Door'd and ran [car damage]

Casual

Some guy parked pulled in to the space next to me at the same time and hit my car with his door when he was getting out. There's some cosmetic damage where the paint has been scraped off. As soon as he did it he said it isn't dented and walked off, I took a quick look at it and because it was very dark and I was very hungry and tired I thought the damage was just dirt on the door. He obviously knew it wasn't though because as soon as I went in the store I saw the guy looking around and walking out quickly, basically he'd gone right in the store to lose me and once he saw me go in and go down an aisle he ran out and made a getaway. Seeing this got me suspicious so I went back out to take a closer look and saw the scratches.

I'm really pissed off with myself for not noticing it at the time, is there anything I can do about this now? I don't really feel like giving my insurance company an excuse to raise my premiums over some paint scratches.

Kross

Depending on how serious it is you could try the small bottles of car paint that exist. I've used it to cover up rust problems on my car. If it's dented and the scratches are deep this obviously won't be good. There's also different layers to your paint so the deeper this is makes a difference.

edit: Have you tried cleaning it? Sometimes these things look worse than they are after you wipe the area a bit. Again, depends if you're talking about grooves or dents or just the surface.

Nylonathetep

Do you have his licence plate? You can at least report the incident to the cops... They won't care but at least there's a report. In Canada you have to report it within the first 72 hours. (I think.)

The major problem is not chipped paint, but rust damage over time.

If it's seriously bad and you don't want to get jibbed by local shops, you can try a little do-it-yourself: Sand the area around the scratch, paint it over, and then buff it with Wax. (It's not something I would recommend doing thou... you need to have a lot of "know-how" to do it properly... aka the grade of sandpaper to use, the correct paint... the buffing is actually the easy part)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv5gTgA3OpM&feature=related

Or you can just try to buff it without re-applying paint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hUdc1Mftjw

Djeet

This probably varies by locality, but here if you want to get him for leaving the scene of an accident then you need at least: license plate number, ability to positively ID him, and a written estimate of the damage. Otherwise you're going nowhere.

There's no reason to involve your insurer unless it exceeds your deductible. How bad's the damage? I feel like a chump repairing door dings, knowing I'm just going to get more anyways. I usually don't bother until I need to sell ... if then.

mts

personally i wouldn't consider this a hit and run. the guy accidentally opened his door into yours and you didn't do anything at the time. such is life. i can't count how many times my car has had scratches from some idiot in the parking lot. such is life.

L Ron Howard

Take pics with timestamps (if you can) of your door, the license plate, and general area of the place next time. I mean, if you can.
The cops would probably not come out for a fender bender or something minor like that (the cops near me won't), but if you get all that info you can submit a claim to your insurance, who will then go after him. I don't know what to say about them running away, but I'm sure your insurance (if they're decent) will go after him for at least the money it takes to get your car repaired.