Need to VENT!
 

So my MY2008 s2000 (<5600 miles!!) was involved in a minor bender today!!

I am parked at a red light today, about half a car length behind the white line. The girl in front of me pulls too far into the intersection and the light turns red. She begins backing up. I honk (I honk my horn pretty freely, better to temporarily hurt someone's feelings than to have your car scuffed). She keeps backing up and runs her truck (Ford Escape, no trailer hitch THANK GOD) onto my front end. Claims she didn't see me (WTF?!? :banghead:) The damage seems to be pretty minor: the bumper is scratched (fairly deeply) but the hood seems untouched. The bumper is still firmly attached and the body lines do not seem to be off at all.

I had a police claim issued because I was the "behind" car in the accident, so the default is that it is my fault. By issuing a report, it is officially in the books that I was not at fault. Now if the girl tries to switch up the story when she gets the repair bill, I will have some documentation to back me up.

Where should I go from now? Do I take my car to a dealership and have them pull off the bumper to check for any hidden damage? I know that there is most likely no damage, but I am kinda freaking out that there was a f@**ing truck parked on my car for a few seconds. Do dealerships even deal with this or should I go to a body shop?

And if the damage does in fact end up being minor, should I just settle out of pocket or is insurance my best bet? I am nervous that my premium will go up even though I am at ZERO fault. Also, will this affect my title in anyway? Does minor damage cause your status to change from clean to rebuilt?

Thanks for the advice and sry for the long read. Be careful out there because people really do not know how to drive.

If I understand correctly, the police report states that she backed into you. She is the at fault driver. It's her insurance that will pay the repair bill.

This will not affect your title: the car is not going to be totalled and retitled, just repaired. Since her insurance is paying, it will likely show up on a Carfax report. I'd recommend taking some pictures of the damage to reassure a future potential buyer.

I'd skip the dealership: most of them sub the work out to someone else. You need to find a local bodyshop that caters to high-end owners; they are accustomed to doing high-quality work, as opposed to insurance work that is good enough for the average soccermom. Her insurance will probably try to steer you to a shop where they can get the work done cheap.

It sucks, but you'll get over it. No one was hurt; it wasn't a hit and run where you couldn't find the responsible party; her insurance will pay the bill.

Messed up situation!

First: You made the mistake of pulling up too close behind someone who had gone over the white line at a red light...personally if I saw that I'd have given more space but shit happens, I know.

Secondly: My girlfriend drives a Ford Escape. It has a huge rear window. If the driver had actually looked in her rear view mirror before backing up she would have seen you unless you were driving a 18" tall go-cart and were right on her bumper already.

Good job getting a real police report. I tell people this all the time that if you hit someone in the back end...your going to be found at fault unless the driver admits fault to the officer or you have an eye witness agreeing with your story! This is why I always leave a ton of space between me and a vehicle in front of me.

Good luck getting her fixed. You should be able to pick a shop to do the repair since she's at fault.

you did the right thing getting the police report. go look for a reputable body shop and get your bumper repaired. if there's more damage, your body shop will take care of it by call her insurance company.

i wouldn't go to honda dealer to get the repair like RedY2kS2k said.

anyway, sux that it happened. good luck with the repairs.

By filing a police report it will unfortunately now be on the title. I thought it only was when going through insurance before but when I had someone bang into my rear bumper when I was at a stop sign I had a police report done only to find out later that it was now on my title for a rear end collision which sucks.
Did not go through the insurance as the other guy just gave me cash.
Sorry to hear but should be a very easy bumper repaint or replacement.