jctevere

Got into a mini fender bender today on the LIE near the Cross Island. It was rush hour stop and go traffic and I noticed the guy behind me was getting awfully close, so I let off the brake to inch up, giving some more clearance and then all of a sudden I hear the dreadful "whack" and my car bumps forward.

I cringed and prepared for the worst (cracked bumper or something) as I pulled over and got out and headed towards the rear bumper to check for damage. When I rounded my car, I was pleasantly surprised. NO visible damage (the car that hit me was a early 2000's chevy Cobalt. He had slight damage to his license plate and his bumper looked a little disheveled (sagging, but I don't know if this was from hitting me).

Upon further inspection I found that there is a TINY nick on my diffuser over the exhaust pipe on the driver side (about the diameter of a pencil) and one of the diffuser clips snapped out. I simply pushed it back in and was in business, secured, no scratches, only visible damage was the tiny nick on the plastic diffuser.

I felt bad for the guy, seemed like he was having a hard day, car was in bad condition, didn't wanna nickel and dime him and shaft him, so I let him go. I figured hopefully karma will come back around one day.

But long story short, I wanted to post my experience online and how pleasantly surprised I am with out car's ability to ward off small repairs like this. While it certainly wasn't a high-speed accident, I did roll forward and hit my head on the headrest. I would say about the same speed they do the bumper tests and pole tests and such. Maybe the fact that the car's hood that hit me was low sloping, so that it entirely came in contact with the diffuser and not the painted bumper. Either way, I'm just ranting and GLAD I don't need paint work/etc. If I was in my GF's Honda Accord that bumper would have cracked for SURE...

bringtherain

i think all cars are designed this way. The front is softer and collapses much easier under impact vs the rear. Friend got in a accident recently and his front is MESSED up, as in the radiator is now high fiving the engine. The guy he hit has barely any visible damage at all.

waiszeto

You are so nice...but I am sure your car will be fine

John CL500

Jct.... While I think its great that you speak about the MB ability to withstand a rear ender.....

Let me congratulate you on something else......Your KINDNESS and COMPASSION. It is a rare thing to see these days and I find it very admirable that you thought about the other guy(his tough day, condition of his car, etc.)

My Hats off to you!

John

Ben'sBenz

+1

Sportstick

+1 from me too!


On more thought, your story reminded me of two occurrences this past year. I got that gut-wrenching call from my wife, "I've been in an accident." The next words were, "I'm OK", but then I found out she was on I-275, a 5 lane portion of nearby interstate. Again, stop and go traffic, and the guy behind her did not stop in time. I had the time it took in rush hour traffic to drive the other way to find her, and it's interesting, on reflection, how the intensity of emotion builds even more strongly when it's happened to someone who you love rather than yourself. On arrival, I see that she is actually fine, but the rear fascia on her E350 is quiite damaged and pushed in and the exhaust on the driver side has been collapsed forward. The guy who hit her is about my age, in a Civic, with university faculty ID hanging from his rearview mirror. He was a quiet, humble, and sorry as one could imagine and all my pent-up feelings melted. The state troopers arrived and did their business and I looked at the car to see what was preventing it from being driveable...it made a strong scraping noise when moved on the shoulder. I could see it was just the left rear wheel well liner, which had been forced into the tire. I couldn't pull it off and I had no tools. So, I called MB roadside service and, by chance, my favorite tech from our dealer was on call and showed up in a fully painted/decorated ML with a full array of tools. He immediately saw what I did, and simply jacked up the car as if to change the tire, tore out the liner, and we were driveable again. Great of have MB service!! It took him less than 5 minutes to get us underway, and the look on the trooper and other driver's faces were priceless as they stood there with the destroyed front end of his Honda watching this level of service, while waiting for a tow truck. A new fascia and other bits at MotorWerks, and we were good as new.

A couple of months later, we were leaving a Blue Jays game at Rogers Field in Toronto. Some guy in a, wait for it, ......Civic....blindly backed out of his parking spot in the underground garage just as we were passing. My best evasive maneuver wasn't good enough and he just managed to hit...that new rear fascia. He was a nice guy too (lots of that in Canada!) and explained that I was his first accident. Honors! Back to MotorWerks, and the joys of working with an international insurance claim. Let's see how long this fascia lasts on her car, and I've warned her to stay away from Civics.

But, again, compliments jctevere, for your kindness to your fellow motorist!

dcjwlee

In one of my old cars I got rear ended by an (iirc) Honda Accord.

My bumper already had dings on it and I was in a great mood that morning.

Plus, the girl was a pretty young thing.

Unfortunately, my kindness and "nice car" did nothing to woo her at all.

To badd I am noht in lahw scuul and culdnt show her all my smart ticket avoeding skillz and take her home that night.

Scat01

Nice...ha

kendricksoares

dont worry man, karma will deffinetly come back to you.
Good to know theres people like you out there,

ucfbeta92

You did well, my friend. Good karma.

killerg

logged in to congratulate on being a decent human being

thumbs up

alexlev

Our W204s are taking a beating lately.

Two weeks back, a taxi cab "slammed" into the rear of my car. There was hardly any damage, just a little yellow paint that came right off with Meguiars Scratch X.

Upon impact I was sure that he had just put a dent in my bumper, but surprisingly there was no damage to be found so I let it slide.

jctevere

Thanks for all the support guys. Glad to hear from other people that I did the right thing. A bunch of friends (as many 21 year olds can be) were all saying I should have asked for money anyway... scumbags. lol.

Well, I finally put my car up on a lift at my garage and inspected for damage. I mainly concentrated on the exhaust since if my diffuser clipped out and was nicked over the exhaust tip, I would imagine the exhaust had to take some of the damage. It turns out that one muffler was slightly bent - no big deal (as it is still 100% function able and I would have never known it was bent unless I specifically checked for damage.

However, I'm not really upset, as I just had them remove my mufflers (something I was contemplating doing anyway) and I look at it as a good thing. Dang my car sure is loud, and combined with the x-pipe, surprisingly doesn't sound like the ricer I thought it would. Videos and pictures to follow!

Also, I had them mount my exhaust tips closer to where the diffuser ends (nearly flush) to prevent this damage from occurring again.