Another Vibe accident!

[Baltovibe]

Been recently reading all the posts on numerous accidents that our GenVibe members have been having, and wondering when my time would come.Well, I need to wonder no more. This evening, someone rear-ended my Vibe, hitting at about 5MPH (my best guess).Surprisingly, there is basically no damage I can see, other than a scuffed rear bumper. The bumper is not out of alignment at all. It was a good jolt, and I was surprised at the lack of apparent damage.The car that hit me, a 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix, had much more damage. The grill was bashed in, and his hood was bent. If it weren't for his damage, I don't think the police would have believed that an accident occurred.I will have the Vibe inspected by a repair facility, just to be sure there is no hidden damage. I would take pics, but really there is little to show.I am really impressed on how the Vibes seem to hold up and protect us.

[joholste]

dang that's kinda craxy woulda been nice to have a trailer hitch then. really f*** up his grill. sorry i just have a special place in my heart for people who rear end people i'd like to see them all get messed up good.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by Baltovibe »I will have the Vibe inspected by a repair facility, just to be sure there is no hidden damage.Good. I think part of the bumperr is a tight styrofoam (or is it polystyrene) block, that may have hidden damage of some sort. Even at low speeds getting tail ended can be a shock. Hope you had your headrest adjusted properly. Did you see it coming, or was it a surprise?Sounds like your Vibe took revenge on the car that dared to hit it. Don't be messing with that Vibe!

[AKLGT]

glad you are ok.

[ColonelPanic]

Eek, glad you're doing alright!

[tecton]

as soon as i felt the hit i would have keeled over and waited for paramedics to revive younot to get anything, just to scare them

[tnpartsguy]

look under your bumper, there are two small supports. If they break, your bumper cover becomes a parachute, and flaps. I know this from expereince. They are also not very cheap!

[ColonelPanic]

You're talking about the cheapo plastic bracket thingies under there, right?I know mine are broken, and they've been found broken on numerous Vibes that have never been wrecked or have had any force put upon the bumper. How much for two of those?

[ragingfish]

Mine are broken. Have been for ages. Won't replace them until trade-in time.But back OT, 5mph f'ed up a GP that badly? DAMN!

[JustinVGT]

Glad to hear you are alright and that your Vibe wasn't damaged much. I've been rear ended three times and each time the damage was only a scuffed up/cracked bumper that had to be replaced. It still costs over $800 for them to replace the rear bumper. The worst time I was rear ended traffic in front of me slammed on their brakes while going around 60mph. I stopped in time, but the Acura behind me didn't and hit me. He was able to slow down quite a bit before impact, but still it was a hard hit. His car's bumper and hood were quite messed up, but my Vibe just had a scraped up and cracked bumper. I thought it would have been much worse. I'm taking my Vibe to the shop today to get the recent front end damage appraised. I wonder how much this will cost.

[Baltovibe]

Well, just settled the accident from Avis and my dealer ... the total cost was $600 including labor. The dealer replaced the rear bumper shell and the styrofoam insert and labor to glue the stuff in. All the other support parts held up fine. The bumper shell took over 6 weeks to arrive ... wondering if that is a heavily demanded part?

[POLO]

Sorry to hear.Some people parked their car or move rear with the sound.They move rear until they hear a crack sound or something.Then they know they arrive at the limit to change direction.

[Mavrik]

glad to hear your ok.My vibe suffered it first stone chip... whats weird is it appears in the glass... the surface is smooth with two small marks where the stone hit..

[ramenboy...]

hey baltoglad you're ok, and everything got fixed. happened to me back in april, and my daughter was in the back seat. first thing i worried about was if she was ok. i knew she was when she looked at me and said 'what the...' and then, by the way it felt, a picture of a caved in rear hatch flashed through my head. i got out, looked, and like you, had a scratched up bumper. nothing else. the buick electra that hit me didn't fair so well...grill was busted up, so was one headlight. the driver had no insurance and he just wanted to get out of there, and he didn't speak english well, so that was thatanyways, glad you're safe

[JustinVGT]

Glad to hear you got it all fixed. $600 isn't bad. I've had 3 rear bumpers and each time it was just over $800 for the entire claim for each one, although that also included the rentals. There was no damage except for replacing the plastic bumper. I was rear ended for the fourth time last month and just got my Vibe back last week. My Vibe just loves to be rear-ended, but there's not much I can do about the morons tailgaiting, talking on cell phones, and not paying attention.

[mcgusto82]

i want a picture of those plastic brackets uyou guys are talking about.glad too hear it all went well too.

[BigMac]

Quote, originally posted by JustinVGT » My Vibe just loves to be rear-ended, but there's not much I can do about the morons tailgaiting, talking on cell phones, and not paying attention. Anytime someone tailgates me, I like to scare them by pumping the brake pedel. Usually after a couple of times they back off a little, maybe they think I'm a lunatic driver, but I don't care, as long as they stay the hell away from my bumper.

[Baltovibe]

Quote, originally posted by tecton »as soon as i felt the hit i would have keeled over and waited for paramedics to revive younot to get anything, just to scare themTecton raises a good point. When the accident happened, the other driver was out-of-state, driving a rented vehicle. He could not produce any valid information (had a driver's license from a state he did not live in, could not locate the registration for the vehicle, and had no insurance information). Yet, the police would not file an accident report, saying that the only way they will file a report is if there was personal injury involved, according to Maryland state law.I then mentioned that it appeared I was not hurt, but maybe any potential injuries might not show up for a day or so. The police replied that they could issue an ambulance, and have my car towed to a storage lot. However, if it was found out later that I was not injured, they would file a false police report charge on me!I took the easiest and riskiest route ... gathered what information I could, and hoped that Avis would make good on it. In the end, it did work out ok for me, but it still erks me that without injuries, an accident becomes a "he said, she said" type scenerio, with no proof on what really happened.Now, I carry a digital camera with me, and am actually thinking of installing a video camera on the Vibe somehow.

[vibebob]

I forgot the name of the company, but we had a safety expo at work (city of college station) and there was a company that sells a video camera - kind of a black box deal - that records video and audio from a camera installed on the dash. I think I have a CD at work with the company name. They have some great videos, like a cab driver that said another car just pulled out in from of him when he hit it.. the video shows him turing around and talking to his passenger and not looking at the road and runs into the other car.

[vibebob]

sorry for the delay, I couldn't find the disk until today.The name of the company that makes the dashcams is drivercam, http://www.drivercam.com is the URL.it really is a neat device, has one camera pointed out the dash and the other at the driver.