Jay-S

Hit and run. Jeep tried to change lanes into me. Hit my back rim which took the brunt of the force. I pulled over. He did a U-turn and left.

So far I only see tire transfer. Mostly on the rim but a little on the fender. 90% of the transfer on the fender was on clear bra which you can't see at all in the picture. Haven't cleaned it off yet to see what lies beneath. Drives fine but will take it in just to be sure.

No matter what, I was very lucky...could have been so much worse. Still, I am very disappointed in humanity at the moment.

rodsky

That makes my blood boil. But on the bright side, youre OK, car will be fine, I'm sure you're a good guy. I firmly believe that Karma is a b!tch.

DrJay

People are generally ********. Sorry you were a victim and I hope there is no damage.

rnl

Just report it to the police and insurance company. Make sure that those insurance slobs don't try to stick you with a chargeable accident. In some respects you are better off - you don't have to deal with the jerk in the Jeep

carrerapete

Sorry to read this. I'm also a big believer in Karma: the Jeep dude will get his.

ny991

Jay, that totally sucks, but it looks like you can easily fix it. Karma will make things even someday.

carsrmyvice

I applaud you for shrugging it off. In my 991 with him in a jeep I may have been tempted to chase him down and get a read on his plate (obviously completely unsafe and unwise). Kudos for acting logically in the heat of the moment.

rijowysock

i would have chased him down, but i'm a dick like that.

people don't give a **** about others' stuff now adays... and if you say anything they will make you feel like an *** for having nice things... it's a pity.

rnl

It's just not worth chasing them down. Years ago my car was hit by a teenage girl who immediately took off afterwards. I followed her at a distance and called the police after I saw where she lived - she pulled into her garage - and I parked a 1/4 mile down the street to wait for the police.

When the police returned after speaking with the hit and run driver they related that she claimed that i had threatened her at the scene of the accident and that is why she fled.

...my passenger took out his identification, showed it to the officer, told him that neither of us had left the vehicle and suggested that he return to speak with the young girl again. My passenger and friend is a local prosecutor

Bottom line: hit and run drivers are dishonest,
cowards and liars. They will do and say anything. Best thing to do is to stay put and call police. I was just lucky that day to have an ADA along for a ride.

...the teenage girl also lied to her insurance company and I filed a lawsuit against her and the owners of the vehicle who are her parents. Took five months for them to pay up. The check arrived about 10 days after I responded to interrogatories listing my witness and his profession.

As I said above. It's never worth getting involved with a jerk

holminator

Bet they did not have insurance. In Miami-Dade, my insurance company said the majority of drivers have none, for example.

disden

If the car isn't too damaged don't report it to police; it will end up on Carfax and will kill your resale or trade in. If its leased then it shouldn't matter. Just talk to insurance and see what options are available. My wife's minivan was hit in a parking lot, just very minor damage that cost $750 to fix. My wife asked for police to get involved so that the cameras from parking lot could be reviewed: end result was nothing except for a horrible trade in value due to an accident report.

iLeo

Your car might need alignment. Worth checking.
The same thing happened to me once before (I was driving an infiniti FX), and after a couple of weeks I noticed the tire was half "eaten" from inside, turned out that although no much damage appeared from the outside, the car did need re-alignment..

Looking back at the incidence, I did chase & stop him. But at that time, as I said, there wasn't much damage that was apparent, so I just let him go.

Sorry bro, and hope no damage whatsoever happened, inside or out.

Jay-S

First off, thanks for all the comments. Sometimes a little moral support goes a long ways.

Just cleaned it up this morning. Only a very small scratch on rim. I can't believe that is it. There was a loud bang when the Jeep hit me so I was prepared for more.

Now to have the dealer take a look...

Carrera GT

Insurance (or lack of it) is a huge problem in California now -- it's a problem created by the government to allow insurers to be basically confidence trick scams. The game is simple: take in a trivial amount of money in the form of a protection racket: "If you pay us this small amount, the government will register your car, otherwise, you're screwed." But the insurance is utterly useless and serves no purpose other than to put the individual into perpetual debt if they ever really need the insurance.

I've studied this scam because it happened to us twice in the last ten years. First was a poor kid on a motorcycle. He rode the bike under a car I own while an employee was driving. The kid deserved to get his leg put back together, but the insurers said "no leg for you." His insurance said "you didn't pay for the 'keep my limbs' policy." I told my insurer I'll pick up the tab for the kid to keep his freaking leg. They said "no can do." I spent a year trying. In the mean time, a negligent woman involved in the accident (rear-ended my car during the panic stop) though her reaction time was calculated by the police at the scene as "exceeding one minute. 100% at fault. failure to maintain a safe speed. etc. etc." ... she tried to sue for her (junk) car to be fully repaired (inspection by the adjuster later documented what anyone could see: it was a beater of a car with a decade of fender benders.) So all the worse case scenarios unfolded in that one incident. Appalling.

The second example was clean cut government corruption. California has a "minimum" financial "responsibility" for the insured and liability amount. I think it's something like $5,000. Yup. The California government thinks that if you're insured for $5K, you're good to go on the highways. What can go wrong? More realistically, I'd ask, what can go wrong that could possibly ever cost less than $5K? Conversely, you can deposit $35K and not pay premiums, so it's sort of a poor man - rich man scam, but enough on that. Suffice to say, a huge number of people living on the margin in California (and millions more since the '08 economy collapse) are running around in "how did that pass smog? does it even have seat belts?" cars with $5K to cover their fender benders. It creates a racket where insurers pull in billions in premiums that can never become useful coverage in the event of a claim. So a girl, sexting her boyfriend (by her own admission at the scene, said she was "telling my boyfriend, I was running late") runs into stationary cars at a red light. She's driving dad's car and dad is a dead beat with $5K coverage, paid by credit card (he's not in the USA, he's in Mexico and unable to respond to insurer demands) and the courts (and my insurer) both say "situation normal, all f'ed up" and I get to pay for everything. If I couldn't afford to pay, I'd be in debt or bankrupt. If I didn't pay, I'd lose my income (!) through government enforced (racketeering) wage garnishing. Of course that kind of thing likes to defaulting on a mortgage, losing a home, losing job status, etc. Just watch the movie "Attack on Wall Street" for an example of how this plays out. Astonishing. Just plain ***-tonishing. Fortunately one of my policies covered the ambulance ride for my wife and my daughter. But get this. Two people. One ambulance, one EMT. We are billed for two trips, over $10K all up. The trip distance was less than 5 miles. We questioned the obvious clerical error, which they handled by a) taking four weeks to reply, and b) immediately sending to collections where we had to spend a month making sure it didn't show up as a blip on our credit score (which was far more important as we were mid-refi and needed the best possible "score.") All a scam when you connect each of these "gotcha" setups. The policy is structured with the EMT and hospital ER to treat each patient as a single trip, even if they're in the same meat wagon, even when there's only one EMT attending and zero ER time. Zero time. Just there long enough to fill out paperwork and leave after a two hour wait and no medical attention (they just left out of sheer boredom and declared the hospital at liability through failure to provide ... but that's another story ...)

Other than those two black marks, it's been two decades of clear sailing and about a $200K in premiums paid and about $200K in services rendered. So insurance works for those who can afford it and the government makes sure insurance does not work for those who can't afford it. Brilliant.

Carrera GT

Definitely worth getting it on the alignment rack, check the balance on the wheel, eyeball the tire for any issues and check for noise and run-out on the wheel bearings. Alloy wheel carriers can crack and by the time you've driven it (cautiously or flat-bedded it) to the dealer, there should be witness marks like grease being expelled from the bearing seals if there's an issue. From your description and the photo, I'd say 95% chance of nothing (keeping in mind the impact of a 3500lb laden car at 75mph into a typical pothole is probably 1000x the forces, and should cause zero damage to wheel carrier/bearing/control arms/ ball joints/hub/wheel/tire, it's just a matter of the side load that is much more vulnerable.)