In my experience, bumpers are made to shatter in a strong wind, then cost $2000 to replace. Thank God for insurance.
About 10 years ago a friend of mine bought a brand new Chevy Astro van. He was extremely pround of it. A few weeks later I left a note on the van telling him I was sorry about backing into the van along with a phony phone number. He found the note later and spent over an hour inspecting his van for it’s nonexistant damage. It wasn’t till he called the number that he realized the note was a joke.
racer, that’s mean! 
A few years ago, on a burrito run, I managed to sideswipe a BMW while trying to parallel park A freakin Beamer. Somehow my rear wheel well managed to gouge a quarter-sized hole into the side of the car.
I left my note and moped over my burrito, sure that the Beamer guy was going to be furious. But finally he called, and while he did refer it to insurance (it was about $1200 worth of damage), he fell all over himself thanking me for leaving a note. And because it was my first claim on insurance, it didn’t even raise my rates.
Daniel
The Dodge Omni that I bought new in 1985 and drove until 2003 had massive, railroad-tie-like bumpers. And over the years, those bumpers saved me from serious bodywork five times, from the kid who got too enthusiastic behind me at a light that had just turned green, to the pickup who cut the corner a bit while parking next to me, to the time I bumped into a post in the parking garage at work.
Great car. Great bumpers. 
Yeah, I remember the bumpers on my dad’s Chevy, like a steel girder laid sideways.
I did this at a stop sign where I pulled out and then couldn’t go. I backed up without checking if anyone had pulled up behind me. :smack: I looked sheepishly into my rear view and the woman just kind of rolled her eyes.
My bumper did get scraped pretty bad by a co-worker who backed out next to it in the parking lot. He left a note and since it was just the plastic bumper I just said forget it. Like The Shroud, I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with the conversations and everything else involved in making something of it.
I hit a parked car when I wasn’t even in my vehicle. How the hell did I manage that? Well, I was looking for a house number in a new subdivision in order to do my part of finishing the new construction. Many of the houses didn’t have numbers and the few that did seemed to be poorly displayed to the street.
I thought I was pretty close to the house I was looking for based on the numbers I was able to see so I pulled over. It was about 20 below Celsius and I wanted to just leave the truck running in case the house wasn’t quite ready for me to complete my job. Often the flooring wasn’t done or the painting wasn’t done and I’d have to reschedule. So, I stop the truck and go running toward the house hoping to find a number stuck to the siding or at least posted on the door with cardboard.
I jogged slowly over the house for a closer look and confirm it’s the house I’m looking for. I then look back at my truck and notice it moving very slowly toward the parked vehicle in front of it. “Noooooooooooooo!” I yell as I start sprinting on the hard packed snow. CLUNK! Truck hits the little Blazer and I’m instantly mortified. I didn’t even put the damn thing in park I was so focused on finding the damn house!
I rang the doorbell of the house and there was no answer. Called the cops because I didn’t know what to do. The cop, between chuckles, tells me to leave a note and that’s all I can do. I run up and down the street looking for a site supervisor, someone who might know the owner of the vehicle, and find a guy who knows the new owners of the house that the Blazer is parked in front of. I get the phone number and leave a very apologetic message. “Hi, I’m the idiot that hit your car that was parked on the street. Please check it for damage. I’m pretty sure I broke off some trimming but please have the bumper checked for hidden damage. My number is 555-DUMB. I’m an idiot but at least I’m an honest idiot.”
It ended up costing me $250 for the plastic trim and labour. I never met the guy, just handled it all over the phone and paid the bill at the dealership that did the repair. Of course the house I was supposed to trim out wasn’t even ready and I went home feeling like a dumbass.
I R SMRT.
That is the cutest car EVAR!!!
I wants one!
A friend at work left his car running while he ran inside; I’m not sure what gear he chose. Anyhoo, it rolled down the hill and hit four other cars in the journey. Cars of people he worked with. Hard to live that one down.
When I first started driving, my parents let me use their Chevy Astro van, and eventually gave it to me when I moved out. Anyway, it had a trailer hitch on the back, and people were always running into me in drive thrus. I probably got hit five or six times in the drive thru at the local Hardee’s. I always felt bad for the people who hit me – they obviously didn’t see the trailer hitch sticking eight inches or so out from behind my bumper. On the other hand, why were they getting so close anyway?! But I never bothered about swapping insurance information or anything; there was never any damage to my car (that I could tell, anyway) and never more than a dented license plate for them.
Then one day I was driving down a hill eating some Fritos when I came to a halt at a red light. Suddenly WHAM! a Jeep with a big metal plate acting as some kind of shield for the grill and bumper slammed into my trailer hitch, so hard that I was pushed out into the intersection a foot and the bag of Fritos in my lap went all over the dashboard.
We pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot and got out and inspected things … no damage to my van, but I wasn’t sure I could ever trust that trailer hitch again. Meanwhile, the guy’s inch-thick metal plate had been folded like a sandwich. The middle of the plate was pushed back almost all the way to the grill. The jackass driving just kept saying “Oh, you’re fine, no damage, bro!” Like Arnold Winkelried, I was this close to demanding his insurance information just because of his attitude. But I figured he was just relieved that he hadn’t creamed my bumper or something, so I let it go. Irritatingly, I never could get that trailer hitch out after that…
Anyway, fast forward to last year, when I was driving to school in the rain behind a big van with a spare tire mounted on the back. Suddenly everybody in front of me stopped, and although I thought I had left enough room between me and the van to stop, it turned out I was wrong. I skidded into the back of the van still doing a couple miles an hour. My hood slid into the spare tire and left a big black mark on the white paint, and the van and my car both shuddered quite noticeably. Of course, the usual visions of horrible bumper damage and skyrocketing insurance rates went through my head. We were in the right lane, so I put on my right turn signal to indicate that we should pull into the Circuit City parking lot near us.
Instead, the other driver hit the gas, tires skidding on the wet pavement, roared up to the intersection ahead, turned right so fast his back tires slid into the next lane, and roared down the street at a hugely unsafe speed, swerving in and out of traffic until he disappeared from my view.
I always wonder what that was all about. Was it some teenager driving without a license? Was it a stolen car? Was it a drug dealer transporting a bunch of heroin to a new location? Was it a vanload of organized crime enforcers taking the fresh corpse of a stoolie to a secret disposal site? All I know is, that driver did NOT want to stop and check for damage… but maybe it was just karma paying me back for years of getting hit by other drivers and not being mean to them.
to leave such a note. by admitting guilt, you are waiving your defense rights at trial. Suppose the guy whose truck you hit, claims personal injury? and wants to sue you for $2,000,00?
Don’ t laugh-I knew of such a case…my FIL was driving, and tapped the bumper of a guy who was wearing an arm cast. They exhanged license numbers-two weeks later, a legal notice came-accusing my FIL of causing a major accident, resulting in injury to this crook’s arm!
If you don’t leave a note, aren’t you guilty of hit and run, which is an actual crime?
In my case, I was moving, so I had 5 eyewitnesses to the damage that occurred. I also took a photograph of the truck, and the place where I hit it.
And I’m not sure I understand how anyone could possibly claim personal injury in such a case. There was no one in the car. That’s why I had to leave a note!
I don’t know if leaving a note makes you more or less liable, but legally, I imagine it would be OK to just leave a note saying something like “Hey good-looking! Please call me @ 555-6969 in re your car. XOXOXO”. Then you’re covered and you’ve also pretty much guaranteed that the person will not call you back.