yes, some bastard backed into us today and dented the rear of our beloved mini near the tailight and pushed in the bumper in a bit. then of course took off! no note, no sorry, no nuthin!

from the look of the height of the damage must have been a big truck or SUV. when are they going to start to regulate the height of those bumpers!? what good are bumpers if they only help YOUR vehicle but hit other cars a good six inches above their bumper???

also, why do some people think they can not take personal responsiblity for thier own actions. if you screw up, you admit it, pay for the damage you caused and move on. what kind of wimp runs away???

needed to vent, thanks for reading.

curt, jamie, and olivia the silk green, dented mini

 

The way that this society is going now-a-days, situations like that are unfortunately more common.
Sad to hear. Hope you catch them. Be nice of someone saw them do it, and gets a hold of you.
From my MINI to yours, hope you have better MINI-luck in the future.
Cheers,

 

That blows!!! sorry to hear that!!

i smell a comp claim on the ins. (?) :evil:

_________________
Ask me about mini parts!!

 

Check with the busness that you were at when it happened! I had this happen to me at a WalMart and when the cops came to take the report they also went in and got the secutity video and caught the guy who did it.

 

Regs are in place on the manufacturers. What do you think happened in the early 70's to all the low slung bumpers that were on some cars before then? Oops! I'm letting my age show, aren't I? The problem now arises because a lot of places either don't have, or don't enforce local regs governing what an individual does to a vehicle after they buy it. I remember a lot of people around here that I knew getting tickets because the rear lift kits were too tall. It was kind of humerous watch a cop with a yardstick walk through a parking lot measuring bumper height. Almost sadly, those times are gone. If they still did that, I'd feel safer knowing some FWD/SUV owner couldn't rip the top of my car off.

Hope you nail the creep!!

 

>>Regs are in place on the manufacturers.<<

I'm astounded to hear that, as nearly all SUV bumpers are waaaaaay high in relation to even a same-car-company full-size sedan.

>>The problem now arises because a lot of places either don't have, or don't enforce local regs governing what an individual does to a vehicle after they buy it.<<

The vast majority of offenders I see are unmodified cars. And what about the monster trucks--common on our freeways here--that my MC would nearly go right under (but not without decapitating both Sadie and me)?? Back in the good olde days, those things had long vertical bars connected to their bumpers so that couldn't happen.

In this state (Hawaii), we're required to have a safety check every year. That is a perfect time for cost-free enforcement. Bumper height measured; if too high, no sticker, no renewal of car registration. Simple. But no, despite testing of headlight alignment, height of said headlights does not seem to be a factor either.

Way back in the early 60s, the problem was lowered, not raised, cars. I remember the Palm Springs police during spring break pulling over lowriders, letting the air out of the tires and if the bumper was closer to the ground than a box of Marlboros (no 100mm cigs then), they gave the owner a ticket and left him/her stuck there with four deflated tires. Now that's law enforcement! :evil: :evil:

 

thanks for your comments.

unfortunately we were at a dog park when it happened, however, you guys gave me an idea. i am going to make flyers and put them up at the park asking if anyone saw this happen. if we don't get any info we can at least make this person sweat it a little...

i agree about the production cars. it seems the SUVs and trucks straight out of production now are too high. it's probably some escalade or yukon XL that did it -- those things are HUGE.

curt

 

Did they hit the rear quarter panel, the hatch or the bumper?

The bumper can be easily repaired if it's dented. Remove the wheel well liner on the afflicted side. Then take a heat gun or hair dryer and heat the snot out of the dent from the outside. Apply gentle pressure from the inside and it should just snap back into place. Got to love urathane.

If it's on the quarterpanel or hatch, how big? Dents smaller than about a golf ball can be easily taken out by a "paintless dent removal" person that comes to your house. Look it up in your local yellow pages.

Sorry.

R

 

Sorry to heard about your situation :evil:

 

Agggg lame! I'm sorry to hear this! Some people are SO RUDE!!! :evil:

 

as to where on the car -- the a dent in the quarter panel between the rear hatch and the tailight. unfortunately it on the body at the corner where the metal goes 90 degrees to the inside of the car. nasty place to fix because it hard to get to the other side. maybe if we took out the rear tailight on the left someone could get to it???

how does the tailight come out, any ideas?

also, it sucks that they cracked the chrome strip on the back of the bumper so that will need to be replaced.

does anyone know if that comes off separate from the bumper assembly?

i'm most pissed about metal damge -- once you tweak it it never quite the same, esp. in a corner!!!

thanks,

curt