guy in a miata hit me...lol
 

I was on I-4 yesterday at rush hour on my way home, when I see in my rear view mirror an older guy in a miata just weaving in and out of traffic, and riding people's tails. You know making the stupid moves that risk everyone's safety and gain him all of about 2 seconds...

anyway, sure enough he squeezed in behind me and I could barely even see him in the mirror. So I touched the brake enough to make the lights come on just to back him off a little, which he did. Naturally he then whipped around me and got boxed in...

So that was that...I thought. I got to the right lane to get on the 528 and he made his way over behind me, then as the ramp started to seperate from the interstate, he jumped into the crosshatching to try to pass me on the left. He quickly ran out of pavement and tried to get in front of me but didn't have room........and I sure wasn't about to slow down to accomodate his doucheness.

Well his rear passenger fender caught my front driver fender. Being that I am in a Ram, and him in a Miata - naturally he bounced off and spun in front of me off the right side of the ramp...

at this point I stopped and got out to see if it did anything to the truck, and see what his problem was...right about then I noticed him speed off up the ramp. So I hopped back in and thank goodness the people up ahead were cool enough to block him in on the narrow ramp so he couldn't get away! So I caught up and got his plate, yelled a few things at him before he sped away again and called the police.

After about an hour of wasted time between the locals and state cops trying to delegate it to each others juris diction, the state cop handled it w/ me and after explaining and showing him what happened, he suggested we drive to this dudes house.

Long story short the guy fessed up to it, and agreed to pay for it w/ out insurance (as per the cop's suggestion). I got it in writing.

It scuffed the bumper up pretty good and took about a 4 inch x 4 inch area of paint off completely.

ALL that being said, I'm trying to figure out how to make the best of this. I don't wanna rape the guy, him and his wife were actually nice after he apologized, and they don't have a lot of money...so I'd liketo keep it in the $300-400 range.

1. Get it fixed (I'm guessing about $400) need to get an estimate
2. I've found a few SRT10 front bumper covers for about $350 but unpainted...
3. New OEM painted stock bumper on ebay for $360 shipped

That is all...:o

I'da been all for making life easy for the guy, right up until he fled the scene. At that point, I'd a$$ rape the SOB!!!

i hear banjos!! .......squeel like a pig...squeeeeeeeeell.

..yea, it's a hard call...it's easy enough to go after him cuz he was an idiot drivin stupidly... but when you meet people, you sometimes judge them differently (despite the stupid act)....im one of those guys who gives peopl maybe too much benefit of the doubt so i could see where your coming from... but I'm really surprised about the cops actions...I mean, it's really cool that he had really smart logical advice...ours here would have thrown the book at him..hehe

I mean I try to be nice to everyone no matter what but I have my boiling point as much as the next person and can only tolerate so much BS and stupidity. With that being said, I would still get some estimates and make him cough up the funds for that and you do with it whatever you want and leave well enough alone. Did the cops give him any tickets for hit and run or leaving the scene?

This guy should be in jail. And the cop should be slapped for not putting him there. Did you get a report? I would call my insurance no matter what.

Well if I wanted to really screw the guy to the wall, I could've had the cop file the accident report...get insurance info...make him lose his CDL and probably his job...etc.

I wouldn't be able to sleep.

I just want to have the whole bumper repainted or replaced w/ equal or better. I don't need to take it to this guy.

That guy sounds like an ass who is going to hurt someone eventually. I would squeeze him for at least an SRT bumper and he should be thankful that is all you go for.

You did the nice guy thing. I would have pulled him out of his car knocked him a couple of times, and claim he hit his head when he spun out! :D technicalities...

As far the bumper. "Make a repair a mod". Go get the quote from the shop. Have the guy write you a check or cash. Buy that badass SRT bumper, and pay a little out of pocket. You might end up paying 150 for a SRT bumper painted.. lol

good luck.

yeah that's pretty much what I'm shootin for. get something positive out of it.