...sitting with some friends on a leather sofa in my cigar shop on a Saturday afternoon, looking out the window towards the street where my 40th was parked, I get to watch some young man roll his '99 Tracer back into the nose of my car. He apparently was just learning to drive a manual, and rolled the three or four feet between our cars. Man that was painful to watch! No major damage, obviously, other than a few scratches where the front license plate would normally be installed, and the kid was decent enough to apologize and give me his insurance card. Bodyshops were closed around here on Saturday afternoon, so my task next week is to find out how much repainting the bumper will be, then tracking down the kid's insurance company (which, I might add, is in a neighboring state). The kid mentioned at the end of our exchange that his girlfriend seated in the passanger seat had initially advised him to just drive off, and I told him that would have been a very poor decision since we had his plate number from inside the store. Funny thing is, Saturday was the first day I had driven the car since well before Christmas!

 

Some girls are just plain dumb

 

Glad to see that the kid had the decency to ignore his girlfriend's advice and man up to what he did.

 

That's SPP (Standard Parking Procedure) up here in Boston!

Why can't people learn that bumpers aren't for bumping other cars?!??!?!?

 

You were parallel parked?

 

Yes, but when I pulled up behind the guy I left at least 3 feet between our cars. The store's owner was kind of pissed that the kid wasn't a customer, just parked in front of his store with his gf eating their Burger Kings. It was a six lane street, with parking along the curb (four lanes of traffic). Just surreal to be sitting there relaxing and watching this scene unfold in front of me. Like some of us on the board, I'm really kind of **** about my car....

 

Body shop I've used a couple of times on other cars quoted $865 to use a token amount of filler and repaint the bumper cover with clearcoat, price escalates to $1,400+ to replace the bumper cover, with a greater chance of paint not matching 100% due to the car's age (over a year old). I elected to go with the $865 and have filed a claim with the other guy's adjuster, Badger Mutual. We will see what they have to say.

 

I would go with a new bumper cover instead of using a filler. Fillers may expand, contract and eventually crack. You will have the same issue of color matching whether you use your existing cover or a new one. Personally, I don't think color matching will be a problem for a good shop.

 

Get a NEW bumper cover.
One year old paint will match with no problem.

 

Thats BS I had an Arctic Silver 2003 Coupe and they stole my Xenons 2X and damaging the front bumper both times, the first time around I even filled in the bumper plug holes and it was perfect as well time #2 was perfect the bumper is easiy repaired and even a high end shop such as Stuttgart which is Champions shop of choice here in S Fla. charges no more then $350-$400 to R/R and paint the front bumper cover...why put a new one...as well I am taking into account that the 40th has the trubo front bumper so add a few more dollars...

 

Get a new bumper. A good shop will have no trouble matchnig your paint. You were going to paint the damaged one anyway.

 

Thats not true?!?

 

Why would he get a new bumper?! He said all he got were some scratches, so a simply sand/repaint will make it as good as new!