Aron9000

Just curious about this, as I was rear ended on Saturday in my Tacoma. Just a minor fender bender, I was stuck at a red light, idiot behind me was looking down, it was raining HARD, he slammed on the brakes in his big Chevy Avalanche, just tapped into me at maybe 5mph, skidded to a stop. Put two nice dents in my rear bumper, didn't push it in at all or anything, no damage to the tailgate or the bed. Dude was at least pretty damn cool about the thing, told me he was sorry, gave me his insurance info, told me he'd much rather me pay me cash than have this go against his insurance. Told me don't file an insurance claim, I said that was cool, let me get a quote from a body shop and I will get back to you.

Now my dad owned this truck before me, and this is literally the 3rd or 4th time its been hit in the rear, but it always clobbered the bumper, never the tailgate or bed. I remember the bumper being totally bent down one time, then being fixed. When I got it it the bumper had a big dent in it from somebody else hitting it, but I swear that was like the 3rd time somebody hit that truck in the rear before I owned it. Dad told me about a couple of the people who rear-ended him, one was some dumb novice 17 year old chick in an old Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix, busted the radiator out of that car. The other person was in a late model BMW 7 series, knocked out the hood, headlights, and grill on that car. I'm sure his insurance company loved that $5000+ at fault claim.

The reason I say its cursed, I just put on a new chrome bumper about 3 months ago, just to have it smashed YET again. Crazy thing was I put on some Tiawanese aftermarket chrome bumper, it was like $150. Went to Beaman Toyota's body shop(biggest Toyota dealer in Nashville) to get a quote, $652 for a new OEM Toyota chrome bumper, $57.20 in labor(it has 4 bolts, took like 20 minutes for two untrained idiots to replace it last time). I understand the labor thing, as usually most shops will charge you like an hour minimum, but HOLY CRAP $657 for a part I bought for $150 off Amazon.

Anyways, I will update this thread once I meet with the guy who hit me again. I'm thinking of telling him pay me $300, $150 for my time and $150 for the part, just because he's been cool about the whole thing. I know if I put a $657 bumper on the truck its going to get hit within a week lol.

Also props to Toyota engineers who designed the rear bumper on the 1995-2004 Tacoma. Its done its job and then some, still all original paint on the whole truck despite being hit 3 or 4 times in the back over 13 years.

geko29

I don't think any particular vehicle I've had has been cursed, but I am at times.

In my Dodge Dakota, I got rear-ended at a red-light. I had been stopped for a good 20 seconds, other driver didn't even attempt to. bumper was folded under the tailgate, but no other damage. Like you found, the factory bumper was super expensive. I wound up replacing it with a roll pan, because I liked the look better and it was WAY cheaper. The following week, I went to Ace Hardware to grab some stuff, and upon coming out, found the roll pan scuffed and bent back under the bed. No note, nothing.

A few years later, I got rear-ended in my 3-series by a Suburban whose driver likewise didn't try to stop. After several weeks of repair, I picked it up from the body shop and the very next day the new bumper got swiped by someone in the parking lot at work (they were nice enough to leave a note). So back to the body shop it went. Poor estimator thought there'd been a problem with the work. "Nope, just need you to do it all over again".

Johnhav430

I'm just curious about the don't file an insurance claim thing. Some states require it. The other thing is long ago when I was 19, and bicyclist literally rode right into the right 1/4 of the vehicle, and long story, this was a 2 y.o. Porsche. We were all about to drink (I know listen I was no saint) and my buddies already opened up their beers. I said guys, let's pour those out. They were like why? I said cops are on their way, please! The bicyclist gave the PD false information and I was out of luck as far as pursing that person. So I am just thinking that happened with a police report, how much worse could it be without? What happens if I'm the one who rear-ended and I gave false info and a google voice tel#? Maybe I'm just too cynical, dunno....

anyway hope you get all fixed up, this things are very irritating, knock on wood I had an accident in 2010, and that was basically the only one since college....

mmarshall

On minor fender-benders, though, a claim probably makes little sense on policies that either have no Collision coverage at all (just Liability or Comprehensive) or with a high Collision deductible that may exceed the damage amount.

Unfortunately, because so many drivers today refuse to play by the rules and put down the cell phones and other distractions while driving, we're seeing more and more of this kind of stuff caused by carelessness.