power move?

Last weekend I pulled out of a driveway I was working in and realized I forgot my phone.  I was in the middle of nowhere.  Went to back up to get back into driveway and bam.  There was a car directly in back of me.  Maybe moved 2 feet.  Got out and there was a white Focus stuck to my trailer hitch occupied by four teenagers heading to the beach.  Ruined their day.  The girl driving has only had her license for 8 months and this was obviously her first incident.  She called her father and he showed up.  So did the police, and an ambulance.  No injuries as it was maybe a 2 mph hit.  Turns out I use to work with her father.  We get talking and rather than deal with insurance and whether or not it will be totaled because it needs a new bumper, support behind it, and a rad and condenser.  I just offer to buy the car as is.  $3500 later and I have a white 2010 4 door Ford Focus SE with the optional rear wing, remote start, alloy wheels, brand new brakes all around, and other than the nose piercing, its a pretty nice car.  He drove it to my house last night and handed over the papers.  Car was owned by the kids 86 year old grand father before she was given the car.  The only thing I feel bad about is that I know how hard it is to find a good $3500 car that you would trust enough to send your kid off to college in.  They have 3 weeks to find one now.  Left the door open for them to buy it back after I fix it.

So you backed up into them the wrong way in their lane?  I'm having trouble seeing the big picture 

Use the site car-parts.com to find another white bumper cover as quickly as possible.  Specifically you want what the site calls a bumper assembly (cover and support combo) expect cost of $100.  Add cheap radiator and condenser from Rock Auto.  Once complete, exchange back the $3500 and be done with it all.  

$100 used bumper, $100 new radiator, $100 new condenser = done with this for $300.  Maybe cheaper if you get all the parts used off the same car!

Country style road that is used as a cut thru road.  Has some newer houses.  I pulled out of driveway and drove forward maybe 50 feet.  Stopped.  Looked in mirrors and then over my shoulder as I was shifting in to reverse.  Hand was still on column shifter when I felt the bang.  Only thing I can think of is they were distracted and stopped inches from my bumper or might have even been still moving forward.  Pretty sure they were stopped because I did not see them, and I looked.  Small car behind a F350 can be invisible.  I literally moved 2 feet or less and a foot of that was my trailer hitches travel thru the bumper.  Doesn't take any speed when 7500 pounds of truck is pushing a trailer hitch thru a plastic and foam bumper.  Punctured condenser, and bent rad.  Rad still hold water, but fan won't spin.  Cheapest bumper I have found is $250 and its the wrong color.  Found three Focii in the junk yard all with similar hits similar damage.  New cover is almost $700 and that does not include foam core.  Probably have to paint whatever I find.  Think I have some Ford white left over from that last white TR8 I painted.  At least I hope its the same shade of white.  Ford likes to bounce around on their whites.  I'm thinking $500 to $1000 once I'm done.

Car-part lead me to this white one...

No price given but comparatively should be $100-$200.  Get all the parts and there could be a multi piece discount.  The downside is that it shows to be 160 miles from Carver, MA.  Located here:  in Hyde Park, NY  Places like this will pull the parts for you and have them waiting at the front counter for you to pick up.  For far away stuff, I usually call the front desk and they send a guy to the yard to text me pictures of what I want to  see.  

In this case I would fix it and give it back for $3500 because i backed into their car and put them in a crappy spot, but that's just me.  

If you can not source a local bumper, I have considered this option but never used...

Sample Ebay listing where for $240 they supply a cheap bumper cover, they unbox it and paint it to your desired color then they rebox it and ship it to your door.  Sounds too good (cheap) to be true but they have a huge feedback selling many makes/models

The same operation sells on Amazon too.  Their Honda Accord version has a lot of reviews.  Their Ford Focus painted version has no reviews but the Ford Focus unpainted has a couple of reviews

If you really did back in to there car no matter how they got there you should have fixed it for them. I don't understand how you ended up with the car and they are stuck having to source another car that arguably will be worse unless the come up with more $$$ on top of the $3500 you have them. My first impression is they are getting the bad end of this deal. 
 

What was the value of the car before  you backed in to it?  That is the amount you should have paid for the car. If it is $3500 then fair enough but you said in your own post that they probably will not be able to fine one. 
 

I just looked up comps and that is a 5-6k car. That is what you should have given them. 

dean1484 said:

I just looked up comps and that is a 5-6k car. That is what you should have given them. 

Or, you know, let your insurance handle it because that's what it's there for.  
 

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

dean1484 said:

I just looked up comps and that is a 5-6k car. That is what you should have given them. 

Or, you know, let your insurance handle it because that's what it's there for.  
 

 

Yep sometimes that is the answer. 

It sounds like the Daddy really does not care. To me the daughter is the one getting the shaft. She is going from a nice reliable safe 5-6K car to what ever $3500 gets you unless Daddy makes up the difference.  Maybe she wanted out of the car and Daddy will be getting her a newer nicer car and teh $$$ does not matter.   I am hoping there is more to the story that the OP has not included.  

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

dean1484 said:

I just looked up comps and that is a 5-6k car. That is what you should have given them. 

Or, you know, let your insurance handle it because that's what it's there for.  
 

 

Actually thinking about this the fact that she is such a young driver it may become an automatic suspension of her licensed until fault gets sorted and that could take much longer than the registry takes to suspend her licensed AND there will be a big hit to her insurance costs (probably to Daddy)  but still it is a cost.  She should not have to pay for this with a hit to her record and a possible licence suspension if she truly was not at fault.  I can see the extreme hassle factor that would be involved if claims were made even if it got sorted out and she was not at fault.  I know that in my state they come down really hard on new drivers and then sort it out later.  That would really suck for her.  

Like I said, turns out I knew the girl's father.  He was the one that said $3500 was a fair price.  They got the car for free from grandpa.  They were pretty happy with just selling the car, so I'm sure there is something else I don't know about.  They had the option to just deal with insurance and chose to go this route.  Maybe she didn't like the car and now gets to pick something different.  Maybe there is underlying problems with the car that I don't know about.  Maybe its just that they need a car for her to go off to school in two weeks with and can't have it tied up in a body shop.  Who knows.  They were happy to walk away with their plates and $3500 cash.  My wife saw it today and said she would be happy to drive it this winter instead of going thru another winter in a TR7 coupe.  I may end up keeping it.  Who knows.  These things have a way of working themselves out.  Last time something happened like this, I took a Neon in lew of payment on a job.  Fixed it, cleaned it, and doubled its resale value.  Ended up selling it for wht I had into it to a guy that worked for me.  He was short on cash and needed a car for his daughter.  Customer got rid of a car he didn't want.  Kid got a decent car at a fantastic price.  I had a loyal employee for years to come.  Karma

Sounds like there is more there than we all know. 

They were happy to walk away with their plates and $3500 cash.

That says it all right there.  Congrats on the car; I think it’s awesome to wind up with a grandpa/grandma owned car. For the longest time I had my eyes on a mint 80’s Chrysler K car that my buddies grandpa had.  This was in the mid-90’s so it wasn’t cool or ironic or at all desirable to have a car like this, but it had less than 2000 miles on it, garage-kept... it even still had the new car smell.  Bummer I could not acquire it.

Left the door open for them to buy it back after I fix it.

Good in ya.  This is the right thing to do, and if you end up with the car, no hard feelings  

Congrats on your purchase and avoiding dealing with insurance. 

There's gotta be something underlying if they sold  it that casually when they definitely could have taken it to insurance and gotten yours to pay out. 

That also said insurance and young drivers is messy. So them waking away none the wiser cash in pocket and no increased insurance is probably a win on any level for them.