Did I make the dent?

Question

okay, can anyone help me with my dillemma? I desperatley need advice....
Okay, so the other day I was in a little fender bender. This is what happened: I was stuck in traffic, and cars were budging along slowly...then when I drove forward just a little bit and started braking, my car started skidding on the ice....I was going 10 m.p.h. MAX......I bumped into the rear of a 1999 chevrolet silverado pick up truck with my 1998 isuzu trooper. The wierd part is this.....The man driving the pickup claims that I made the small dent that was on his rear bumper....but the wierdest part is that although he had a small dent, with none of my paint on it, my front bumper which is made of plastic didnt get a scratch on it...and the dent was in a wierd place, I have no idea how my car couldve made the dent.....Does this sound fishy to anyone else...I mean, I wouldve thought that my bumper wouldve gotten atleast a scratch or fallen off because my bumper was loose at the start. And his bumper was.

his bumper was made of metal....it just sounds a little od that my bumper didnt even have paint chipped off.

and he sent me a bill for an entire new bumper for his car. he didnt want to have the insurnce or police involved...is this odd?what should I do?

Answer 1

Forget about it. If he did not call the cops, he has no proof to even take you to court. Sounds like he is looking for a free bumper

Answer 2

This is tough, as I doubt you will have another opportunity to line up your vehicles for an impact match.

Personally, I suspect he's looking for a free bumper, but I wasn't there and am only hearing your side.

Maybe it's a matter of $$.... You have a deductible no doubt, say maybe $250 to $500? How does that compare to his repair bill for the new bumper, bearing in mind your insurance rate may go up for a while. Which will cost you the least grief? I'm guessing he's quoting $1500. In which case you might be better of going through insurance if you don't have one of those "forgiveness" plans.

Answer 3

Don't pay for anything until you file a police report, which you sould have done in the first place. It is very suspicious that he doesn't want the police or insurance companies involved, my guess would be that he doesn't have insurance or has warrants. I hope you were smart enough to take pictures of the scene, because now that the "crime scene" has been altered, they don't really have any way of checking to see if your car could have made the dent in the pickup's bumper.

Answer 4

See if anywhere on your bumper will line up with the dent. If not then most likely not. Your car will defineatly have a scrape on it as you bumped something. See where that is and then look his over for a bit of a scuff.
Sounds like the Moron wants a new Bumper.

Answer 5

I would arrange to meet with him and both your vehicles and then pull up behind his vehicle and see if the dent area even lines up with anything that could have caused it. The chances of your plastic bumper denting that steel one is fishy.

Answer 6

Call you insurance company right now. They have claims agents & auto damage adjusters who are trained to detect these kinds of things.
It could be an old dent, and he could have already made a claim on it, that's why he doesn't want insurance involved.

Answer 7

that jerk was waiting for some chippie to hit him and it happened to be you , since the cops or insurance were not involved don't pay , but beware , he will pester you about it

Answer 8

unless he called cops and insurance,,forget it