ss2k

Hey how's it going. Recently I hit a 69 camaro in the rear. Here's the situation.

The camaro was in front of me and I was behind. We both were about to take a right. His car edged out of my view and I thought he drove off. I pulled foward at a max of about 12 mph and hit him in the back. I did no hit him full on in the back. But at an angle since he was taken a right and I was pulling straight ahead. Here's the damage I did to his car. The red circle is where I hit. The brownish circle is where he says more damage is.




The format is in .txt so it's clickable in Internet Explorer. If you're running Mozilla, save to the disk and renamge the file to .jpg.

I was driving a Honda Accord 1997 EX. The damage to my plastic bumper is not even 250-350 to repair.



The thing is this. I know I'm at fault and should pay the other driver everything he's entitled to. But after discussing my situation with mechanics and bodyshop owners, they told me I was getting taken advantage of to get his car fully restored. I recently found out many interesting things about his car.

1. Even though I hit the bumper guard and put a small dent on his bumper, he pointed out damage on the very left corner of the camaro. His reason is that at 10 mph, I pushed his bumper in and scrapped paint off his rear side fender. It's plausible but the suspicious thing is that where the paint is scrapped off, there's rust. From the time I hit his car to when he got it estimated was no more than a month. Rust does not build that quickly.
2. He got into previous fender benders and he told me he had them fixed.
3. His camaro was not fully restored.

I was wondering if you can give me some advice on the situation. Is this really a $1500 damage? How can I cause the side damage when I hit his bumper guard and put a small dent in his bumper? What should I tell the person?

There is no police report and I don't want to go through insurance because of the rates already being high. So it's my word against his. And I want to pay him for the damage I've done, instead of finding a way out of this.

FLIPPINZ28

technically, you could pay him for what you think you did no police report no eveidence. the judges really dont like when people dont get police reports. the body shop here that i go to had one like that in there they charged him $800 to repair damages was like this guys damages. telll him to get another estimate from another place. good luck

pu12en12g

Rust can build up that quickly.

94BlackBowtie

That is to your advantage. I have a (now) fully restored 1971 GMC show truck - that got hit in the same manner several years ago.

I was sitting in line to get out of a parking lot and a buddy of mine hit me at about 10mph. I had just put on my bumper the evening before and was going to get exhaust work done the next afternoon. My tips were sticking out past my bumper about 4-5 inches.

Well my bumper was a flat bumper with no bars or anything. He dented my bumper and broke all my exhaust hangers and my donut gaskets at the manifolds when it pushed the exhaust forward like it did.

We didn't get a police rebort since he was a buddy, and I just told him - the bumper just costed me $250 last week and since I am getting exhaust work done anyhow - don't worry about it (I was putting headers on, etc...hole new exhaust anyways).

Well - that was 6 or so years ago - and I recieved $50 from him total. Guess what - my bumper was my bullet to bite.

If I were you - since I am an honest person - I would price the parts myself that I knew/thought I damaged - explain your end of the story to the other guy, and give him the money that you feel you owe him.

I couldn't live with a guilty conscience, and I wouldn't feel right not doing right by him - but I also wouldn't let him take advantage of me.

It looks like about...$250 worth of damage to me, tops.

And BTW - the supports for that bumper are thick steel - and are designed in a Y shape - there is no way that it would have rubbed the rear fender like that unless it was still rubbing it - it would have bent it into it - which isn't really possible if you hit him the way I am seeing it. That's an all steel car - not very "springy". It is very possible that that damage could come from being hit in the rear - but not in this case I don't think. And like I said - it should still be bent - at least bent some - or very close to the fender - on that end of the bumper.

Chrisbequick

When I was 16 I was driving my dad's '64 Mustang to a friend's house when I got nailed at ~15-20mph from behind by a lady in an Accord. The front end of her car was destroyed, the hood was pushed into the radiator, and the car was completely undriveable. The only damage on the Mustang was to the bumper. My 2 cents.

-Chris

6Speed

He should have gotten a police report. I had a guy bump into me a few months ago and I thought it was only going to cost roughly 500 to fix. He had a winch on the front of his truck which scraped the bumper pretty good, and chipped the letters where it says Camaro. The adjuster looked at it and said it would cost 800 to fix. I took it to the body shop and they said there was no way they could fix it for that little. They said I would need a new bumper and a new tail panel + they found some scratched and cracks in the paint on the hatch that the adjuster missed. The adjuster dude came back out and readusted it for a new total of 1400 bucks.

W/O a police report, that guy is kinda in a bind. I would think you could just pay him what you think is fair.

Black_Z28

Rust can build up very quickly. Take a look at your rotors next time you wash your car by hand. At least in my case they have a little surface rust by the end of the wash.

DWray

Almost exact same thing happened to me. Are you still friends with that guy?

My best friend backed into me in a parking lot. Trailer hitch hit my rear bumper cover. Cracked it and put a "hole" in the paint.

Estimate was $464. I told him.

When it was time for him to pay me, he gave me a check from his dad for $100 (the kid worked for his parents, so had no money of his own). His dad said that is all he thought the damage would cost.

I explained to him that I didn't make up the $464 number, that a reputable, impartial third-party (the bodyshop) decided that much to repair the bumper cover and repaint it, etc.

Very unfortunately, we had to take them to small claims court. We won. It's pretty damn hard to get the money from someone even though you win, though. Part of me doesn't care about the money - I'm just happy that I was "right", or at least the judge agreed with me.

We're no longer friends.

94BlackBowtie

ss2k

No, I was never friends with this guy.
Here's the situation now. He told me that the impact from the crash traveled through and cracked his Chevy emblem. And somehow damaged his side fender. He told me it was fine before.

I told him to get a 3rd estimate and point out only the damage that he can prove I did. He was pretty fustrated and told me he'll talk with my insurance company. Bad news is that he won't get far because of no police report.

A 10mph hit cracked his emblem and push in his left side fender?

firebirdjosh

Maybe if he drove a Hyundai Accent! That camaro is solid steel through and through. People that take advantage like that really anger me.

anasazi

i'd tell your insurance company you don't know who this guy is

should have gotten a police report if there was that much damage ...

does he have your address? i'd just stop communicating with the guy if he's trying to take you for a ride

ss2k

Here's more to the story.

We agree to get an estimate done together at a body shop near here. My uncle and I go to meet him there. The person giving the estimate comes out and looks at the damage. The guy I hit points out damage to his car on the left. The estimate guys says that it came from a differant accident (thank you rust!). Then the guy I hit pointed out the infamous cracked emblem. He says that at 10mph, the shock traveled through the metal and cracked his plastic emblem. I could tell that the estimate guy was about to laugh. He said, no that's not possible at that speed.

So we get an estimate of $1087. Still pretty high.My uncle and I go to a place where they gave an estimate before. They know my uncle. We tell them of the real damage and they took off about 600 from 1400. Making it around 987

I call the guy up, tell him the deal. Now he says that he won't be able to get it repaired because he's leaving for coloroado by 12 days. Then I tell him to go to the shop when you have the time. He asks for me to write him a check towards him. He'll get an estimate done down in colorado and use the check towards the repair. I said no, it's not gonna happen
I told him that when he has the time, take it down to the shop and get it repaired. If he wants I'll offer him a ride back to his house if he doesn't have a ride. He said that I'm responsible for getting a rent-a-car for him. (I'm not sure about that ) and I just brushed that off. He said that he can't wait until he's back from colorado because he doesn't want to drive the car around. It's for asthetic (sp?) purposes. If I spelled it horribly wrong, he can't drive the car because it looks bad. I was about to throw my phone at this point
I said you've got to be kidding me. You know how much you'll get laughed at for that?

Long story short, this guy is just trying to screw me over for money to repair other damage to his car. He then said that he'll call my insuracne company and they'll send him a check. I just said " Alright man, goodluck. Tell them I said hi." And we hung up


Oh man...haha. He has my address but what do I care? Harass me and we'll go to court. It's not that I'm a pansy, I'd rather get money and put it towards a muffler or something than try to settle it 'like a man'. At this point, I was willing to pay for his damage. But now it's like....get off my back. Thanks for your support guys.

I just have a question. He can't file a police report almost 2 months after it happened, right? Any advice for me to deal with this guy in the future?

firebirdjosh

You should follow him to a mall, wait until he goes inside, then call the cops and say he backed into you in the parking lot!!! That would really **** him off and he'd know how it feels to get screwed.

Jilly

You're definitely not responsible for a rental car. WTF? That's just silly.