Hello ALL!
My older brother was at work earlier today and a man walks into His office and tells me that he backed into his car in the parking lot. (MINI COOPER S) His car was parked normal and correctly and the other guy had a big chevy truck and just smacked his little baby. The back bumper has some scratches and blemishes, the left rear pannel is crushed in and just demolished and the black pannel plastic piece is history. My brother filled a police report and now I want to know what you would do If you were in his position. IM trying to give him some advise.

 

get insurance money for it replace with good used parts use rest to buy mods

 

Contact the truck owner's insurance company and get the MINI fixed at the shop of his choice.

 

I'm with carguy on that one, if it is repairs that can be done by your selfs then go that route but if it can't then be safe and have it profesionally fixed.

or take the money and hire someone with a semi to back into this guys truck...lol just kidding. good luck and keep us informed on what happens.

 

O boy, I just went through this last week. I was parked at work and some 17 year old behind the wheel of Daddy's new SUV backed into my car and took off. Luckily I had a witness, obviously the girl did not see the lady standing there LESS THAN 10 FEET AWAY!!! Then when the cops showed up at her house she had the gaul to tell the cop she thought she hit a shopping cart. A SHOPPING CART! 4000 pound big white Buick...shopping cart...same thing...)

Anyway, at least this gentleman is being reasonable, the guy who's daughter hit my car was an *******. He did the right thing to get police report. Contact the gentleman who hit his car and ask him if he wishes to pay the cost out of pocket. A parking lot accident is a non-reportable incident, so insurance does not have to be pulled into the repairs if the MCS hitter wishes. Otherwise, if he wants to go through insurance, Eric has got the procedure down. Make sure your brother does not let the guy's insurance **** him around, because thier client was at fault. On the same note, there is no reason to get your brothers insurance involved.

Good Luck, hopefully you will have an easier time than I have with the situation. One last point. If the gentleman who hit the MINI is cooperative and polite, be sure to extend to him the same. Accidents happen, but the guy did the right thing, which is more than can be said for some people. I have been in his and your brothers situation before...unfortunately both times the other people involved were complete ****tards

~ Derek

 

Definitely file an insurance claim. Preferrably with the other guy's carrier to avoid paying the Collision deductible from his own policy. Shouldn't be difficult to get the other company to accept liability since the MINI was parked and unoccupied.

 

After filing the police report (which is great that he got that done immediately) I would take the car to the shop of my choice, contact my insurance, get a rental and let them handle it from there.

 

its already been said, just make sure you have all the information that you need from him and keep it kind n courteous so it doesnt get out of hand and dont take any crap from his insurance company.

 

Oh yeah, I'd also take lots of pictures of the car and location and write down everything that happened, including any remarks the guy made after the accident, for the record. Keeping that, along with the guy's info and police report information can be useful.

 

Start drinking heavily and immediately.

Man, so sorry to hear that. But yeah, just make sure he has gotten the insurance info from the guy who backed into his car, and then he can take the car wherever he wants to get it fixed.

 

I had a similar situation at an auto parts store I once worked at in my 20's. I had driven my MGC-GT to work, parked it nice and neatly. Around lunchtime, one of our delivery drivers comes in and says a commercial truck had backed out of the space next to mine, but cut his turn too sharply. His front right corner of the bumper took out my left rear quarter panel. Then he just took off. Our driver had all the info, company name, license plate, etc. I called the CHP, and reported it as a hit-and-run (which it was). An offcier came out, took the report, and went to examine my car. I told him no note was left, and he lifted each wiper arm, and saw the dust line (high summer then) hadn't been distubed, as it would have if someone had left a note under the blade. He wrote up his report.

I called the company the guy worked for, told them what happened, and gave them the incident report number. Their owner kind of hemmed and hawed, and I said that I was taking my car to Bertolucci's (most expensive place at the time in Sacramento), and that his insurance company better deal with it, as their driver committed a hit and run according to the CHP, while driving a company truck. Things happened real fast after that!

 

if they're going to replace the rear bumper, your brother may want to consider having them order the aerokit bumper instead of standard -- that's what I'm doing after being in a similar situation, 'cause they told me it would come out to the same amount either way.
If the shop says that they'd charge more for the aerokit, your brother can offer to cover the difference.

Just a thought -- to have something positive come of all this.

 

Does Mini do body work? Could I take it to a BMW/ Mini dealership to get everything done? I would get a good rental then!

 

thank you. Could it be taken to a BMW/Mini dealer ship for body repairs?

 

Check with your dealership. Niello MINI has their own bodyshop (part of the whole Niello group). Maybe yours had something similar.

 

As noted, check with your dealership. . . some contract the work out. additionally, some dealers (like mine) contract for loaners with Hertz (or another company), so your loaner may be a Ford Focus (like mine was) and not a MINI.

 

Have it towed to an auto body shop that you trust. There could possibly be suspension damage or fuel system damage that might not be apparent until driven.

 

before I ask another question, thank you all for your help and support. It actually does mean a lot to me.
What is the difference between the aerokit bumper instead of standard ? Can anyone post differences in a link or pics?
Also, If i get the aerokit bumper installed would it look retarded with out the front and or sides?

 

This is one I found in a quick search:



It will not look out of place -- it fits with the regular black plastic moulding.

The best way to compare before/after pics is to go to miniusa to build a MINI. You can switch the aerokit option on/off to see the difference.

Edit -- more pics:





The "mesh grills" on the second pic are stickers that come with the bumper -- and as you see in the other pics, you can choose to use them or not.

 

From the wreck Im getting the Front lip piece that is connected the front bumper that is that black plastic material that you need to keep using back to black on so it wont fade, The left rear pannel and the rear bumper. The front lip piece. Can anyone tell me where they sell them from and If there is an upgrade and or carbonfiber/ anything that you could upgrade for just a new stock one.?
Any links, pics,?
thanks,
Justin

 

^ Don't know about the plastic black trim, but as I noted you can replace the back bumper with an aero one. Likewise, you can replace the black side skirts with aero skirts (although you'd have to do both sides) -- a pic of those is the BG cabrio in my previous post (may be hard to tell in the pic, but those are body color and they look great).

Or just go all out and have all that trim painted:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=100633

Edit - Put the money from buying new trim towards painting your current trim. Post #27 in the thread i've linked shows that you can just paint the standard skirts (don't have to buy the aerokit ones) and it still looks great.

 

If you can avoid getting your insurance company involved do so. They may view this as an oportunity to raise your rates. Happened to a friend of mine, No pics taken at seen so no actual proof he was parked correctly. Made him partly responsible and jumped his premium.

 

^ if this would apply to you -- my first piece of advise is "Switch insurance company."
A company that would use such a technicality to raise your premium in a not-at-fault situation will most likely find some other technicality to avoid coverage when you really need it.

 

I agree. He has the police report, other guy's info and hopefully took some pics too, so he should be fine.

 

That's ridiculous. Even if a car is parked illegally, a driver cannot be considered negligent for an accident if he wasn't even in the vehicle at the time of the impact. Since this happened to a friend of yours, I would bet some facts were lost in translation.

Even if your car is parked illegally and you get a ticket for it, but that has nothing to do with negligence in an accident.