Today I've had the weirdest "accident"/non-accident I've ever had with any vehicle, and I still can't piece together how it happened. Basically, I was driving down my mom's driveway (which is on a relatively steep incline) in my HS, turned right onto the main road, and seem to have clipped the very bottom of the passenger-side rear bumper -- the section right behind the wheel well -- on a stone retaining wall (!) Let me say in my defense: I consider myself an excellent driver, honestly, and definitely didn't hit ANY of the rest of the vehicle on this wall. I mean, um, it's a WALL. Not like I would have deliberately driven into a wall just to get out of the driveway.

The damage this has done is not just paint chipping... because of the angle of the driveway and the way the bumper was hit, the part of the bumper which keep it locked onto the body of the vehicle ("clips" which are part of the bumper itself) have broken off. It's Sunday, and the only Lexus dealer I could get to look at it said I'd need the ENTIRE BUMPER REPLACED.

First of all: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGH!

Second of all, how in Sam Hill does this happen?!? I feel like somehow the fact that the bumper is so low to the ground, in combination with an excellent turning radius, have combined to cause huge amounts of damage. I have noticed that the car scrapes on driveways with any significant "lip" around here... Is anybody else out there feeling like they have to drive this car differently because it's too low to the ground? I know some feel like the styling of the HS is lacking, and have suggested it ought to be lower to the ground, and perhaps stretched longer. Let me be the first to say: IT SHOULD NOT BE ANY LOWER TO THE GROUND!

Commiserations welcome. Please, no name-calling. I already feel like a total idiot.

 

Sorry. Don't beat yourself up about it though.

If you think the HS is low, stay away from a M3.

What you described is so common around here in the steep hills of Western PA. It's happened to me too, just not in the HS........... yet.

That low front end is so common on new cars.

 

Sorry to hear of your mishap. Yes, I occasionally scrape the front end when exiting not-so-steep driveways (just did it again yesterday) - it seems to have a really low front lip, likely to minimize underbelly airflow/drag. Haven't had the misfortune of the back end scraping yet...

 

It is kind of odd, I think. To me, the car visually looks like it sits too high - not too low. But I have also scraped the bottom of the front bumper when exiting a steep driveway... sounds like you hit the side, because you are emphasizing that you hit a wall??

As far as turning circle goes - my old Pontiac was 35 ft and the HS is 37 feet. I have had a tough time adjusting to the wider turning circle, as I am somewhat used to making U-turns on the street, and once in a while I forget that I cannot turn in as tight a turning circle as I am used to doing. The wider turning circle was one thing that was on the list of reasons not to buy the car - but the other list (reasons to buy it) far outweighed the reasons not to for me anyway.

(I own two of them - a 2010 and a 2011)...

 

I hit the side -- but only on the passenger side bumper. The car scraped on the portion right behind the wheel well. And the scrape was on the portion just above the very base of the bumper. Whether you feel the car "sits low" or not (and of course this is not a sports car), the bumpers are situated very close to the ground.

Had to get the bumper replaced, by the way. Just over $1,000. ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH.