Today i was driving around town and was stopped at a red light. The car behind me was stopped too. After maybe 20 seconds at the red light i get hit from behind. The guy in the car behind me wasn't paying attention and either took his foot off his brake or touched the gas cuz he bumped my car. I have a 2010 gt500 in what i call relatively mint condition with the exception of a few rock chips up front which i take a lot of time to touch up as best i can. The damage was minimal and no one was hurt. In the attached picture u can see the minor marks on the lower part of my rear bumper. If the car was dirty, u wouldn't be able to see the damage. However i did have a perfectly mint rear bumper before this.

The police officer we spoke with said we could go about this 2 ways.

1.) the guy gets a ticket and we file an accident report. Then i could file a claim with my insurance company and get the bumper fixed/replaced at no cost to me. However, i would technically have an accident on my car on carfax reports which could hurt my resale value. The guy gets a $150 ticket, plus would have his insurance go up for the ticket and my damage claim.

2.) i get some quotes from respectable repair shops and the guy pays the lowest quote out of his pocket. This saves my carfax and saves him a ticket and insurance hikes.

Needless to say we agreed on option 2. if he backs out or doesnt pay, the police have his info and we go to option 1.

My question to u is given the damage in the photo, am i being a major @$$ to this guy by making him pay possibly $300-$500 to repair minimal damage? I know the accident wasn't my fault, but if it were any other car i would have told the guy not to worry about it and we'd be on our way. i feel kinda bad cuz the damage is so minimal, but at the same time the rear of the car was in perfect condition before he bumped me.

Thanks for your input.

 

all could have been avoided if he PAID ATTENTION...this is a GT500...i would do the same as you.

 

You can buy it from stangmods for $239 use "stangmods" as a coupon code. for a discount...

http://www.stangmods.com/2010-GT500-...rt-p/01315.htm

I believe there's another site or 2 that has it? (google...) Install isn't too hard. If anything, I'd make the guy pay for the part? Or, is it even minimal enough you can just touch up the texture piece?

Maybe if you reasearched where you can buy it cheapest you'll feel best about cutting the guy a break on the honest mistake...

Edit: here for $150- http://www.americanmuscle.com/rear-d...edium=Shopping

 

No way u are letting him off easy for sure!! Just hope he is not a dead beat and pays up. His fault he needs to pay for his error.

 

Me: "You alright, man/miss?"

Them: "Yes, I'm so sorry!" or "Yes, I apologize!"

Me: "Glad to hear it, take care!"

A new bumper for a couple scratches? Nah. Getting bent out of shape over it? Even nah-er. If you offered to pay I wouldn't accept the money for it but that's just me.

If the person was a jerk? Then I'm more inclined to make them pay the tax.

 

Says the guy driving a..... ? ?

Who just joined 07/06 with 4 posts.

 

I'd go through the appropriate channels. Write his no paying attention rear end up! Sure I'm not telling you guys any secrets, the majority of people in real world suck!! Have no respect for anything. I'm all for going easy on him if he's a friend, what will you get out of it? A merit badge on your vest? People can say stuff to sound good. What if when time comes for him to pay he moves & just happens to move or change #?

He wasn't 'nice' when he wrecked your baby. Don't be an a$$, just don't be a nice guy.

Sorry if that's bad, I have a huge trust issue problem!!

 

The other driver needs to learn there are consequences for his actions. Maybe next time when he's behind a car full of kids or worse yet at a crosswalk he will remember to pay attention.


Accidents happen. If it were my fault I'd be thankful for the chance to make it right and move on without a ding on my record or insurance.

 

Very observant. Lurked for a while, signed up about a month after my order.

2012 Mustang and a 2005 Silverado since the dead deer and 4 wheeler carrying capacity of the Mustang isn't anywhere near what a full size pickup can handle.

Bumps and dings aren't anything new to automobiles. While I haven't made it a habit to bump into other vehicles I imagine the day might come where I might since I'm not perfect. Nobody else is either and if I'm lucky enough to catch a little unintentional bump from someone else who isn't perfect then I'll be a decent person about it.

If I happen across someone who is perfect and isn't shy to let me know it when I'm having a less than perfect day then mine would've just gotten that much longer.

 

What you need to make sure of is that there isn't any hidden damage behind the cover.

The cover is cheap, I've seen them for $120, but there are other parts that could have been damaged when it got pushed in even though it doesn't look like much on the outside.

 

They damaged your property, you offered them a great deal. Would the typical person have done the same for you? If you are on these forums it's probably because you are an enthusiast, and care for your car. I think you let them off easy, if they hit my $50k car the police would have been arresting me!

 

If I'm going to be nice enough TO let him off, than he should be nice enough to NOT let me.

 

I think we're in agreement. If it's no big deal (and it isn't) and he/she offers to fix it then by all means have a nice day.

I bet you could make a Seinfeld episode over politeness protocol if there isn't already one. I can imagine George ranting about the idea that his door got away from him in a lot on a windy day, apologized and offered to fix it and is told not to worry about it by the neighborly motorist. A little while later the same happens to the person next to him and it's his car that's dinged, the person says "tough luck" or some such comment and goes on about their day without so much as offering to fix it.

The first is right, the second isn't. Something like that anyway.

 

Well there's the parking spot episode. George is driving Jerrys car and Elaine moves the rear view mirror to check her hair. George hits something and the car rattles the rest of the way home. George and Elaine decide to not tell Jerry the truth and when Elaine sees him she tells him a long story about how some kids were chasing them and they barely escaped with their lives and oh by the way the car has a rattle now.

I cant think of any others. Other than it was the premises of the butler episode. In Jerry and George's pilot for NBC they wrote a script where a man gets into an auto accident and doesn't have insurance. In order to pay for his damage he is forced to serve as Jerrys butler. Ironically later on George served as his fathers Butler after leaving his fathers parked car in a handicap space and it was destroyed by rioters.

 

Arresting you for what?

 

Option 2 would've been my route too. If it truly was an honest mistake, no sense in putting him through the ringer. If he doesn't pay for the repairs then pursue option 1 for sure. Having your insurance pay, even though not your fault, may end up hurting you in the long run. I work for a major insurance company and see people getting rates raised or dropped for "1" too many claims all the time. It can also hurt future rates while shopping for insurance over the next 3 years. Non at fault accidents or claims will not surcharge your rate, but they will however disqualify you from certain discounts.

 

So if someone where to rear end u and scratch up your brand new car you would just say oh no big deal, take care? Really.. I find that extremely hard to believe.

 

Good Samaritan

Jerry witnesses a hit and run (car/car) and follows the driver to confront him/her. He catches up to the driver and discovers she is actually a hot woman. He fails to confront her and actually ends updating her. Long story short he attempts to date her victim while concealing the others identity. In the end the driver turns out to be a bad person and the nice pretty victim doesn't believe Jerry is so innocent.


That's so Jerry.

 

Limiting the scope of my comment to the extent of the "damage" shown in the OPs photo, yes.

Having been in a real honest to goodness high speed crash I consider myself fortunate to have gotten out of with a small puncture wound on my leg, black eye from a GPS hitting me in the face and a tweaked back make it so. It's a hunk of metal that I care for but it's only an instant away from being a chunk of insured metal that's designed to keep me safe when someone else makes a mistake.

Even before then I watched someone back into my car in a somewhat tight parallel parking space from about 6 feet away while eating at a restaurant. I didn't say anything but the girl when she did it looked surprised and it was pretty clear she didn't intend to do it. She moved forward, got out of her car and took a look at the damage as I ate with my girl just watching. She wrote a note on her business card, put it under the wiper and eventually was seated a couple tables over with her friend. All that happened was her painted rear bumper got a scratch from my chrome front bumper. As we got up I told her that I'm glad she was okay and not to worry about it as I wouldn't be calling. I was made a liar later on when it turns out the girl sold Mary Kay products. Then she turned out to live in the same apartment complex. Her bump ended up costing me money but it was buying Mary Kay stuff for Christmas and a Birthday.

 

Thanks for the comments. with the exception of one, it sounds like most others are thinking the same why i am about this.

To the guy that doesn't care when people hit his car, once u said u lived in the same apartment complex as the mary kay girl, i started to discount your remarks. I dont know if u still live there there and it doesnt matter either way, but i'm not sure if i've ever seen an apartment complex with garages. Therefore, i too would not care about some bumper scratches on a car i parked outdoors at an apartment complex. I'm the type of person with my car that won't even drive to apartment complexes. I'll take a different vehicle or won't go. During college, my car (a '95 cavalier) got dinged, scratched, dented, etc. in apartment complexes. Those dings and dents still ticked me off but i didn't do anything about them since it was a '95 cavalier.

My GT500 is a cruise around car or a drive to work car (on nice days). at work it is parked in a covered and secure parking garage in a corner spot where i can park 10ft away from the guy next to me. At home i park it in my garage which its garage slot has an array of old mattresses/blankets/pads that surround it in the front and sides where a door could potentially hit the wall if opened too far. Everytime i get out of the car after parking it, i walk around the thing and inspect it.

My wife said it best this morning, "the guy bumped the wrong car."

Honest mistake???.......yes, i believe so. That's why im not going to push for him to get ticketed and see his insurance rates hike as a result of the ticket and accident. Another person on here showed me a site where i can get the bumper for a lot less than say through ford. So at the end of the day the bumper and install may be a lot less $$$. But to someone elses point, i definitely will get the area behind the bumper checked for further damage.

Thanks for ur opinions. I'll update the thread as things update with the car.