Crashed Brz! :(
 

Hi guys. I have a question. I rear end a car while driving on the freeway with my brz. I was looking away to change lanes when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. I was able to brake, but I heard a loud crash that sounded like plastic "pack!". We both got out of the our cars to inspect the damage, but it was minimal. I could only see minor scratches. The other car didn't seem to have any damage. We asked each other if we were both okay, and we went on our merry ways. No contact information was exchanged and the police were not notified. After further inspection of my car, I noticed that the good gap on the right side of my car (the side that made contact) is bigger than the hood gap on the left side of my car. I also noticed that the front bumper cover near the right headlight is cracked, and the paint has stress fractures. I was wondering if my Brz's frame could be bent or if the structural integrity of my car is now compromised. No airbag was deployed, but I estimate that the impact was made at a sudden sliding brake from 40-50mph.

Damn, that sucks. I had a very similar experience once, but not so much damage. I guess get it inspected if you're worried about it. Seems like the plastic bits would be in a lot worse shape if there was actually chassis damage.

No way the frame is bent or the 'structural integrity' of the car is compromised. It takes a fair amount of force to do something like that. A hit that causes little more than stress fractures in the paint and a slight hood misalignment (provided it wasn't already that way to begin with which is certainly possible, and can usually be tweaked pretty easy) isn't going to damage the frame.

About the worse unseen damage that you may have is a cracked radiator support, which seems to about the first thing to go with any sort of front impact. But if the hit was offset, and not straight on, then you probably don't even have that. If the hit was offset to one side, check the headlight supports along with the already-noted bumper supports around the light.

Probably not. The damage doesn't sound like it was too bad. But with any accidents you should probably get it checked out while you are getting your bumper fixed.

What type of car did you rear end? Suv, truck, sedan?

Sounds like your fender took most of the hit and might be why the alignment of the hood is off.

It sounds that there is no real damage, however a "trusted" body shop can verify for sure! I'm sorry to hear of your mishap.

Yeah I would go to a body shop to check that out. Hopefully it isn't anything bad, good luck with your situation.

I hit a sedan. The impact was offset onto one side as I tried to turn as well. After closer inspection under the hood, I noticed that a black piece connected to the headlight is slightly out of place. Can anybody recommend a good body shop in the Bay Area? And does anyone know how much an inspection will cost and what to ask for? Also, how much will a repair of the front bumper cost?

You can contact your insurance agent and have an adjustment (to be filed under collision, your car would have been fixed under collision regardless, since you were at fault). Most reputable shops will do the adjustment complimentary. Until the point where you actually go through with repairing the car using the insurance you can cancel the claim and not worry about your rates/carfax etc. if you decide to pay out of pocket or not repair.

You should always exchange info and report it to both insurance and authorities immediately.

There have been cases of people claiming hit & runs after such events, even after both parties agreed it was nothing.

Best of Luck.

If you both decided to leave insurance out of it, etc...I would keep your insurance out of it until you get an idea as to how much it will cost to repair. Take it to a good shop first, get an estimate, and decide whether you want to fix it at all (out of pocket, or file a claim on your insurance). You probably have some mounting pieces (plastic or metal) that were broken/bent that's causing some misalignment.

Glad to hear it's minimal damage and you both were uninjured.