this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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First off, no one got hurt, his car was fine, mine has a fucked up rear bumper, tail lights, and the trunk won't close on its own but its tied shut with paracord for now. He was actually really chill about it despite it being my fault since I was signalling one way but decided to turn the other way at the last second, which was dumb. I was pretty badly shaken up by it last night but after a bunch of emotional support phone calls, quite a bit of crying, and a good night's sleep I think I'm feeling okay.

In terms of the practical matters I think I've got the big picture down. I have the other guys number and the accident report thing the cop gave us and I've gotta get in contact with my insurance and go to an autobody shop to see what they can do.

I come to the nice people of the bearsite to see if anyone has pointers so I can avoid any newbie mistakes. Particularly I'm wary of being overcharged for services at repair shops but anything about navigating the aftermath of one of these things would be appreciated.

Being less of a car-centric burger has been one of my goals and I think this whole event might be a nice motivator to get to work on that.

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[โ€“] bubbalu@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My general advice is that if the other person is fine and not mad, then it 'never happened' in the eyes of insurance. The rate increase is almost never worth the actual cost of the repair but I tend to drive beaters.

My advice would be to ask for a used bumper and tell them in any case color match is not important. You can also drive fine w/o the bumper, but make sure your taillight is replaced.

Taillight should be $5 part, $20-60 in labor depending on how anti-mechanic your car's design is.

Car bumpers are about $70, but truck/SUV bumpers can be like $200 and the replacement labor can be nuts, especially if some of the attachment points were damaged too.

No clue how much trunk repair should be but there is a reason you see so many twined down trunks and bed gates...

[โ€“] PaulSmackage@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Replacing latches and strikers isn't too bad, but if the panel alignment is off it could mean complete replacement of the tailgate or trunk lid.