Someone backed into my new '05 300 last week

It's frightening how much minor things like this can cost!

Last May my wife was in line at the donut shop and was rustling through her purse for a $1.30 for a coffee when she let her foot slip off the brake of her 03 turbo PT Cruiser. She rolled forward and bumped the back of a 4x4 dualy pickup.

The receiver on the truck hit just above the bumper right at the seam between the grill and the drivers side fender. Outwardly there was a 2" high by 1" wide by 1/2" deep dent in the fender. Turns out that the dent was in exactly the worst place. It pushed back enough to bend the tranny cooler mount, AC condesor mount, broken a locating post off the plastic tank on the radiator, cracked the fan shroud and tore off one of the mounting tabs for the bumper cover. After everthing was replaced and painted the tab was $5200. I do have a pile of very usable spare parts though :)

Two weeks ago I was slowing to make a left and the guy in the Ram behind me was not paying attention and clipped the right rear of my Dakota with the left front of his Ram. Required a new bumper, tailgate, right side bed skin and new tailight. All said and done $4200 and that does not include the weeks rent the guys insurance had to pay for.