One of the advantages of getting older is the reduced likelihood of making stupid mistakes that result in outcomes like this. It explains insurance rates dropping with age, up to a point, anyway. It has been a quite a while (about twenty five years, unless I’m in denial) since I inflicted damage to one of my own cars (don’t ask about the rental I totaled in Hawaii). But pride goes before the fall.
We were looking for spawning salmon in Whitaker Creek, but the Campground was closed. I drove just past the closed gate, and decided to park just down-road of it. I put it in reverse to do a three point turn in the apron in front of the gate. The crisp fall air was invigorating, and my maneuver had a decided brisk and overly-confident aspect to it. That is, until it came to a crashing halt: Kapow! I hit a very low marker post that I obviously hadn’t seen in the rapidly darkening dusk. Or bother to take the time and look for as I zipped back. Looks like only the “bumper” needs to be replaced. And I haven’t priced it yet.
So what about you? (Michael Freeman excepted) Any (relatively recent) acts of stupidity, hubris, or negligence you’d like to own up to? Confession is good for the soul.
What’s with the naked steel wheel ? Did the trim fall off ? Is the alloy wheel in the trunk waiting for the puncture to be fixed ?
Nope. Took the plastic caps off and painted the wheels red. Don’t want alloys, since I do a lot of driving on rough back-woods Forest Roads and such. In fact, I put slightly taller tires on it for that reason too. I like to go against the trends, although steelies are quite popular too.
Stupid plastic caps fall off anyway I removed my Citroen ones though they bolt on they wont get damaged in the car port
Another vote for smaller rims, taller tires. I went down to 16s on my 3 after I’d had it for a bone-jarring month.
All these factory 17-18s with sub-60-profile rubber in the potholed rust belt…a conspiracy by Monroe and Midas, I tell ya.
I like that look, like cars in the Thirties.
I think red and white go well together. I added a red pinstripe to my wagon last year (not for the impatient!) and it looks good against the white paint. Too bad chrome dog-dish hubcaps wouldn’t fit your wheels. It would give it a vintage hot rod look. But then, they’d probably come off on rough roads as easy as the factory wheel covers.
Just this past week in a parking garage, in a rented Grand Marquis backing into a space opening the door to get the behemoth in the lines, and at a good clip as I was late for an appointment, then BAM! ! Into the cement wall.
Later, dropped at the airport opening the back door to retrieve my bag and off I went….awaiting the inevitable surprise in the mail this week.
It was a few years back when I had my last Oops! It was also when I realized I’m too damn old to be driving like a jackass.
I was out for a sunday drive in my 82 Mustang GT in late fall enjoying the T-top off weather and tossing the car around on some back roads in the area. I knew this turn well, it was a sweeping banked right hander that was fun at any speed(mine was not quite legal). For some reason the middle 30 feet of this turn was covered in water. All I could think was OH S&^%!
I aimed as low as I could coming on the wet patch and hoped for the best. She went just about full 360 when I was stopped by slamming into a high curb at the exit with both front wheels and high centering on the front subframe.
Two bent lower control arms, a loose exhaust and a cracked front bumper cover later… Ugh!
Peter Egan’s famous R&T back page caption applies here. “Good tires,” Bob mused, casually lighting a cigarette, “but certainly not great tires.”
The only thing that stopped me from shaking that day was a ciggy.. I’m still mad at myself for that, that car was pristine minus the 88 HO powerplant.
Uh…I got the “dummy award” a year-and-a-half after my left eye issues stabilized (I am legally blind in that eye). In November 2005, I changed lanes on the way home to avoid being stuck behind a semi and smacked into a Chrysler 300 that had the same idea. Fortunately, this was on a city boulevard and wasn’t traveling fast. Unfortunately, I drove my wife’s CR-V that day for some reason. Fortunately insurance covered it and I didn’t receive a ticket. Unfortunately, I paid to have it fixed out of my own pocket as the cost was just under $500.00, hence, below my deductable.
Very shortly after that, I got those little convex blind-spot mirrors and adjusted the outside mirrors differently and that fixed that problem, but I still need to be extremely careful when I drive, regardless. Lesson learned and pride severely injured.
Those painted plastic bumper skirts go awfully close to the ground nowadays. It’s for better aerodynamics and thus mileage, which is a good thing, but I’m having a helluva time with scratches and scrapes at both ends of my Prius. They’re my own damned fault, but it’s gotten to where I’m thinking of making curb feelers.
The body-color bumper faces are all scraped up too, from parallel parkers. I’ve got two impressions of license plate bolt heads on the back bumper. Whatever happened to actual bumpers?
OOPS just getting a bumper painted is aroud $500 here I had a truck roll back into the front of my 93 Subaru a couple of years ago since it was an insurance repair I got a quote $600 and $500 was a dinner plate area of paint. I just beat the dents out dollied it smooth took the cheque and sold the car. Paint ovens are expensive to run.
My last job for the past 7 years was as an Insurance agent. I can not tell you the times someone had sticker shock at a $1000 (or $3000) repair for a bumper. You have the shell and then the refinish. You also have the under supports and it appears that perhaps the muffler may have been dented. This is one of many reasons Insurance costs so much.
The original reason for 5 mph bumpers was to save money on repairs to fenders, lights, grilles. Now the bumper shell costs about as much to fix. Sheesh.
I feel your pain! I did something similar recently. I was at the local parts shop, which is in an old Victorian collection of mews/ horsesheds and brick buildings around a yard definately not designed for cars. Anyway, to get my gigantic Volvo 240 estate out, I did a 15 point turn, in a gap about 17 feet wide. On my last reverse back, I saw I had about 4 feet, and proceeded to give it some welly, upon which I had a similar crunch sound. Now, This volvo being a 1979 had those gigantic battering ram of bumpers. Yet it was my luck to hit a victorian cast iron rail about 10 inches high- just high enough to go under the bumper and smash the tailpipe and spare wheel well. Fortunately, this was in full view of the customers and staff at the parts counter, who were more than happy to come out and give their helpful advice on how I should have driven, and equally helpfully pointing out that I was driving a Volvo in a manner typical of its operation.
I had an accident with my avatar (’91 940SE) in the fall of 2000. There was no damage to anything except one parking light, the bumper cover and the chrome strip on top. The replacement cover and trim was about $350 at the time, new parts from the Volvo dealer. My Dad replaced it for me, and it was interesting to see that under the cover, was a heavy aluminum battering ram. That accounted for no other damage I guess. I imagine that it’s all styrofoam on new cars.
Those park bench ’70s bumpers may have been ugly, but they really were BUMPERS.
5mph bumpers on my 82 Celebrity saved my “young inexperienced” driver butt more than once. Even once that the rear bumper got “pushed in” on it’s shock absorbers and then “popped” out a few days later, no harm no foul.
Your Volvo’s bumper cover is black, wraps all the way around, and I’m guessing it’s made of a tough rubbery material. Stands up pretty well to minor taps and scrapes, and no painting required to replace. This is they way all bumpers should be, if they’re not just chrome-plated steel.
There’s a stout steel bumper behind these body-color bumper covers, but they’re just as scratchable as any body surface, and replacement requires an expensive paint job. The steel bumper doesn’t always wrap around either. Deep dents at the corners are common.
A few years ago, Mrs. JPC and I were driving the 94 Club Wagon through an unfamiliar neighborhood. “Oh, look at that house for sale.” As I looked to my left, my right side mirror found a mailbox. Owch!. I dented the mailbox, and left a note for the owner but never heard back. My mirror, on the other hand, was kaput.
Even buying the part myself (new at the dealer) and installing it myself, it was expensive. I could have gone with a wrecking yard part, but the car was still fairly new and the dealer was easier.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Hey, I resemble that remark!
The ’99 S10 came with a fine rear bumper, as nighttime impacts with many trees and a bulldozer shovel while delivering newspapers years ago can attest to.
It’s been a long time since I’ve bumped into anything, but this got me to thinking about the high price of body repairs. My Mystique (MCC: The Old Family Heirloom) has a spot of rust popping up on the left rear quarter panel. I took it to the dealer around the corner and asked what they thought it would cost to fix it, as the rest of the car’s body is in good condition. They came back with a quote of…$1800.00!!! I just wanted a roughly one by three inch area ground down and bondo’d up with a little paint!
It’s at times like that when I feel like telling someone, “If you don’t want the job, just say so!”
I have one more D’Oh moment.. I like to call them skid mark stories..
This happened when i was maybe around 25.
Dad and I just finished putting our Chevelle (1973) together. The car was as well built as any backyard racer. We replaced every bolt on body panel with fiberglass repops, added a roll bar and dropped in a well massaged 427. She had a serious case of GO!
I was leaving a local cruise joint and wanted to impress the masses so I kept it in 2nd and stood on it trying to “drift” into the turn lane. Things didn’t go as planned and I “drifted” sideways into oncoming traffic, Headlights pointing straight at some poor soul’s driver door. She snapped back around and thankfully aimed at the BK parking lot before anything really bad happened. I burned rubber through that lot and back home as quietly as I could. I never brought that car back there again. The next day I went to the tire store and bought a set of Drag Radials to replace the Mickey N-50s so I had some sense of control as well..
There’s one more Skidmark Story with my Omni, but I’m waiting for a CC on L bodies to bring that one out.
Several months ago I was headed home from work in my daily driver 1995 Lexus LS400. I stopped at a corner gas station just up the street from my work to fill up.
As I was pulling out, I noticed the light was still green. Great! I was so busy looking left to avoid getting creamed by oncoming traffic that I didn’t notice that the light had now turned red. Pow! I bopped the right rear corner of a Honda Civic sitting there.
Luckily the damage wasn’t severe. The gal’s passenger side bumper cover had a small crack, while my bumper cover was cracked and split just right of the license plate. The insurance adjuster estimated the damage at $600 and I recieved the check the next week.
Unfortunately, I needed the money for other things, so I initiated my own repair with clear, transparent duct tape. I’ll fix it properly one of these days…
A few months later I was driving to work through a rough L.A. neighborhood ( Figueroa near King Bl. ) when I was forced to make a panic stop due to some dorkus who stopped all northbound traffic while he talked business with a “working girl” crossing the street. A moment later I was rear-ended. Fortunately the only damage was craked paint. I was still irritated, though.
I’m 22 and so far my driving record is spotless. Apart from the damage caused by the Texas climate, my 1984 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight is just as pristine as the day I brought it home in 2005. I have had one stupid mistake like this, though.
On Christmas eve 2009 I volunteered to go get my family breakfast from Burger King. Normally I prefer to drive my car much more than any other car in my family, but this time I took my sister’s 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera because it gets better gas mileage than mine and at the time my driver’s side window motor was broken and her car has manual windows. Because the Cutlass used to belong to my grandfather it is in even better condition than my car, but because it was designed before the 1990s it has no cup holders. When I was in the parking lot I took a turn too sharply and the flimsy drink holders fell over. I reached down to try and pick them up, which turned out to be a terrible idea mid-turn. I hit a parking lot pole at a few miles per hour, not enough to do any major damage, but enough to crack the turn signal glass and scrape some paint off the bumper.
Needless to say, I still haven’t lived it down, especially because I would always talk about how much better am at driving than my father (since this incident he’s had about four minor accidents and a few traffic tickets). The worst part is that if my window wasn’t broken and I had taken my car, with its huge 5mph bumpers and rubber bumper strips, there wouldn’t have been any damage at all.
Here’s a picture.
My current Caprice – a ’91 wagon – had a chance encounter with a ill-placed telephone pole a couple years back.
I was leaving the Neighborhood Ford Store, having just bought something for my youngest son’s ’93 Taurus SHO. (Described in malovelent detail in the “Worst Cars” thread) I know the pole was there and was looking for it in my rear-view and passenger-side mirrors.
Shoulda been checking the driver’s side mirror. Oops.
It only took a little out of the very back of the rear 1/4, back by the bumper but still…
Yeah, concrete isn’t as soft and fluffy as it first appears.
I was up in my old home town and decided to take a picture of my high school. It was drizzling a bit, so I sayed in the car. Then I decided to take a picture of the high school across the street (well, it was a street, now it’s a parking lot, go figure), so I backed up, backed up some more and BANG! One of those concrete lane dividers.
Since I had just hit a deer a couple of months earlier, I decided to give my insurance company — not to mention my insurance rates — a break and paid for the repairs myself.
$75.00 for a used tail lamp assembly, which was brand new, funny how a deer can take out a tail lamp and quarter panel. Later, when I had the rest done, it was $150 for a bit of sheet metal straightening, $250 to repair the bumper cover and $500 for paint. And $150 for a rental car.
I was coming down a mountain pass in Oregon this spring when I decided it was time to pull off and release some of that coffee back into the wild. There was a gravel road ahead with a blacktop “T” that went about 10 ft from the shoulder. Well, my speed was a bit higher than I had reckoned, and my 91 T-bird was not going to make the 90 degree turn on to the side road. With the binders locked up I went off the edge of the pavement and came to an abrupt stop in a shallow swale. I missed the stop sign by inches and was able to back out without too much difficulty. A cursory inspection showed no obvious damage, so with mission accomplished, it was back on the tarmac. The only problem was that the steering wheel was off center by about 15 degrees. It drove straight enough but obviously something was bent. It was about 300 miles to get home, so I just went for it. The repair (I think it was a control arm) was about $500. That wouldn’t have been so painful if it was the original 175K mile part, but it was BRAND NEW! I had just replaced all of those parts (ball joints tie rods brakes etc) a few months ago. Not an easy one to explain to the wife! Well, after a tire rotation (they were new too!) it drives straight and true. It was worth spending $2K in repairs on a $2K car. I figure to drive it a few more years and if I had sold it and picked up another $2K car, most likely it would need those sort of front end repairs and who knows what else. Drives like a dream and gets 25 to 30 from the pump.