Front bumper damage - joining the club
 

I'm joining the group of people whose BRZs have been affected by the curse that seems to be going around. I was minding my own business driving down the highway when the idiot in the neighboring lane decided it was better to drive over a piece of wood in the road than to drive around it, even though he had more than enough room to do so. The wood then flew up in the air and hit my bumper. The bumper is now scratched and creased and I'm going through the motions of trying to have my insurance company handle it. I got the guy's plate but I doubt there's much that can be done about it.

with the plate you can do a lot.

hit n run is a misdemeanor

same thing happened to me last week, except with a stray traffic cone. (+2 seconds!)

http://i.imgur.com/igmBw.jpg

I just called the state highway patrol and gave them a description of the other vehicle including the plate. Hopefully something comes of this.


My damage isn't nearly as bad as yours, but the bumper is still creased. My detailer, @michakaveli, pointed that out to me. I was originally hoping it would simply buff out.

MURDER HIM.

Wow!

I hate it when cars randomly drop shit from their car. About a year ago this truck's undercarriage decided to fly straight into my windshield. Had a final destination moment. -_-

You might try moderate heat gun, cool, repeat - works often enough - not high heat!

yeah, i was hoping this would be a good opportunity to swap the bumper skin out for something else, but nothing really catches my eye so far.

I want to see what the body shops come back with. I'm not willing to experiment on my own, but it's possible that the body shop may be able to get the crease out instead of replacing the bumper. Luckily this is a comprehensive claim since the piece of wood was in motion when it hit the car; there was literally no time for me to react at all since the closing speed was probably well over 100 MPH. I should only be out the $250 deductible at most, plus the cost of having Opti-Guard reapplied to the front bumper.

So I went to pick up my car this morning from the body shop and saw that the job they did was even worse than this one. Not only did the masking look terrible, but there was an area on the bumper that had received too much metallic flake and thus looked darker than the rest, an area near the edge of the bumper where the paint had collected and thus was higher than the surrounding paint, and another area where it looked like the base-coat wasn't properly mixed when applied, and thus looked similar to how an ice cube looks since it had then been clear-coated over. There was also overspray on the "mustache" part of the bumper.

I told them I wasn't paying for it and the shop owner offered to paint it again, agreeing that the work was not their best. He offered to buy a new bumper if he had to so we'll see what happens. I'm just glad I went through my insurance company so the shop has two people to answer to.

Damn! When it rains, it pours huh? Hope everything gets all work out

I doubt you could hold another driver liable for road debris that did not originate from his/her vehicle. It's likely they didn't even know what happened.

When I had AAA they covered me getting hit by a retread from a semi being kicked up by another car into me under "falling object insurance" under my comprehensive or something like that and I don't even think I had to pay the deductible. (I took the check and ran but I think it was for the total amount of the repair, it's been a couple years though.)

Nathan

I just don't understand how any shop, let alone an authorized repair provider as listed by my insurance company, could do such shoddy work. Even a less-discerning customer would not be pleased with the way the car looked, but when a 2013-MY car comes in with < 4000 miles on it, the repair better damn well be perfect. I wish I'd taken pictures to show you guys just how bad it really looked.

I can say with a high probability the driver of the other car knew he had caused some kind of damage. You can't hit a piece of debris like that and not notice it, and if my hypothesis is correct about him looking in his rear-view mirror instead of in front of him, he would have seen the wood go flying, either when it flew into my car, or when it hit the bumper and flew off towards the left. I absolutely hold him personally responsible for the damage he caused, even if the state disagrees. It's carelessness that causes this sort of mishap in the first place; the debris was stationary before he hit it, and he could have and should have avoided it since it was only occupying a small portion of his lane, and the shoulder offered plenty of room for him to drive around it.

This is why I went to my body shop and got the insurance to just cut me a check. My body guy cuts me breaks so I got three times the level of work I would have gotten from their shop for the same price. He even touched up some other areas I didn't even notice had issues until he pointed them out. PLUS he offered to fix the horrible job FiveAxis did on their spoiler matching. (There are smudges and just plain sloppy areas on the spoiler on top of it not being perfectly matched)

I wish you were in Norcal. I'd send you his way. He'd take good care of your baby.

My insurance company cut me a check for the repair cost less the deductible, but I can't say I would have gone anywhere else for the repair. Outwardly these guys looked good; they have several good user reviews, they're I-CAR certified, have a nice, modern facility, and as I stated, they're an authorized repair provider. I won't say anything else about them to protect their identity while they work to resolve this situation, but as I said, all indications were that they would be one of the better shops in my area. Worst-case scenario I may have to drive to Charlotte to go to one of the higher-end body shops, but I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Here is my before/after. The lighting is different so it looks like two different silvers, but you can't even tell the dent was there:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8308/7...c8886787_c.jpg

That looks like good work.

My dad was an insurance adjuster for years so I have a bit of an idea of how the system works. The other driver could easily claim that swerving to miss the debris could have endangered his passengers or caused a 'real' accident. Since the wood didn't fall off of his truck, getting him or his insurance to pay for it would be extremely difficult.

Insurance companies will [occasionally] bend over backwards to keep their policy holders happy. His insurance would have no desire to make you happy though, so they'd likely dispute the claim even if you did get ahold of them.

I agree that he should have missed it, and that it was likely due to negligence on his part. But proving that and then actually getting compensation for it is another thing entirely.

Nathan

Thank you for your insight.

I spoke with the body shop again today. They informed me that they are going to order a new bumper direct from Subaru in order to make my car look good as new. If the bumper takes time to come in I'll be driving my car in the meantime, so I'll be sure to take pictures of the damage if given the opportunity to do so.

A fkking cone did that?!?!?!

I've run over cones for fun in some of my older cars because I never thought they could do much damage. Worst result was getting one stuck under the car a d dragging it down the road a bit.

But if a cone did that... then I'm extremely thankful to have VERY narrowly dodged a stupid possum 3 nights ago. I had my eyes off the road for a second, and looked back just in time to see this SOB frozen "like a deer in headlights," right in my path! If I didn't also happen to have two hands on the wheel I don't know what my instincts would have been primed to do! As it was, I was able to swerve right and safely dodge him while maintaining complete control of the car @ ~+/-60mph on a two lane road. I drove off cursing the life I had just kinda saved.

Moral of the story: Be Prepared for Anything! In my case, albeit I was distracted, as I commonly am between messing with my phone and/or the stereo (FWIW, I am now undoubtedly investing in steering wheel controls, ASAP), I did believe that I was A) an above average and very vigilant driver, and B) that I had adopted a number of defensive driving techniques over the years, and in advance, to have enhanced my chances of avoiding such hazards. For example, in this case, I was driving along a routine route after midnight in a fairly rural setting with no other traffic. How easy just such a setting can be for letting one's guard down! That is exactly what happened - I was too comfortable in the environment, and my most recent memories had no threats to report. While, I did go to lengths to drive in the left lane, just in case... - according to my theory that the vast majority of animals in the roadway will tend to enter from the right as they exit the woods, and therefore, driving in the left lane in these situations will afford me the most reaction time and safety zones to maneuver in - nonetheless, at this particular little, tiny spec of the roadway there happened to be a little median of grass made up and edged with curbs on an otherwise 4 lane road (2 in each direction) with no median nor divider other than the two solid lines. And wouldn't you know it, that, in this case, the possum came from the LEFT, right out of the median! I am just glad that he froze when sensed his impending doom, and that there was no other traffic at the time I had to make my move.


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Looks beautiful!

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Time for that new body kit :thumbsup:

Yep, a cone. It's in the shop getting fixed now. It was kind of funny, when the adjuster entered the VIN of my BRZ Ltd to his estimating software it came back as an fr-s in his software and was showing all the yota parts. I had to point it out and he had to manually override it.

All better! Dropped it off Monday afternoon and got it back today. super fast service and great job on the paint!

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...99772797_n.jpg

Has anybody had this issue on the FR-S?

i'm pretty sure every car ever made has had the issue of hitting objects in the roadway.

That looks really good! I take it they replaced the bumper?

Yep

That is not what my question is and I'm pretty sure you know what I meant.

I have hit a cone and not split my bumper.

It was one of the standard cones with two of those black runner collar/weight things, hit square on the base of the cone at about 60mph. I don't think it was in any way the fault of the bumper. Nothing to worry about on that front.

So I picked up my car yesterday from the body shop. Overall the paint and masking look very good, but there are a few problem areas. I took a picture to show you one of these areas:

http://i.imgur.com/OXJnV.jpg

The paint has a speckled appearance in these areas (it's not just noise from the camera) and is rough to the touch. The body shop will be working on these areas in around a week once the paint has had time to dry. I don't understand why they can't just get it completely right!

Apparently the issue I'm seeing with the front bumper is called "dry spray." The field rep. from my insurance company told me the body shop will have to re-clear the whole bumper to get it to match; they can't just fix the affected areas. I'm giving them one last chance to get it right before I post a negative review online and drop their name in this thread. I wonder if I should make that threat known or continue to be as courteous and patient as I have been thus far. Anyway, the car's going back on Monday, and hopefully they'll be able to fix it quickly so I won't be without my BRZ for an extended period again.

it seems to me like these brz/frs bumper cracks much easier than in other cars. so many cracked bumpers

Hit a retread on the interstate yesterday...add cracked and scratched paint to the list of front bumper damages...not amused.

Cripes A'mighty. Are you serious? You just need to chalk this one up to shit happens.

I hope you don't have to deal with this type of shit, I really do. You can be the most careful driver on the road and yet it's the other people that you have to worry about. Think about how you would feel if your brand new car was damaged to due someone else's inattentive driving before posting such a remark.

Same thing happened to my mom. A car in front of her rode over a piece of 2x4 on the highway and it kicked up and smashed her headlight. According to the police and her insurance company, the other driver isn't in any way liable for the damage to her car because the debris was on the road already. The only way the other driver could be held liable is if the debris fell off or out of his car.

You're entitled.

3 weeks into owning my new 86. Guy couldn't parallel park and hit my brand new car. The dent is right on the corner and will require a new bumper shell.

At the end of the day it's just a shiny piece of metal. Life happens. Life sucks. You deal with it and move on.

The other driver isn't liable for that damage. At all. The other car hit something on the road and it flew up and hit your car. Shit happens. The other driver didn't do anything malicious and even if they had malicious intent, no one could aim a piece of wood from the road up after they hit it to hit your car.
:rolleyes:

This is why there's insurance.

Op is seriously just a child.

And you somehow felt the need to bring up a five year old incident to harass a guy that hasn't been on the forum for almost a year?


Great job.