I am SO ANGRY!!!!!

Today at aprox 7:30 pm while getting a haircut a women walks into the barber shop and asks "is anyone here driving a blue Porsche". Right then I know I was not going to like the next few moments. Sure enough I leap out of the chair and go to the parking lot to see my beautiful 2003 996 with the rear bumper bashed in. She had no regard for anything and apparently just put her Mazda MPV minivan in reverse and hit the gas! Unreal how some people operate their cars, amazing! Anyway, she hit the left side of the rear bumber and but a nice 18 inch dent in the rear bumber cover and broke the tailight. That is good news i think since none of the paint on any metallic surface was damaged. I believe this means just replacing the bumper cover/tailight and all should be good? I called the police and they filed a report and immediately called her ins company(Allstate) which happens to be mine as well. I was told this should not affect my premiums as I have never made a claim in my lifetime. Does this affect the future selling value of the car What steps should i take? Has anyone replaced a rear or front bumper? Thanks....

relax, last time this happend to me, i don't even know who did it...... take a pic before u do anything.

At least she was honest and didn't hit and run! I would be thankful (though still Angry like you...) that it's just the bumper cover and light. Those things are separate parts, NOT the body panels.

yup... be thankful she came lookin for ya... that's a nice person you ran into bud.

yup,...now a days, people don't care and just leave you with the damage. Unfortunately, you have it right - the price of your car will take a hit...

That sucks, I have one that is almost as bad. I brought my car in to a high-end detail shop to be fully detailed ($450). They called me at the end of the day to tell me my car is done and that they were polishing the paint and they went right through it. YES, the detail shop burned a silver dollar size hole through the paint of my never been in a wreck or no major scratches Porsche. now I have to bring it in to have the entire qtr panel and part of the door painted. It just sucks! I would stay away from Sponges Detail shop in San Ramon CA.

Nah, bumper don't mean sh*t. Won't affect resale. It won't affect your premiums. They may just replace the bumper anyhow. Don't sweat it bro!! Coulda been worse.

Me too - I was in Roger Dunn and heard the same thing. "Anyone in here driving a black Porsche? I just saw someone hit it and leave. The alarm is still going off." That sucks, but at least you found someone to pay the bill.

Dude...someone rear ended my Audi at a stop-light...as we went to pull over he took off. Some people just suck! However..I agree with the concensus...it took honesty for the person to come look for you...even more-so considering it is a Porsche and the other person probably believes it will cost an arm and a leg based on perception. thanks, Amir

that was a rainning day, and when i walked to my car, damn, i parked my car ALL the way deep into the parking lot, a woman walking by gave me a strange look, i soon discovered what that mean.....but that woman is nowhere to be found.......

I have had my rear bumper replaced twice!!!!! If you can believe it, at the same intersection 2 years apart from someone talking on their cell phone and not paying attention both times when approaching the red light!!!! Trick is, at least in CA, is not to get the Police involved so a DMV record is not filed that could affect future resale. In fact, if there was no injury, the police will not even respond in CA, they just tell you to exchange Ins info and call it done.

lucky that she came to tell you!! She could have driven away and left you with the bill....If you get an new original bumper and a good paintjob...you resale value shouldn't go down...it is called a "bumper" after all!

I hate to use stereotypes but I would be willing to bet that if a guy hit you, he wouldn't be walking into the barber shop to tell you about it. Hell, if you were hit by a senior, chances are that the senior wouldn't have known that there was a collision. I was at the super market last Saturday evening and as I was walking to my car, I saw this guy who appeared to be in his mid 70s slowly back up into this gorgeous MB SL500. He was only going about 5 MPH when the impact occured but apparently the old guy was oblivious to what he did because when I finally got his attention, he denied doing the damage until I pointed out the black paint on his bumper which happened to match the black paint on the MB.

Buddy of mine had his Ferrari 360 hit in the passenger door by a 16 year old girl in a parking lot. She left, but put her contact info on a card on the windshield.

I would be greatful she stopped and looked for you. Around here no way that would happen, but it does suck big time. Did you find out how much the damage is yet?

Before you 'settle' on the paymant, have a Porsche pro take a look at the vehicle, including the internals, engine bay, underside, frame, etc.

Sorry to hear about the damage but don't worry too much, a good shop will make it good as new and you'll just have some inconvenience and a bad haircut. Regarding the quote above, a few months ago, a friend told me he saw a new Vette get hit in a parking lot by a woman in a Mercedes SUV. There were several witnesses but the Vette owner wasn't one of them. The woman calmly got out of her car with a piece of paper and pen, wrote something on the paper and tucked under the windshield wiper. Then, she got back in her car and drove away. When the Vette owner came out, somebody told him what happened. He was pissed - but much more so when he read the note and all it said was "Sorry I hit your car". No name, phone number, nothing... Nobody had written down the license of the SUV... MC

Thanks for the replys guys. I have everything in place to get it fixed. Unfortunately I am leaving for vacation Sat morning and gone all next week(always seems to work out that way). I also was signed up for Porscherama drivers Ed event in PA on Sept 16. The challenge is to get the car fixed and ready before then. Also, I have a few scratches on the car and I would like to get the front bumper cover resprayed as well. Perhaps I can use this as an opportunity to get these things done also. Any idea how to get there insurance to flip the bill for that too? THat would be a nice ending if I could swing that. Anyway, I will be bringing the car in tomorrow. I cant stand the sight of it right now. Cheers..

get the repair done by a reputable shop and it'll be as good as new. take a few pics of the damage with the bumper cover off too. there may be some damage behind bumper cover. if you document the repair and it's not serious, value of the car shouldn't drop too much. you maybe able to get diminished value compensation. kudo to the honest woman. 90% of people will just run....

To me this looks like a perfect opportunity to get the ROW bumper without the bumperettes.

Just make sure you have copy of the police report and lots of pics in regards to resale. Since it was reported, it'll probably go on the carfax. If I was a potiential buyer, I might be turned off at first with the carfax. Upon your explanation and pics though, I'd probably neg. off $1-2K off your asking price and just buy the car anyway.

996 is not a collectable, at least not in 15 years. so match # is not importent. keep pic. so your buyer know this is only a bumper, not anything big. and get a good paint job. that's it. shouldn't affect your resale value. hack, isn't 996 price low enough??

So sitting still on Sacramento Street near Drum in downtown SF a while ago, I watch as a phone using bozo gets into his brand new Volvo POS SUV, pull into traffic, stop, put it in reverse and back down Sacramento 50 yards driving right on top of my left front fender/hood and almost ending up in the cabin. Called it my fault.

I agree with Eric. When mine went in for repair, there was a bent heatshield that was not noticeable at first. I had a neighbor (that would not admit to doing this) that did the following to my car Nobody took responsability for it, so consider yourself "lucky" that someone took the time to accept their mistake. Sad that being an honest person is the exception, not the rule. $500 later and mine is as good as new.

good smokes...that hurts!! But...let me ask you this. When you say $ 500 later she is as good as new, are you referring to your deductible or is that ALL it took to fix that? Reason why I am asking, my 99 Carrera 4 is black and is showing some of its age on the front bumper due to the carelessness of the previous owner...how much would it take to bring it down and have it repainted?

If I may, I would suggest that folks not post questions asking how to commit insurance fraud on a public site. Obviously that was not what you meant, of course, but some people might misinterpret your question and make a bad assumption. I would suspect, however, that since the shop already has to mix up and match the paint, and you're already there anyway, that they would give you a break on the price and the additional work on the front bumper shouldn't cost much. Some disreputable shops might even bump up the original estimate to cover incidentals like respraying other parts of the car, but no one here would ever ask for that. Good luck. I concur with the other folks who said you are lucky that the woman did hunt you down and admit fault, that was decent of her. Personally, I would have left a note, but many people probably would have just hauled butt out of there and left it all in your lap. Michael

What is it about San Francisco and crappy drivers? While parked at the corner of Steuart and Folsom doing some work at a computer facility, I parked my car a couple of spots from the intersection. I came back out an hour later to find my car had been the victim of someone trying to squeeze past other vehicles to make a right turn. The a***o*** scraped every panel on my left side except for the roof! No note, no witnesses even though I was parked adjacent to a roach coach eaterie. $10K and 3 months later, I got my car back :-{ .

Be glad she had insurance. My A4 was hit a few years ago and that driver had no insurance. Talk about fun, it was not my fault and i am the one who had to pay.

My $500 bill was to remove the bumper, take the "ding" out, repaint, re bend heat shield, re mount bumper at a top notch place. The owner is a friend of mine and labor is cheap down here I paid for it out of my pocket as all I have is basic insurance on the car

Well I certainly am fortuntate that the woman came looking for me but it certainly was not out of her good heart to do this, she had no choice. She was pulling out of of Karate School with her sons and there was an audiance of people looking at this side show in the lot. There was no less than 10 people gathered round looking at my car when she came to get me so she couldn't exactly pull a "hit and run" at that point!!! Not so sure she would have stuck around otherwise, my gut feeling is no becasue she was terrified speaking to her husband on the cellphone and telling him she hit a Porsche!! Soething tells me this woman had done this before, complete carelessness. You would not believe how far my car was from her minivan, she must have had it in reverse quite some time and not looking behind her!!!!!! Unreal....

I got rear ended turning left into a park where a local PCA concourse was occurring not too long ago here in CA. Damage to bumper and tailpipe. Thought for sure it would be uninsured, but it all worked out, although it was a close call. Went to a friend's restoration shop. The paint job is a better match than the original Seal grey ;-). Paint and metal is all the same to a body shop, so choose the shop carefully. I got some notoriety at the concourse, but not really the kind I would like... Oh, yeah. If there is only one thing you get out of an accident, don't forget the other driver's insurance POLICY NUMBER. Nothing else matters. Not license plate, name, driver's license, address, NOTHING. Only the policy number. Maybe this was just this particular insurance company, but I suspect not... Oh, yeah #2. Unless you're spurting blood on the street, the CHP does not want to come. I called CHP. Was told the closest unit was 40 miles and 2 hrs away. I told the lady I just passed a CHP speed trap not 5 miles ago. Wasn't available...

Are the license plates in Panama only numeric? Interesting ... Also, how much does a basic C2 cost? From where I come (India), a C2 currently costs US$ 135,595 !

Yes, plates here only 6 digit numeric and no such thing as "special order" for numbers or letters as in the States (too bad ). My plate is quasi illegal since we have to put the standard issue plates (USA sized) but since they ran out for my car, I can get away with this for a while! I can tell you that a bare bones 997 C2 S goes for $140K. A Cayman S is $90K. Since the local stealer will not accept any Porsche that he has not sold into his shop, they have a monopoly on the used car market so a used 996 cost a LOT more than in the States