so, on my way to work today, i got rear-ended.

in a row of traffic in the left lane, guy about 5 cars ahead stands on the brakes, people are dodging left and right. i manage to avoid hitting anyone, but the lady behind me just couldn't get stopped in time.

she hit the rear of my truck, towards the left side, with the front of her car, mostly towards the right side. she dodged toward the left shoulder, but hit me anyway.


truck doesn't appear to be badly damaged. the left side of the bumper is pushed in slightly, the plastic on top of the bumper is no longer fully secured. the plastic in the center of the bumper where the tag goes still has a couple clips holding it in, but is broken on the bottom near the hitch. the right side of the bumper has a rub mark on it, but the plastic is fine.

it does appear that the whole bumper is tweaked down slightly, and maybe pulled towards the left side of the truck (1/4-1/2" maybe). the hitch itself took most of the impact, judging by the damage to her car.

i can't tell if the hitch is bent or not, it still seems to be lined up with the bumper properly. but if the bumper is bent, then so is the hitch.


the lady who hit me was driving a 99-03 camry solara, and it is probably totaled. the hood was bent up enough that she couldn't see the road, the right headlight/turnsignal was destroyed, grill was trashed, the bumper had some damage, i'm pretty sure the core support was pushed back as well.


question is, how much damage could there be?, and how much should i expect on the estimate?

 

It's hard to say without pictures. And it's almost as hard telling from pictures being theres alot to look over in person. Her insurance should cover everything! So since your getting some body work done.. any ideas if your going stock or upgrading a bit?

 

well, since the rear bumper is the only chrome on the truck, i was considering getting a black bumper, or getting it color matched "taupe gray metallic".

we'll see, an adjustor should be calling me any minute to set up an appointment to look at it.

i am trying to figure out what all is damaged, can't tell without crawling underneath, and i haven't had time to do that yet.

 

Sucks man, got any pics of the damage?

 

Word on the sucking. A co-worker was involved with a hit and run in his 2008 2500HD extended cab std bed 4X4. Someone backed into him and demolished the rear bumper of the truck. Oddly enough the bed is unscathed except for the tailgate and it's so minor I would leave it. The hitch was wrecked as was the bumper and brackets.

Insurance however wants to write the truck off! Body shops are claiming chassis damage. I am not a bodyman by trade but I have a lot of collision aftermath inspection experience and I have yet to find any chassis issues. The frame is not pinned, no crossmembers have moved and it drives perfectly straight with no dog tracking. Even the rear of the frame survived as the brackets and the hitch took the brunt of it. He wasn't hit particularily hard either.

Be wary.....

 

Yes be wary buddy of mine in a 2000 got rear ended at 20 to 30 and it bent his frame and twicked it drove straight with no problems but was totalled by insurance bought it back and still drives it just paid for now

 

You can probably get a primer bumper and get it color matched for what the chrome one costs. That's what I did when I had storm damage.

 

i am slightly worried about frame damage. if it bent the hitch there is a chance it tweaked the frame.

i am more pissed that i have 2 leaking tires. neither tire had any issues until i was almost home from work last night. then the tpms starts beeping telling me the right front and left rear tires are both low, the rf first, and then about 10 min later the lr tire.

left rear has a bolt in it, leaking very slowly. i looked at the right front and didn't see anything, but when i came outside this morning it was about halfway flat.

i hope they either fix or replace both tires, i wouldn't have had to drive on the shoulder if i hadn't gotten hit.

 

well, i dropped the truck at the "collision repair center" this morning. they will have an estimate for me this afternoon.

they gave me a rental truck, that i hate. 2012 f150 crew cab 4x4 5.0l. the interior is ugly, the seats are uncomfortable, there's too much chrome on the outside, and its that rediculous bright blue color they put on the mustangs. its a pretty boy truck.

the other thing i dont like is that its faster than my truck...