rear ended

[victor_t]

so I got rear-ended today on the highway.

it was rush-hour and traffic was heavy. I was in the middle lane. the traffic in my lane suddenly came to a halt, but was still flowing well in the other two lanes. I stopped just in time and then I looked in the rear-view mirror to the guy behind me that was coming pretty fast and didn't seem to be looking at the road. at the last moment he noticed me and tried to swerve in the left lane. (he said the brakes didn't work, it was actually raining but I didn't get the feeling he was watching the road, whatever)

he clipped me on the bumper, then smashed into the wall and another car in the left lane smashed into him. fun stuff.

so now my bumper is scratched in the corner and my exhaust pipe is bent quite a lot.

I am going tomorrow to a body shop suggested by my insurance for an estimate.

first question:
can such a hit cause any alignment problems? other than the bumper and the exhaust pipe I do not see any other damage at all, but I am wondering.

second question:
they will obviously replace the exhaust pipe, but what about the bumper?
As far as I am concerned, it must be replaced. even if there is little visible damage, as far as I am concerned the bumper did its job of protecting the rest of the car and now it is ****ed inside and I don't want them to just paint over the scratches. I have my own insurance that would cover me but in this case it's the other guy's fault, his insurance will pay my insurance.
how do I make sure they replace the bumper?

[shootemup]

Glad your alright. People never pay attention; he was probably text messaging. Definately could have been worse by the sounds of it.

To answer your question, you could just take a screw driver to it and punch a hole right through it (but that would constitute insurance fraud, so for the purpose of saving face, no, you shouldn't do that...) :) If its just scratches, they will sand it and paint over it. But they can't sand a hole.

[Kaiserhead]

so I got rear-ended today on the highway.

it was rush-hour and traffic was heavy. I was in the middle lane. the traffic in my lane suddenly came to a halt, but was still flowing well in the other two lanes. I stopped just in time and then I looked in the rear-view mirror to the guy behind me that was coming pretty fast and didn't seem to be looking at the road. at the last moment he noticed me and tried to swerve in the left lane. (he said the brakes didn't work, it was actually raining but I didn't get the feeling he was watching the road, whatever)

he clipped me on the bumper, then smashed into the wall and another car in the left lane smashed into him. fun stuff.

so now my bumper is scratched in the corner and my exhaust pipe is bent quite a lot.

I am going tomorrow to a body shop suggested by my insurance for an estimate.

first question:
can such a hit cause any alignment problems? other than the bumper and the exhaust pipe I do not see any other damage at all, but I am wondering.

second question:
they will obviously replace the exhaust pipe, but what about the bumper?
As far as I am concerned, it must be replaced. even if there is little visible damage, as far as I am concerned the bumper did its job of protecting the rest of the car and now it is ****ed inside and I don't want them to just paint over the scratches. I have my own insurance that would cover me but in this case it's the other guy's fault, his insurance will pay my insurance.
how do I make sure they replace the bumper?

When someone is clearly at fault like the guy that hit you, hit them up for all you can get. You should get a new bumper and tail pipe. Go to the best body shop your insurance company will approve, if its a Mazda shop, its even better. Make sure they check your engine mounts too, I've heard of a few cases where the engine mounts cracked from rear impacts and they weren't noticed until months after the repairs were settled.

[cwp_sedan]

I would be concerned about paneling being out of alignment and the frame possibly being bent more than anything strictly cosmetic. They should do an alignment anyway.

[cy88]

Bring it back to your dealership, have them to check out your car throughly. This is not about "taking advantage" of the at fault driver, it's more like "you need to fix everything".

I know that the Agincourt mazda also has a collusion centre attached, you can try there if you are close by. At least you know everything they use is OEM. Yes, they are more expensive, but it's not quite your concern, IMO.

[victor_t]

Glad your alright. People never pay attention; he was probably text messaging. Definately could have been worse by the sounds of it.

To answer your question, you could just take a screw driver to it and punch a hole right through it (but that would constitute insurance fraud, so for the purpose of saving face, no, you shouldn't do that...) :) If its just scratches, they will sand it and paint over it. But they can't sand a hole.

the red plastic reflector in the bumper is broken and there is a crack at the bottom of the bumper, around the area of the tailpipe.

[Noisy Crow]

the red plastic reflector in the bumper is broken and there is a crack at the bottom of the bumper, around the area of the tailpipe.

They will replace the bumper cover for sure.

Keep in mind that the actual bumper is underneath, and consists of a steel cross member and a foam pad. If you got hit to one side low down the damage is likely limited to the cover and the exhaust system. Note: if the exhaust is bent, then the impact force may have been transmitted all the way up to the flex joint where the exhaust attaches to the manifold. If the exhaust has a spring loaded joint not a flex joint (I can't recall), the the impact force could have been transmitted to the exhuast manifold.

[victor_t]

so the body shop says they will try to repair the whole thing. I am not sure how they will fix the crack in the bumper, but it is low (on the edge) and it may mean they would only replace the plastic cover.

about the exhaust: it is bent because the pipe goes between some beams on the car frame. the pipe met the beam, the beam won. so now they will try to "fix" the pipe? how can they make the pipe round again if it is bent?

[TheMAN]

you need to go to another shop if this one is just trying to "fix" what's broken

[whodilly]

when i got rear ended the first time, the bumper was not too badly damaged but there was a crack in it. Once the adjuster saw that he immediately said that it would be replaced and not fixed (so i got a mazdaspeed bumper instead!). With these plastic bumpers it is usually easier for the shops to simply replace them than to fix it.

Since you're not at fault, and if you go through insurance, the body shop (from my experience) will usually do the easiest fix which would be to replace the bumper cover.