"That's what bumpers are for."

Stallingrad

Inspired by the plastic bag on the car thread how about this one?

Sitting in your car, and someone parking bangs into the front or rear of you car. You give the "WTF" look and they respond dissmisively with, "That's what bumpers are for."

It happened to me once, I was in car with proper bumpers (BMW E34) so no harm done, but the attitude stinks, mainly because modern painted bumpers are useless, but that is a rant for another day.

Timberrrrrrrr

Stallingrad wrote: »

Inspired by the plastic bag on the car thread how about this one?

Sitting in your car, and someone parking bangs into the front or rear of you car. You give the "WTF" look and they respond dissmisively with, "That's what bumpers are for."

It happened to me once, I was in car with proper bumpers (BMW E34) so no harm done, but the attitude stinks, mainly because modern painted bumpers are useless, but that is a rant for another day.

Get out and look at your bumper, Any damage then just start taking insurance details and pics.

tossy

Give them a boot up the hole and then look at them dismissively and say that's what arse fat is for

cadaliac

Things have moved on a good bit since bumpers were actual bumpers. They are pedestrian friendly painted pieces of expensive plastic that are designed to be replaced by your car dealer when broken. Anyone who thinks that hitting them with another car without doing some sort of damage is an ass hat.

YbFocus

When someone does this to me, or the door into the side of your car either. . .

I instantly want to kill them
If they gave me that as a response I just might!

Cee-Jay-Cee

Get out holding your neck and go to their windscreen and start writing down or photographing their insurance disc. That'll learn them.

cormie

Am I the only one who has absolutely no problem with people tipping off my bumpers here so? Don't they park without the handbrake on in Paris so other cars can actually nudge them forward if on a tight parallel park?

porsche boy

cormie wrote: »

Am I the only one who has absolutely no problem with people tipping off my bumpers here so? Don't they park without the handbrake on in Paris so other cars can actually nudge them forward if on a tight parallel park?

Let's see you have that attitude when you've paid thirty something grand for a car and someone decides to 'blind park' by repetedly bumping and scuffing your new car.

naughtysmurf

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Get out holding your neck and go to their windscreen and start writing down or photographing their insurance disc. That'll learn them.

Even better, keep a neck collar in the glove box & put it on as you are getting out of your car. Don't stop screaming until the ambulance doors close

visual

Even though we all call them bumpers they are bumper covers. The actual bumper is deep inside and looks nothing like bumpers of old like the big heavy crome bar at the front and rear of cars in 70's and 80's

Guy:Incognito

porsche boy wrote: »

Let's see you have that attitude when you've paid thirty something grand for a car and someone decides to 'blind park' by repetedly bumping and scuffing your new car.

Or after a couple of grand worth of fiberglass work on the body of an elise. Happened to my cousin 2 or 3 times in a few months when he lived in rathgar. People thinking "ah sure it's only a tip". The front end was smashed to bits.

porsche boy

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Or after a couple of grand worth of fiberglass work on the body of an elise. Happened to my cousin 2 or 3 times in a few months when he lived in rathgar. People thinking "ah sure it's only a tip". The front end was smashed to bits.

Between that and needing a head gasket every time he started, he must have won the lotto!!!


Only sagging, have a lot of time and desire for Lotus's.....lotus'.......loti.... What ever the plural is.

cormie

porsche boy wrote: »

Let's see you have that attitude when you've paid thirty something grand for a car and someone decides to 'blind park' by repetedly bumping and scuffing your new car.

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Or after a couple of grand worth of fiberglass work on the body of an elise. Happened to my cousin 2 or 3 times in a few months when he lived in rathgar. People thinking "ah sure it's only a tip". The front end was smashed to bits.

I guess a motors forum is the wrong place to hold an opinion different than the immaculateness of metal. Of course I'm not saying actual damage should be acceptable, but a light nudge surely isn't something to get worked up about. And somebodies €1,000 micra might be just as valuable to them as your €30,000 porsche is to you.

Rowley Birkin QC

cormie wrote: »

I guess a motors forum is the wrong place to hold an opinion different than the immaculateness of metal. Of course I'm not saying actual damage should be acceptable, but a light nudge surely isn't something to get worked up about. And somebodies €1,000 micra might be just as valuable to them as your €30,000 porsche is to you.

It's the principle of the thing too. Don't fcuk with other people's stuff, regardless of it's inherent or financial value.

It's a very, very simple rule.

Rippy

Lightly touched the bumper of a recent Mitsubishi 4x4 when reversing my van to enable an ambulance to get through . Resulting damage was a 3mm paint chip .
She was pleasant and polite as I was , never heard any thing for a few weeks then got phone call and estimate for €250 repair bill .
I paid it , as she was within her rights and entitled to it , but honestly if situation was reversed I would have let it go . After all stone chips will do more damage ...

NIMAN

Technically they are correct, thats what they are for. And with bumps at very slow speeds they actually do their job.

I have bumped one of my cars into hers a couple of times at the house, and never any damage, despite one of them being a hefty enough bump.

Guy also ran into the back of me one day as I was waiting at a junction, he thought I was moving out but didn't and he did. It might have only been a couple of mph but it was a decent jolt that I felt, but again bumpers did their job. No damage at all. Not even a scuff.

visual

It's a bumper cover how do you know there is no damage behind bumper.

Bump my car you'll be paying to have it checked out even if there is no visible damage.

cormie

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

It's the principle of the thing too. Don't fcuk with other people's stuff, regardless of it's inherent or financial value.

It's a very, very simple rule.

I'd hardly call lightly touching a bumper ****ing with other people's stuff. I'd be afraid to get onto a packed train with anyone who thought that, in fear of being done for assault if I happen to sway into someone with the motion of the meandering train along a country rail.:pac:

Guy:Incognito

cormie wrote: »

I guess a motors forum is the wrong place to hold an opinion different than the immaculateness of metal. Of course I'm not saying actual damage should be acceptable, but a light nudge surely isn't something to get worked up about. And somebodies €1,000 micra might be just as valuable to them as your €30,000 porsche is to you.

Your last line is at odds with the rest.

It's also the point most people are making. Some people that spend 30k on a car may not want some asshats touching it for now other reason than it cost them 30k. Other people place their own value on a car that cost them 500. That's their choice and if they don't want any scratches added to it.

It's very easy to damage the panels behind the cover and leave no evidence on the outside. A neighbour reversed in to my mothers car a few years back, she took a look at the bumper cover and saw a light scratch and sent them on their way. Months later when she got a flat and discovered the spare wheel was jammed in to the well in the boot because it was crushed did she realise it wasnt such an innocuous tip.


If you had 10k in cash and someone decided to take 3 or 4 fivers off it, would you be OK with that?

cormie

It's not really at odds with the rest, it's been assumed that I only have the opinion I do, based on the assumption that I haven't spent €30,000 on a vehicle. I'm saying that somebody can still very much value their vehicle, but not let a slight bit of contact be cause for pursuit of damages.

Again, I'm talking about when it's pretty clear that the level of contact would not cause any damage so taking a few fiver's off a stash of €10K wouldn't be comparable, it would be more like crumbling up a few fiver's on a perfectly neat stack of 10K.

For me, the pursuit of material perfection is not worth stressing over, having 6 vehicles driven by various drivers, I'd be driven demented if I let it get to me. Just the other day I had one driver say he thought I was going to eat the head off him after he put a 1.5m long deep scrape in the side of my van. His head remains in tact.

Hachiko

Irish people are just ignorant, and the bumper on a 98 micra is the same as a bumper on a new Merc or whatever to these people. They have no appreciation of the actual cost of bumpers let alone things like factory fitted parking sensors which are expensive indeed.

Tea 1000

cormie wrote: »

It's not really at odds with the rest, it's been assumed that I only have the opinion I do, based on the assumption that I haven't spent €30,000 on a vehicle. I'm saying that somebody can still very much value their vehicle, but not let a slight bit of contact be cause for pursuit of damages.

Again, I'm talking about when it's pretty clear that the level of contact would not cause any damage so taking a few fiver's off a stash of €10K wouldn't be comparable, it would be more like crumbling up a few fiver's on a perfectly neat stack of 10K.

For me, the pursuit of material perfection is not worth stressing over, having 6 vehicles driven by various drivers, I'd be driven demented if I let it get to me. Just the other day I had one driver say he thought I was going to eat the head off him after he put a 1.5m long deep scrape in the side of my van. His head remains in tact.

An accidental tip is an accidental tip, and if it's sub-3km/hr then it should be harmless enough, but it's the attitude in general that bugs me. You shouldn't set out with any attitude of "Ah sure it doesn't matter if I hit that, it's only a '98" or "ah sure that's what bumpers are for".
At least have the decency to apologise for tipping someone's car. Same way you'd apologise for treading on their toes. I'd be annoyed with a scratch put on my car by someone being careless, but if it was only a small enough scratch and they apologised, I'd just let it go, albiet annoyed for a few hours! But no point in stressing or chewing the face off them for it.
But if they glared with the "wha da fuk? Isn't that what they're there for?" then they'd get an earful.

Jesus.

Agree with Cormie. Folk get worked up a bit too easily these days IMO.

Still, respect for other people's property. If someone nudged me by accident its no problem. If they were assholes who felt they'd the right to do as they please then its different.

You have to give a bumper a hefty enough nudge to do damage, IE chipping paint etc.

GarIT

Jesus. wrote: »

You have to give a bumper a hefty enough nudge to do damage, IE chipping paint etc.

You really wouldn't, you could do a fair amount of damage by pressing with your hand, there's a lot more force behind a vehicle travelling at 1km/h than a hard push from a hand. Given that force is speed x mass. The car would do much more damage than a human.

Society needs to learn to respect others property more and the condition it is in. Just don't do anything to other peoples stuff without their permission.

The only person that can choose if it is ok to bump into their car is the owner, if you don't know how the owner of the other car feels about it don't do it.

I didn't know this was even a thing.

wandererz

Would you ever try "lightly touching" some strangers breasts and then expect to get away with it??

No, i think not. Same with other peoples vehicles.

GarIT

Some people here don't seem to realize it but bumpers are a safety device and their structural integrity is of vital importance to your safety. Bumpers are a one use item, just like airbags and for best results must be replaced or professionally inspected when used even if there is no visible damage.

Marcusm

Jesus. wrote: »

Agree with Cormie. Folk get worked up a bit too easily these days IMO.

Still, respect for other people's property. If someone nudged me by accident its no problem. If they were assholes who felt they'd the right to do as they please then its different.

You have to give a bumper a hefty enough nudge to do damage, IE chipping paint etc.

Basically you are advocating "turn the other cheek". Seems to be proof of the theory of nominative determinism.

Sheldons Brain

wandererz wrote: »

Would you ever try "lightly touching" some strangers breasts and then expect to get away with it??

I occasionally bump into people and they into me. A simple apology does the trick. If you are in Grafton Street shopping today you may brush against several people in the hustle and bustle.

cormie

wandererz wrote: »

Would you ever try "lightly touching" some strangers breasts and then expect to get away with it??

No, i think not. Same with other peoples vehicles.

cormie wrote: »

I'd be afraid to get onto a packed train with anyone who thought that, in fear of being done for assault if I happen to sway into someone with the motion of the meandering train along a country rail.:pac:

So not only would you want to do somebody for assault, but you've sexualised it now too?