Am I the only idiot who has torn off my Prius' front bumper backing up?

lol they do that you know! It seems to happen to our drivers - lamposts, posts, parked cars, sides of buildings all just jump out in front of them from nowhere.

At least you can laugh about it now but I bet there were a few choice words spoken at the time!

 

yup

 

'specially after a pint or two.

 

We all have our moments that could qualify in the idiot category. If you're a politician or celebrity, your mishaps can create careers for reporters. Thanks for the bravery that it took to share your story. Perhaps your encounter will save someone else from a similar mishap with a high curb.

 

Yup. I scraped the passenger mirror on a concrete post in the parking garage at work.

I park there every day so it's not like I didn't know there was a post there.

We just get busy thinking about life and don't pay attention.

It happens. No biggie. No one hurt.

 

I did this a couple of times in my Audi A4, with its low chin, on parking bumpers. The snap-on tabs are now supplemented with bolts. I have learned to park away from the bumpers, so far so good with the Prius.

 

Sorry kgall, yours does not qualify as an idiot story. Now, the things *I* have done ...

A family friend came to visit with a rental car and parked in front of our house. Later that day I walked outside, looked at his rental car, then got into mine and backed right into the rental as if it was not there. Man, I hated having to walk into the house and tell everybody what that /crack/ sound was.

The friend had gotten into an accident driving our car a few years earlier, so I told him I had just extracted revenge

 

I see tons of Prius with curb rash, particularly on the right side of front bumper.

 

I have scrapes on both the right and left corners of the bumper cover. Basically, it rides low, and from the driver's seat, there is a total lack of visibility of the bumper area.
Really sucks.

 

I can't tell where the lower front bumper is when pulling up to a curb. Another time it embarrassed the hell out of me when I backed into a parking slot at a Cracker Barrel and scraped the rear bumper bottom on the freakin curb

Mike

 

How high are your curbs??

Just always, always, always reverse into garages, spaces, carports, driveways everything. so much safer to drive forwards out of these things, for you, your car, for other road users and pedestrians. the story above with the rental car could easily have been a child on a bicycle, and instead of an amusing anecdote it's a prison sentence.

 

The curbs in the US are high or low. None are the same. A rear camera would have prevented the curb rub. Gen III rental Prii don't have rear cameras here. Sad Toyota took that feature away as the 2009 Gen II Prii had rear cameras.

Mike

 

I have a nasty scrape in the passenger bottom side of my front bumper. Backing out of a space at church, the side curb was high and just chewed up my bumper. The under panel is hanging a little lower. I need to get under there and get it all pinned back up.

 

A front camera would be nice to go along with a rear camera.

Mike

 

I appreciate the OPs post simply for the fact that I am now making myself more aware of my under-car surroundings when I park. Its taking a bit to get used to be so low to the ground (after years in a SUV) .... and I never realized that some of the concrete parking stops in my work lot all have a good inch or so of rebar sticking out of the top of them. I now know to make sure to avoid those.

 

The underside of my front bumper area is hanging low. I don't care to fix it, since I know I will hit it again.

 

Not always possible as some jurisdictions enforce a policy of head-in parking. Would you believe my workplace used to have a similar policy?

Also not always necessary if you have a backup camera, which makes it just as safe.

On a separate note, my wife actually came home with a nasty curb rash on the front bumper around the right fog light on my car and honestly had no idea how it happened (during the actual driving). Fortunately, someone tapped my rear bumper at a gas station and I had both fixed at once.

 

How much did it cost to have them both spot repaired? I assume you had them spot repaired rather than a whole bumper spray and blend into the rest of the car?

tnx,
Mike

 

Repairing the rear bumper cover was $494.50, which I got reimbursed. It just had an imprint of the other car's front license plate embedded into the paint so it was skim coated and the entire bumper primed and repainted.

Repairing the lower right side was $368.48, which I paid out of pocket as that's below my deductible. I have no idea if it was spot repaired. You can't tell it was ever damaged now.