......too harsh?

I would say..........not.

Looking at the pick I'm thinking air rifle. Bar steward!

That's what I though too. Might be worth asking Mr Plod to take a look, shooting an air rifle at a car isn't something they would ignore.

That's a **** especially given how much care you take with your car.

If it is an airgun pellet there should be some marks the size of the pellet head in the centre of the dink. If there are then if you can remember exactly where it was parked that would clearly demonstrate where the shot came from- at least give the line of fire.

Reading sad stuff like this makes me more paranoid every day

Just had a look at the photo by blowing it up- it's not an airgun pellet as there's jagged scratches at the centre- looks more like someones hit it with the point of a crosshead screwdriver or something similar

B*****ds

Keep ur chin up pal. Ive got a crackin bodywork guy ere but Leicester is prob gonna be a big trek for u tho.he has repaired loads of newish cars for me that have been pulverised and they look like new

Thanks for all the replies believe it or not it makes you feel a bit better when people are sympathetic to your plight even though it is at the end of the day just a car and not the end of the world. Anyway the Chesterfield one is pretty close so i will consider taking it there thanks for the suggestion. However one of my best firends who i trust completely has suggested taking it to his company they are primarily a coachworks i.e build / repair busses etc. but he said they would do my car no problem for £150 which sounds reasonable he said i wont be able to tell when its done they will spray the tailgate off the car so no overspray etc. Going to take it to see them today as they have only seen the photo so fingers crossed it will get sorted. Not sure ifi should lose the badges and smoth the lid though while im at it. I do like a smoothed lid from a washing / waxing perspective as there is no problem detailing round the octavia letters and round the circular centre badge which starts to go cloudy with age etc. However i wanted to keep this standard with it being a blackline and it might make the local chavs think i want to race them if its debadged. What are your thoughts guys and gals?

Do what you want to your car mate. If the local chavs think that you want a race because it is debadged then let them. You can just ignore them and know for a fact that your car could destroy their 1.2 corsas without even breaking a sweat.

Yes sir, turn it around in your favour, get it de-badged at the same time.

You deserve something good after the horror of finding that

I had a similar dent on the other side, it is surprisingly easy to dent here

but it hadn't broken the paint, got it removed by PDR (Paintless Dent Removal) guy cant be seen now