to forgive that sort of abuse.
Was the front of the car you drove actually visibly beaten up in any way at all, or was it just a loud noise? If the latter, stop beating yourself up, and don't let this grumpy lot tear a strip off you either!
kazbanz,
Nov 27, 12:52am
This has just utterly infuriated me. YOU hold a kiwi drivers licence. The car wasn't damaged before you drove it. NONE of the other cars in the lineup were damaged. CLEARLY showing that a person capable of driving properly does not damage the cars. IE all the other customers and the dealership staff. However if a person does damage someone elses property they at least OFFER to pay for the damage they did.
richardmayes,
Nov 27, 12:58am
kazbanz - I'm detecting a lot of "I don't know about cars I'm just a girl" in the wording of the original post.
I don't think it's clear from the wording of the OP, whether the car was actually damaged by OP off-roading it through the gutter, or maybe it just bottomed out a bit going down the driveway? One of those things is a lot more reprehensible than the other.
I'd feel pretty guilty if I incompetently drove someone's car down into a gutter and smashed up the sills or the bumper. But I'd feel pretty blameless if I slowly and carefully drove a new Toyota down the Toyota dealer's own driveway, and inspite of that the front end bottomed out slightly and harmlessly on the Toyota dealer's own driveway.
From the description that's been offered I really have little idea which of my scenarios is closer to the truth.
bwg11,
Nov 27, 1:18am
As Kaz says. own up and at least offer to pay for it. That said, I do feel some sympathy for you, as probably does the dealer. Until you "know" a car you have no idea what height or depth of gutter/raised curb you can negotiate without scraping the front spoiler.
My wife's Swift Sport has lots of battle scars on the bottom edge of the spoiler, it is very easy to scrape on driveways and business's entrances. Just a tip, approach suspect ones at an angle, so one wheel goes up first.
kazbanz,
Nov 27, 1:32am
Richard-think about it. As a minimum "several" cars for sale. ALL undamaged underneath. So staff and other customers clearly haven't had an issue. The dealer didn't say a word to OP again clearly indicating its not normally an issue. But all that said even if it was "normal" for that dealership. The OP didn't even say sorry.
monaro17,
Nov 27, 3:47am
Unbelievable. Like kaz I am blown away at your attitude to just walk away. I hope they make you pay for the damage. A terribly unlucky mistake it may have been but still.
tgray,
Nov 27, 3:59am
I always accompany test drivers for these very reasons.
loose.unit8,
Nov 27, 4:09am
They must have your details from the test drive documentation. Expecting a letter from the insurance company demanding payment of the full amount for the damage. Wonder if they will call the cops on you?
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