Things that make you want to believe in karma and divine retribution...

[///M-Spec]

Now I know why New Jersey has some of the highest insurance premiums in the country.

On the way home tonight, I slow for some traffic ahead, and some idiot behind me apparantly forgot how his brakes work. I get shunted. A pretty good hit, but none of the airbags go off and the car continues to run fine.

I spot the genius behind me in a Civic hatch the same color as the bottom of an old swimming pool. I hit the hazard lights and begin pulling over.

Adding insult to injury, I pull into a parking lot and watch this assclown take off down a side street; driving like a bomb was going to fall out of the sky.

I follow him down the road and watch as he blows through a busy intersection without stopping. No way in hell I'm going through there like that. So I had to let him go. I never get close enough to see the plates.

The cop who wrote up the report tells me the chances of find this steaming pile of human excrement is slim to none. He figures the guy didn't have any insurance and/or had a suspended license anway and is going to make himself and his car scarce for a little while.

So at this point, I'm left making a claim and tearing up five Ben Franklins worth of out of pocket deductable. Not to mention that I will be without my car for a few weeks while a body shop installs and paints a new bumper.

My cars seem to be idiot magnets. Of my last 4 vehicles, 3 now have been hit from behind, each incident worse than the previous.


M

 

[TS]

Some people like to do that, don't know why but it's jut thier nature I guess. Luckily your car didn't get damaged too badly.

 

[Ghost C]

That person should be hunted down and executed. No trial, just a bullet through their right eyeball.

 

[skip0110]

Sad, I know how it feels.

Your car looks much better than mine did this past summer after a young lady failed to notice that I was stopping at a stop sign to wait to pull out onto a busy street. A rear 1/4, rear light, bumper, and some underbody damage. She hit me going 30+mph, and I was stopped. But at least she pulled over.

 

[JCE]

I got a story for you.

Dec. 10th 1998 I get robbed at gun point at about 2am. The next morning around 10am I was driving on SH121 going the speed limit (60mph) in my first car...which was this:

The this type of truck going approx. 55mph came into my lane and hit me head on:

Causing my car to look like this afterwards:

Notice how the distance from the windscreen to the front of the car was cut in half. Thanks to a seatbelt and an airbag I wouldn't be here right now. BUT here is the kicker of this little story, there were 4 illegal immigrants with no ID, no license, no insurance, and the truck was a work truck...NOTHING HAPPEND TO THEM. NO JAIL. NO DEPORTATION. NOT EVEN A TICKET FOR THE DRIVER!

I hope this karma thing is real because I hope that driver of that truck and the kid that robbed me are both not among the living.

 

[1X83Z]

I'm curious, M: what's the total cost of the new bumper?

 

[neanderthal]

always always always get out the car, take a picture of the perp and thier license plate, then move the accident over. dont do anything until you have something you can nail them with.. once theres an accident people usually stop anyway, and slow down and look, so if you are careful you can take that pic. then if they do run, you can also press charges against them for hit and run and sue punitive damages

you keep a disposable camera in your glove box in addition to your cellphone. change the disposable twice a year in case the film/ batteries/ whatever goes bad.

too many people have been duped by people who pretend to be pulling over then they just fark off.
sorry to hear about that.

 

[Pupik]

I'm curious, M: what's the total cost of the new bumper?

Once paint, supplies, labor, and parts are figured in, bumpers always go above the magical $500 number.

The trouble is, there's probably dozens of mid-90s "bottom-of-the-pool-colored" Civics out there in the Pensacola area. Maybe one of them is stupidly posting about how he did a hit-and-run on a 3-series; worse yet, maybe he's clamoring for attention with a post like this: Some Bimmer backed into me in a parking lot and ran! Pics inside!

Drivers always get caught with a suspended license; they think nobody's going to spot them, but their driving habits are usually what gets their license suspended in the first place, thus, they usually get caught if they don't fix their situation immediately. In this case, he's probably in big trouble (bench warrant for example) if he blew an intersection.

 

[Kent]

Man that sucks!
Atleast you've kept your cool though. 👍

And be glad you don't live down here in Louisiana.
If you're an idiot magnent in Jersey... Well We've got some real idiots down here too.

Actually, down here there is one thing to get the police upset and suprisingly, it has to do with cars- insurance.
Driving without insurance in Louisiana seems to be just as bad or worse than driving a stolen car.
It's odd, in VA that didn't seem like a huge problem but down here it's incredibly important to the authorities.

I suppose that's because of all the accidents and idiots.

In any case, I hope you and your baby get well soon.
You should probably take a little time to blow off some steam and the car, well BMWs are expensive I suppose so good luck with that.

At any rate, atleast you are still driving a sweet car.

 

[1X83Z]

Once paint, supplies, labor, and parts are figured in, bumpers always go above the magical $500 number.

I'm just wondering how much above it'll be.

 

[///M-Spec]

JCE3000GT: Sorry to hear about your misfortune. That's a miscarriage of justice if I've ever heard of one.


M5Power: The car will go to the shop on Monday morning. My adjuster has not (to my knowledge) seen the car yet, so he has no estimate.

I'm estimating a new M-Technic rear bumper, trim, lower valence + 2 shock absorbers and mounting hardware to total ~$1500. ~4.5-5 gallons of Glasurit paint and clear coat. Installation should be ~2 hours. Paint labor should be ~3-4 hours.

My very rough guess is about $2,400 before all is said and done. This does not include my rental car, which will be $200 a week (a Dodge Magnum or Nissan Maxima).

Of that $500 will be out of my pocket, the rest is up to the fine folks at Progressive Insurance --who, btw, has done a fine job of getting the body shop appt. and rental details sorted out.


neanderthal: The incident occured on US Highway 22 in North Plainsfield, New Jersey. I don't know if you're familiar with the area or the road, but stopping on 22 and getting out of your car in the middle of evening rush hour is invitation to be road kill.

An important detail I may have left out was this: the Civic never stopped. In fact, *I* never stopped. The impact occured while we were both doing ~35 mph.

If I had stopped to get out of the car, the Civic would have rounded the corner as I was stepping out of my vehicle and the best picture I could have snapped on my crappy 640x 480 4x zoom cell phone camera would have been a blur.

Perhaps if I had anticipated what he would do and practiced the manuver of a panic stop on a busy highway, whipping my cell phone out of it's holder on the dash, flipping it open and hitting the 3 buttons required to activate the camera and go to max zoom mode with military speed and precision, I may have gotten the plate.

But I didn't wake up this morning expecting to be hit, much less hit and run.

My best bet to nail this guy was simply to have followed him through the intersection, hope he had to slow down for something and get his plate. Unfortunately, there was no way of continuing the pursuit without making my self and the Civic a menace to other drivers.

Believe me, I went over the incident in my head about 150 times last night. 500 bucks certainly wasn't worth endangering the general public over. Even the deep sense of personal satisfaction I would get knowing this sub-human ballast will spend the rest of his life checking the YES box on every job app where it asks if you've ever been convicted of a felony, was not worth that.

Today, I'm just glad that this evolutionary dead-end was driving a clapped out 2400 lb. subcompact instead of a 5000 lb SUV. The 330 will be fine. The bumper did exactly what it was supposed to do and protect me and the rest of the car. It could have been a lot worse.


Pupik: I've moved to central New Jersey now; been here about 8 weeks. The number of boy racers in old Civics here in Jersey is quite a bit higher. I used to live in Tallahassee, which is probably where you may have thought "Pensecola".

----

Anyways, in other car news.. we found and bought a nice Lexus SC430 for my mother this week. It's a 2002 with only--get this-- 5200 miles on it. 👍 She brought it by the office today, so here's some pictures. If anyone is interested in a '01 Mercedes E320 4Matic, PM me.

I didn't have an apple or a banana, so here's some calamari instead.


M

 

[Swift]

Wow bud. Sorry to hear that. It's bad enough you got hit. Then the guy ran away and risked his own life doing it.

I'm glad your insurance isn't giving you a hard time though

 

[Poverty]

Bad luck I guess. Why does it take the so long for your vehivle to get repaired. With all my cars that have been in accidents, I usually take it in once the parts are available and get my car back in 2/3 days.

 

[///M-Spec]

I'm just wondering how much above it'll be.

The estimate came back and was much lower than my own. $1438.83 is the total bill. They will replace the bumper, trim peices, one shock absorber and take a ding out of the spare tire well. Their price on the parts must be much better than retail, which I didn't think about but makes perfect sense.

Bad luck I guess. Why does it take the so long for your vehivle to get repaired. With all my cars that have been in accidents, I usually take it in once the parts are available and get my car back in 2/3 days.

The car will be ready Friday afternoon. I used to live in a small town in Florida. The best body shop there usually had a 2 week wait and was always busy. I once waited 17 days to get a dent taken out of my E36 M3 (girlfriend caused). I guess I just got used to estimating repair time that way.




On a side note, I was looking forward to my rental being a Dodge Charger. But instead I got a Volvo S40... which is a nice ride anyways. It must have some sport suspension option on it or something, because it's a much sharper car than I had expected.

That oh so cool looking designer center stack is rubbish, though. Every button looks the same and are the size of Chicklets.


M

 

[Danoff]

///M, that sucks a ton man.

That's the kind of thing that will stick with you for a long time. $500 isn't much money, though, so the actual damage done to you isn't that great.

About 4 years ago a guy came up to my front door. I didn't know who he was, but I opened it. He said he was sorry to bother me but was wondering if I had a guitar cable he could borrow. He told me he lived just across the street and gave me the address. He said he'd return it the next day. I went upstairs and grabbed a cable (probably worth $3). I handed it to him and it was the last I ever saw of my guitar cable. I went to the address he told me but nobody lived there.

It wasn't much actual damage to me. Who cares about $3 bucks?! But it bugged the hell out of me for weeks that someone would just walk up and steal something. It was the principle of the matter, not the damage done.

I still think about it occasionally (especially when I've had strangers want to borrow something). So I know that you're feeling totally screwed and that justice is lacking in the universe. All I can say is to focus on the fact that very little real damage was done.

Next time you get in your Bimmer just say to yourself "Wow, I own a fricken 330i!!! How cool am I??"

I'd gladly give you my car for your 330, broken bumper and all.

Good luck,
- Dan

 

[opendriver]

That really sucks. Do you know any friends that have a bodyshop? To replace the bumper is around 200ish and maybe 75 for the paint. Thats 125 for labor. Too much IMO...


Well, I have a little suggestion the next time you get hit, assuming that its a hit and run:

STAY IN YOUR CAR

Follow that dumb-a** as far as you can and try to send him off the road.

Now I know that revenge is not "morally correct" to some people, but im a California driver and could care less what happens to my car. I don't speak for all of the California drives though, so don't T_T about it

 

[Danoff]

Follow that dumb-a** as far as you can and try to send him off the road.

Yea, way better to risk further damage to your car and possible damage to others' cars that YOU'RE AT FAULT FOR, while breaking driving laws and putting your health at risk than simply accept the $500 loss.

 

[opendriver]

Yea, way better to risk further damage to your car and possible damage to others' cars that YOU'RE AT FAULT FOR, while breaking driving laws and putting your health at risk than simply accept the $500 loss.

If I drove a piece of junk beater, yeah

As for my health, I would be somewhat "cautious" when it came to driving. If he outran me (more than 3 blocks), id give up