[llpokermuffinll]

I recently had a minor car accident where I hit the rear bumper of a car in front of me. We were both stopped at a red light and I didn't realise that after I had stopped the car, it started moving again (like when you let go of the brake in an automatic car). This meant that it hit the car in front of me at something like 2mph (or thereabout).

Now I left some scratches on the car in front of me from my grill, which should be a simple repaint of the bumper (£200-£250). The other driver, however, sent me a repair bill of £1100, which included a completely new bumper, bumper beam, repaint, and labour cost. This is completely out of proportions.

If I was in any other car, I wouldn't even have left those scratch marks, but in my BMW 5 Series, the grill is sticking out a bit, so that left a few marks along the whole bumper.

I'm willing to pay him up to £300 for a repaint and the inconvenience but definitely not £1100. What shall I do?

[Santa]

The other driver is entitled to have his car restored to the condition it was in before you damaged it. There may be damage that wasn't immediately apparent and bumpers these days often have sensors etc in them.

What you should have done was to go through your insurance company, but you know that now. At least he is not claiming whiplash injuries - oh! he has three years to make up his mind about that.

[wagolynn]

You can still go through insurance.
The rear end of modern cars is a crumple zone, similar to the front, hence a relatively light hit can damage parts of the crumple zone.
In modern cars it is foolish to ignored front/rear bumps they need to be looked at by experts, yes it costs but it is all part of the occupants protection system.

[Snowball]

Very often a repairer prefers to fit new items rather than repair a damaged one. If that is the case, the £1100 is possibly not far out. A little over 10 years ago I was hit in the rtear by a hit-and-run in a stolen car, when my car was less than two months old. The new bumper and one rear light cluster (the lens had shot out and broken on impact) cost just over £1000 for the repair.
One tip: When stopping behind another vehicle, leave at least half a car length clerar in front of you, and either hold your car firmly on the footbrake or engage the handbrake. Then, should a vehicle shunt into you, your car will hopefully not go far enough to connect with the vehicle in front, thus avoiding that driver claiming against you in the "knock-on" effect.