How do I ask an elderly driver to not hit my car again?

NailbunnyPD

I live in a not so condensed city. We park on the street, and I frequently park on a one-way, single lane road that allows parking on both sides of the street. People scrape bumpers all the time, and its frustrating to no end when you are the victim of this, but such is city life.

Yesterday I discovered a significant scrape across the side of my front bumper, and after evaluating the details, I'm certain the person who swiped me was an elderly woman who drives a large old Buick. The scrape consists of a lot of rubber. Her old Buick has rubber going around the entire perimeter of the car and it's height lines up perfectly with the scrape. The rubber is part of the car, not those add-ons to prevent damage in tight city parking. No other cars in the vicinity have this rubber strip. We were parked on opposite sides of the street, but adjacent to each other, and it appears she clipped my bumper making a wide turn to pull out of her spot.

I want to politely mention something to the woman. I don't want her to pay for any damages or cleaning, but I would like her to take caution in the future when she is pulling out of her spot so she doesn't swipe anyone else. How can I do this without coming off as an asshole?

Esh

In a nice tone of voice you explain what happened, that you don't want any money, and could she please be careful.

Tada. :P

bwanie

why would you be an asshole when you're not even trying to get her to pay damages?

be polite, (try to verifiy if it was indeed her car) and it shouldn't be a problem.

if she gets offended it's because she's an asshole.

NailbunnyPD

Thanks for the responses. I guess I also needed confirmation that I wouldn't be a dick for mentioning it at all. I am usually not this reserved, but she is a nice elderly lady and I don't care to offend her.

Chanus

Do you think it will actually do any good to mention it to her?

If you don't want to offend her, I mean. Do you think she needs to be told to be more careful, or do you think that would come off as patronizing and condescending?

What do you hope to gain by asking her to be a more careful driver?

MichaelLC

Well, it's possible she didn't even realize her barge hit anything, so letting her know it did might make her take an hour instead of 40mins to get out her spot, :P.