Had a bump...

Blinkz

Blinkz

Blinkz

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,184
Location
Frimley, Surrey or 38,000ft
Sadly had a bump a couple of days ago, in a fairly complex situation. Basically a forklift was unloading a lorry and the traffic on the road was going around it, just past the lorry was a small junction, as we were going around the forklift/lorry another van turned into the road and basically blocked everything solid. I was at the wrong angle to be able to get past the van so had to reverse a little, what I didn't know was that the car behind me was basically sitting on my bumper so we touched. It was an old Mx5 and I did look behind me briefly but couldn't see anything. I assume I am mainly at fault here which is the most frustrating thing.

We both pulled over and inspected the damage. My bumper has just a small amount of scuffing on, his has a little scuff and has slightly 'popped' off at one end. We swapped contact details, I took pictures of the cars and scene and left. We've exchanged emails, he has stated it is his gf car and they have had a garage look at it and they quoted £350 to repair, which seems very high from what I have seen! What would be a reasonable cost to repair something so minor?

I don't want to get the insurance companies involved since it will just mean higher premiums next year!

Advice/suggestions etc!
 
paradigm said:
I'd give him the £350 to be honest.

Seems a cheaper way out than your excess and increased premium.
Click to expand...

Well for a start he's already agreed that £350 is totally over priced and is getting another quote, and that is before I even mentioned that I thought that was too much...
 
Doesn't sound "too much" to me. For it to have "popped off" at one end there will likely be physical damage to the bumper, beyond that of the paintwork required to remove the scuffing.

I paid more than that to have a bit of scuffing removed from a rear bumper, and that have no damage beyond paintwork.
 
Sounds like so far he has been very reasonable about it. I would personally just give him 300 and be happy hes not a Ahole
 
The damage is hard to explain, the bumper has moved barely 1cm, with a small scuff on one corner.

As as been said, I'm not complaining about the guy. He has been very reasonable so far and I hope we can get it sorted so everyone is happy. I'm more curious about the cost of fixing it. I'll try and get a picture uploaded.
 
Sounds reasonable.
Someone hit my passenger door and creased it barely any damage really.

3 Bodyshops quoted the damage at over £1000 so for £350 I would pay.
 
Lets not forget his taking his time and fannying around for you getting multiple quotes.

If it was me I would drive straight to BMW get a quote, if they won't pay then straight to insurance.
 
£350 sounds reasonable for a respray and replacement bumper. The front bumper on the MX-5 is a flexible plastic and only has a crash pad behind it. It's secured to chassis using a long metal bracket which you can see when you lift the bonnet. It's secured to the wings with two bolts each side which go through a bracket attached to the chassis and then holes in the wings. A front end impact could cause the main bracket to rip away from the bumper and damage the brackets on each side, which could explain how ones 'popped' out.
 
Last edited:
Blinkz said:
I assume I am mainly at fault here
Click to expand...

Not 'mainly' at fault... unfortunately you are fully at fault as you reversed into someone. The price sounds reasonable to me too. I'd say just pay up and thank the other driver for being prepared to go outside of insurance, thus saving you a lot of money over the next few years.
 
Might be an idea to get something signed to the effect that you've both agreed on the settlement, so you don't have a letter land on your doormat in 6 months demanding £50000 for whippy compo.

Though i've no idea what legal standing that would actually have, it's got to be better than having no evidence at all of settling anything.
 
I'm with everyone else on this one, just give him the £350 and be done with it, you and the other driver might think thats a bit much but you don't know the full extent of the damage, if a rubbery plastic bumper is staying in a position it shouldn't be in then something is holding it there which usually means damaged bumper bracket. You don't have to be travelling fast at all to do that sort of damage, you have the whole weight of your car pushing on their bumper and the bracket behind it.

I had some old guy reverse into the back of my car, not very fast at all and did the following:

P1010762.jpg


Now it looks like it's just a case of a new light, bumper respray and the centre bumper section popping back out at the corner but it ended up costing about £800 as theres an aluminium bumper bracket running the width of the car right behind the centre bumper section and it had completely bent it back. Then when the bumper was back in it's proper place it showed that the small section of rear quarter panel below the light was bent in as well so that had to be fixed and then the rear quarter resprayed as well.

Basically what I'm trying to get at is there is nearly always more damage than can initially be seen by a quick look around.
 
[TW]Fox;20109813 said:
Why? Even if his car is uninsured, untaxed and an MOT failure the OP is still liable for the damage to his car.

£300ish sounds fine -I had something similar happen to my car and the cost was £350 to repair and respray the existing bumper.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't give an uninsured driver a penny; I'd just tell him to do one. But that's just me...
 
Disco Boy said:
I wouldn't give an uninsured driver a penny; I'd just tell him to do one. But that's just me...
Click to expand...

You would be legally wrong to do that plus you can't prove he isn't insured either. My car was not on askmid for a week and it was very much insured.

The insured status of a car is irrelevant to you as a negligent party. It has no bearing on either your liability or you funding repairs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom