Bumped into another car recently - need advice

[MrZ]

The other night I was tired and was going head first into a gap between two cars (never do this - always reverse in!), and accidentally bumped into another car as I was doing so. The left rear side of my car hit the front bumper (right side) of theirs. I got out to have a look, and noticed not a huge amount of damage to my own car (almost all of it buffed out), but an unusually large amount of damage to the other car. The entire corner of the bumper looked like it had lots of existing damage from parking scrapes/scratches over the years. It was very hard to tell what was pre-existing damage and what was new. It was a fairly old car (20-year-old E46 BMW) and the other side of the bumper had no damage that I could see. Now I did the right thing and left a note on their window. They've since contacted me and are basically ignoring the fact that they very likely had existing damage on their bumper (I asked them this). I think they're just trying to get it fixed like new. Any advice on what to do here? Do I make them an offer of say, half of the quote they end up getting, or do I basically have to pay the full amount?

[1970XW351]

Did you take photos of both the damage to your vehicle and theirs?

If you are adamant that you could not have done all of the damage, these could be useful to your cause.

Maybe contact a repairer and show them the photos to get an independent opinion?

Cheers, Tony

[MrZ]

Originally Posted by 1970XW351

Did you take photos of both the damage to your vehicle and theirs?

If you are adamant that you could not have done all of the damage, these could be useful to your cause.

Maybe contact a repairer and show them the photos to get an independent opinion?

Cheers, Tony

I think I tried this once with a panel beater and they refused based on the fact that they didn't want to give any advice that could be used in court. Which is fair enough...

Didn't get any photos I'm afraid, although the other party has sent me a photo since.

[fordomatic]

If it's just the bumper, $500 to respray, cut your losses and put it down to a life experience.

Next time get lots of photos when it happens. First thing I do when an incident happens, take a crap load of photos.

[Franco Cozzo]

Put it into reverse and drive away

Jokes - just wear it I reckon, just a bumper

[prktkljokr]

I ran into the back of a guys car a few years back, lucky I had my dash cam, so when inspected the footage I could clearly see I was not the first to hit it, so I just said its my fault, my excess is $250, you can have it or I will just pay the insurer, he just took the cash.

I think my excess was about $500 at the time, but he didn't know

[MrEL]

You hit the car. Suck it up and wear it

[Work Horse]

I clipped the bumper of a 20 year old Range Rover Disco with my trailer while pulling into a parking spot. The impact pulled the bumper forward. New mounts would have fixed the situation but I was prepared to spring for a replacement bumper from the wreckers being fitted.

I spent 10 minutes going into shops looking for the owner. Found him, swapped details and told him to get a quote and I will get it fixed ASAP. He had no insurance. Obviously my fault, like you MrZ I hit a parked car.

Long story short;
>he dropped a quote for $4700 in my letter box, I said no
>his panel beater called me threatening legal action unless I supplied a claim number
>he came to my house when I was not home and yelled aggressively at my wife, "I want my money"
>I chose not to escalate the situation at my wife’s insistence and called the police
>police suggested I let insurance handle it
>I made a claim and let my insurance company know other driver was committing fraud.
>insurance company gave up after about a year of his bickering and paid him out.

I'm unsure what the moral to all this is but I'm still not over it and it was over ten years ago!

Maybe Karma caught up with the other driver?

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Surprised the most obvious question hasn't been asked: are you insured?

If so, what's your excess? If it's less than the expected repair bill, claim against insurance and let them sort it out. If not, ask yourself how much you're prepared to pay and how much pain and angst you want in dealing with this yourself. If the cost (total cost, not just $, but future impacts on your insurance rate after having made a claim, etc) of claiming it against your insurance is less than the cost to you to handle it yourself, then still claim it against your insurance and let them deal with it.

If you're not insured, or you don't think it's worth the cost of claiming against your insurance, then you're pretty much left to negotiate this out with the other party or just pay up.

At the end of the day, you need to pick whatever is going to be the best avenue for you to resolve it.

[arm79]

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

Surprised the most obvious question hasn't been asked: are you insured?

No one's asked because there is no need to.

We all know the answer... Which is why he's asking advice here to wiggle out of it.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by arm79

No one's asked because there is no need to.

We all know the answer... Which is why he's asking advice here to wiggle out of it.

I would NEVER drive a car without insurance.

[Citroënbender]

Where’s the panel shop who will remove, repair a bumper, possibly replace brackets and reo, paint and blend then refit and adjust for $500?

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by arm79

No one's asked because there is no need to.

We all know the answer... Which is why he's asking advice here to wiggle out of it.

Maybe. But still presumptuous. Certainly doesn't hurt to clarify

Originally Posted by Fordman1

I would NEVER drive a car without insurance.

At least third party. Even if you're not worried about your chariot, you never know who's chariot you may come into contact with.

[prktkljokr]

I can tell you Its $1000 to repair a scratch in a panel these days, you can work it out from that.

[arm79]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

I would NEVER drive a car without insurance.

Nor would I. But it seems to getting more and more commonplace these days. To the extent I think states need to legislate the requirement for basic property insurance on all road registered vehicles.

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

Maybe. But still presumptuous. Certainly doesn't hurt to clarify

I see the same post on FB every second day in the community pages. There is a common running theme to the content. But in the cases around here, they have been busted trying to make a getaway or have been followed up by the victims insurance company. As opposed to being decent and honest as the OP was.

But the OP should treat it how an insurance company would. They would never pay to repair pre-existing damage. So a small cash payout commensurate to what the actual damage would be is all that's required. A smash repairer should easily be able to differentiate between what was there and what was new.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by arm79

But the OP should treat it how an insurance company would. They would never pay to repair pre-existing damage. So a small cash payout commensurate to what the actual damage would be is all that's required. A smash repairer should easily be able to differentiate between what was there and what was new.

Unfortunately the insurance company would just cough up the repair even if there was pre existing damage, they wont pay for any other damage that is not in the affected area, so if the fender had damage and it was not from the accident and you can see that the bumper was previously damaged when the fender was, they will still pay for the bumper repair but not the fender.

In this case they would just pay for the bumper repair in that spot and blend it into the rest of the bumper, what they will pay for is the R&R of the bumper and disassemble for repair, the repair of the damage and a spot up on the affected area.

We see it every day and the customers always complain that the whole bumper was not repainted, then we have to explain that the rest of the bumper was not damaged in the incident therefore its not covered, most times when the quote is done this is explained and they are asked if they would like to pay the extra to do the whole bumper, most people decline as its usually another $500.

[fordomatic]

Deleted

[MrZ]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Where’s the panel shop who will remove, repair a bumper, possibly replace brackets and reo, paint and blend then refit and adjust for $500?

I had my entire front bumper resprayed at a panel beater for $450 cash a few years back (around 2015-ish). I realise prices have gone up since then, though.

[MrZ]

An update - I haven't heard anything from the other party since November 9th. I guess they aren't too concerned about getting their (existing) damage fixed. Do I just leave it?

[Citroënbender]

Provided you’re not avoiding communication, yes, don’t initiate anything.

[arm79]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Provided you’re not avoiding communication, yes, don’t initiate anything.

+1. Was going to say the same thing.

It could be they are finding it hard to find someone to quote. Wouldn't surprise me if no one wants the job as most places only have time or inclination for insurance jobs these days. Plus many will probably only see a potential hassle for a private third party cash job, so they avoid them.

When some clown reversed into Dad last year it was nearly a month before we managed to get back to them with an easy cash resolution, which they ultimately refused. Morons. But that is another story.

If you don't hear from them in a reasonable time frame, maybe 3 to 6 months, then just write it off as done and over. If they come back after that time just politely tell them they had an opportunity, but after all this time they can't have felt it a serious enough issue to get it dealt with ASAP and its unfair to be assessing damage so far down the track considering the possibility its gotten worse by outside forces. They can take you to small claims if they want at that stage.