Rear ended by a honda
 

Hey guys, sad news today and just a heads up for anybody neglecting having their brakes serviced. Was going down one of the local roads today just crusing at the posted speed limit and come up to a traffic light with a whole bunch of cars in front of me that were stopped for a red light. Guy in front of me semi slammed on his brakes and i was a good 20 or 30 feet behind him so i stop a little quicker than normal, but not slamming on the brakes by any means. i come to a full stop and low and behold i look in my rear view mirror to see a late model honda accord that is approximately 50 feet behind me and he didnt seem to be slowing down and then it happens....at about the 30 foot mark behind me he finally slams on his brakes and i hear his tires screech, but then i hear something different....no tire screech and i see his car lunge forward a few feet while i could see he's attempting to stop and then followed by me seeing his front end tilt downward as his car re engages the brakes but it was to late, i had no escape route with cars to my right side and a concrete barrier to my left and i hear a loud "boom!" from behind my seat. Needless to say he hit me, we both turn our hazards on and get out to check the damage when the first thing i hear him say is "i didnt see your brake lights against the sun". I remained as calm as i could and exchanged insurance information with him which he tried to get out of doing by saying he would pay for the damages himself, but of course i insisted that i get his information and while i was at it i took a closer look at the damage....not that bad considering how loud it sounded, just a small imprint left from his license plate and a few small scratches. Aside from that no other visible damage...just goes to show you...never ever neglect servicing your brakes.

P.S.

Just wondering if anyone would suggest asking the adjuster when they call me tomorrow about diminshed value as my car is only 3 months old now?

Sorry to hear that. Glad that you are OK though.

thanks pedel, sad thing is i was on the way to the car wash to scrub her down nice and clean too :(

California is not a diminished value state. I doubt you will get it from his insurance company unless you get a lawyer. Best to call your insurance company right away. Good luck with repairs

so where did this happen? Fullerton area?

Glad it wasn't too much damage. But are you saying your brake lights weren't working?

no my brake lights were definitely working, the guy just wasnt able to see them due to the sun light being in his eyes according to him. As far as where it happened it was in westminster around westminster ave. and magnolia ave.

sorry to hear, z-ealot. :( hang in there.

Sorry to hear and very glad you are ok! Good luck with the repairs.

Sorry to hear about your accident. I am always afraid of this in my car as the Z can stop so quickly and others may not be able to (even asssuming they are paying attention).

Have your car checked thoroughly. You would be surprised to see what is behind the rear fascia that is designed to protect you....bumper armature, energy absorbing foam blocks, etc. This should all be replaced if damaged and not just the fascia.

That whole sunlight excuse is BS if you ask me. If he can't see hazards in the road he has no business driving.

Even is he couldn't see the lights, he should be able to tell when a car is slowing down regardless. Otherwise, take his license or get him some glasses.

Thanks for all the support everyone and yes i will have them thoroughly check it as from past experience i know there is alot more to the back bumper than just the fascia, probably will have them check the suspension just in case too. Kinda sucks though that california is not a diminished value state as now i have to take a hit on the value of the car as a whole, considering i plan on keeping it for a very long time though i guess its not so bad. as for the whole "sunlight in my eyes" excuse that the other driver gave me i didnt put much weight in it either as i could see the cars in front of me just fine and was able to stop with no fuss. Just another driver not paying attention is all i chalk it up to.

Drivers in SoCal are the worst when it comes to not paying attention to their driving. I hate that.

yah, that glare is terrible if the person's car had dirty glass especially on the inside and sun hits it.

we car guys clean the inner glass like every few weeks but normal folks dont clean it at all... :icon14:

Damn I was just around that area not too long ago getting some dim sum XD Glad you're okay though. Being in that area though is like asking to be rear ended.. especially around Bolsa..

What, sun reflecting off his iPhone blinded him while texting? **** excuse. Sorry it happened.

I have four words for you. "INSURANCE PAID BODY-KIT".

That sucks, man :(. Luckily, you weren't hurt (and the car wasn't too messed up).

Bummer. I used to always feel nervous driving in Westminster when I lived in Orange County. I had a lot of close calls there and tried to avoid it.

Sorry to hear that! Hope you are OK.

glad your ok

This just means the insurance company can add language in the policy to exclude it, it doesn't mean your insurance company won't pay it in California. I would assume it would depend on who you are insured with.

Ooh sorry to hear about your accident. Good to hear it's not major, so hopefully it's just a replacement of the bumper cover.

Sorry about your car. I hate when people give you BS stories when they are in the wrong... just say: sorry dude i'm a stupid driver.

just wondering if anyone know of any good collision repair shops in the orange county area, insurance company gave me a list of their top 5 approved body shops, but was wondering if anyone had any good experiences with any one in particular? the 3 that actually have names listed on their list are Hi-Tech collision, Imperial body shop and Cerritos auto body.

lol, thats a good one...i kinda like the stock look though...hell even tonight i got a "nice car" from the kid working the mcdonalds drive through even with the minor damage in the back :D

I took my car to Cerritos Nissan Collision Center. They did a good job on fixing my car after my accident. They have a lifetime warranty on the paint and they use OEM parts only.

Damn that sucks man, glad your alright...every time I touch my brakes I'm always watching my *** for those idiots who are texting, doing makeup, and have a McDonald's Big Mac shoved up their mouth and aren't paying attention.

The sunlight isn't and excuse the other driver can use. That means they were driving too fast for the conditions. Have a very good body shop examine your car, lots of damage could be underneath. File a claim.

done and done man, didnt have my phone on me at the time the accident happened but went straight home right after the accident and called up my insurance company and got things rolling. Most likely going to get off work early tomorrow and take a trip up to cerritos nissan as another member here already suggested. i can already tell that the impact foam will most likely have to be replaced as the back fascia is a little loose fitting now towards the middle where it wasnt loose at all before.

This is why I call Westminster "The Gauntlet." Little Saigon and Korea Town are like THE WORST places to drive in Southern California. Hell, I'd rather take my chances in downtown L.A. than those places.

Haha, seriously, if an accident happened to me as well, I'd might as well get a full Amuse kit paid and sprayed. OEM bumpers are technically "very expensive."

Yours or their's? Who is the other insurance company? Because they should be paying whatever shop you choose. For all I know, their insurance company is just fucktarded and tried to cheapen **** out.

Maybe Im missing what servicing your brakes has to do with this story? Sounds like the person who hit you was simply a dumbass...

Damn, I would get the amuse kit haha

I rear ended a Honda one morning on my way to work.. heres the story. i was just following the traffic and kept a decent distance from the car in front of me.. That guy in Honda cut right in front of me. right after he did that, the whole traffic slowed down (rush hour) and he slammed on the brake. the second i saw his brake lights i was like "poop.." then "boom".. i rear ended him. surprisingly, there's only a very small crack underneath the left headlight on the bumper and cracked the emblem. other than that, there's not even a scratch.. his bumper was pretty messed up though. considering im getting a 'Z' emblem and possibly a new body kit someday, and the Honda driver didnt really speak English... I let him go. whats up with those Honda drivers?? lol

sorry to hear about your fender bender. same thing happened to me couple of
months ago but it was a cop who rear ended me. man was his face red when he got out of his car. it was about 800.00 in damages. i let the dealership fix it because i trust them. just make sure you get a life time warranty.

yeah i know now that westminster is a hell made for cars, nobody had told me about that before i posted about my little fender bender here lol. As for the names of the body shops that i provided, that was straight from the list my insurance company gave me, but they did say that i could choose whatever body shop i wanted, but that the work would only be guaranteed for the life of the car if i went through one of the shops on their list. as fas as the whole thing about me making a point to service your brakes is because i could see the other guys car visibly trying to stop and failing to do so due to what looked like his brakes giving out at one point when i was looking at his car coming up on me in my rearview, that or like one of my coworkers suggested he might have let up on his brakes for a second to try and slam on them harder. whatever it was i know my brakes saved me from lunging forward into the person in front of me, gotta thank the good old akebono for that :)

I posted this in a previous rear-ender thread:

Warning to anyone who gets rear ended like this...No matter how insignificant the damage looks don't just let them walk away! I swear this Z has a magic bumber that is fantastic for hiding damage.
I was rear ended back in December while stopped in traffic. Some lady smacked into the back of me hard enough to give me a good jerk and throw me against the seat belt. After we pull over to the side of the freeway and I get out to see how bad the damage was I was shocked that there really wasn't any. I found one small abrasion. She was like "well, it doesn't look bad at all" and I was like "well, lets see what the police think" and called 911 to get a cop and a report. Cop shows up and says "well I don't see any damage, do you? In cases like this we just exchange insurance info and don't file a report." I'm like ok, whatever lazy ***. Insurance adjuster comes out and takes some pics and writes an estimate of $450 to touch up the scuff. The scuff was so small I couldn't even get a good picture of it. And I nearly pocketed the $450 check the insurance company sent me. Well, glad I didn't. I take it into the Nissan Collision Center and when they get the bumper off they found the inner bumper was bent, the extension from the frame to the bumper was bent, and the floorboards were bent. New total came out to be $4,800.
So, moral of the story: no matter how minor rear end damage looks get it at least inspected.

amen to that man, i have been through this one time before when someone backed into me on my previous car and it ended up the whole driver side door needed to be replaced so i dont take chances with things that dont look that bad from the outside. i already know for a fact the impact foam will have to be replaced on the inside as i can push in on the outside fascia and it gives way only in the spot where the guy hit my back end and after further inspection today in some different lighting i can see a small crease on the rear fascia where it gave way and bent back outwards again. im going to be taking it into nissan of cerritos here in orange county to get them to inspect it and see what they come up with and have them check out the suspension and everything on the backend while they are at it once i get it in for repair.

Pics?!?