Don't trust your backup camera. Good life lesson. Was half asleep moving my car out of the driveway. Driveway is on an incline with a slight curve and a rock retaining wall. Too lazy to take the 10 seconds to wipe off the snow. Heard the scraping crunch, and was hoping it was just hitting some snow. I guess the saving grace is that it was confined to the right rear wheel well all on the back plastic bumper... Why couldn't i have been lucky enough to have it all beneath where the OEM rear skirt could have hid it? Would have been an excuse to upgrade as opposed to $500 thrown away to not drive me crazy looking at it every time i walk away from the car...

$%#$%#$%^#$^%$@^##%$#^%$^$

Unforced error by me...

 

great vent/rant.

its not normal that one takes accountability over ones actions.
if it makes you feel any better, my car is in the shop getting a dent pulled.

$500 thrown away!

 

I try to stay away from anything stationary that I'm not familiar with. Especially in a parking lot. Sounds crazy but unless I've gotten out of the car to look at what space I'm putting my car in I don't trust my mirrors at all. Backed into a snow bank once and my paint on the bumper chipped off. Its amazing how cheap a car can look with messed up paint.

Luckily or unluckily I got rear ended at a low speed and the guy's insurance had to pay for the whole bumper which solved my problem.

Front bumper is still shitty though. I have a vinyl wrap on it to hide all the rock chips and botched paint fixes :P

 

At least when it's your fault, you can blame yourself. I was parked in a lot, some asshole rammed my front bumper, and the entire outline of his license plate was imprinted on my bumper. I didn't even see her get hit. =(

 

i trust my back up camera all the time, i dont even look at my side view mirrors when i back up from my driveway that is about 70ft long lol..

if you know how to use it, you should have no problem. You were half asleep, so mistakes are prone to happen.

 

Sending my condolences OP

 

In the 9 months I owned it had backed my TL out of my 2-car garage easily 500 times and got very trustworthy of the backup camera. Then, on the 501st time, I didn't realize I had parked a little more to the right to give my wife's Pilot a little more room. I forget why.

So it was a solid string of curses for a full minute when I hooked the passenger side mirror on the frame of the garage door.

Fortunately it started to fold back and I stopped as I heard the chunk of wood trim rip away, so it didn't break off. But it has quite the nice scratches now, and every time I look in it on the highway I'm reminded of how dumb I can be at times.

Course, it doesn't compare to when my Dad rolled his car backwards off the ramps and the open driver's door hooked a tree and folded back.

Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

 

Second day I had my car it was parked in our 75 year old garage where the opening is 2 inches wider than the car mirror to mirror, and I scraped the passenger side mirror. I was very annoyed with myself, I fit the old 1G TL in there for years, and then the S2K in there for years, and was always able to angel them to get one mirror through at a time, not as easy with the 4G. I still have a small white scrape on the mirror that only I notice. At least I did it. I too have been damaged in the parking lot on several occasions, that ticks me off to no end.

Good for you to take responsibility. It's much better when you know who caused the damage.

Got to add:

 

I'm with you guys. Had my TL for a week and I used my back up camera to line the back bumper up from the garage door marking on the floor, with room. Thought that was enough room for the door to close but the hinges stuck out another inch and scrapped the back of my bumper. UGH!!! I was swearing for at least 15mins in the garage. LOL

 

Haha, this is something I will always say to people. Don't always rely on technology. The only time I use my reverse camera or look at it is when I'm reversing into a parking spot to see how much room I have left to go backwards or checking to see if any little ones are behind my car when I'm backing up. Otherwise turn your head back and look.

Relying on a back up camera can turn into a bad habit.

 

I don't trust just my backup camera. You still need to look left and right. Your backup camera won't show you a little kid that is just out of frame and running right towards the back of your car. I know parents are suppose to watch their children but things happen. Or you get a car that has the right away driving by and you back right into because you didn't look left to right. I have seen this happen a few times.

 

I almost backed up into a tow truck lift a few days ago relying on the backup camera. The tow truck was plenty far away but the lift wasn't and it was very difficult to tell the I was right under the lift portion; my depth perception saved me about 2' from break the rear window.

 

my car is all salt right now, pic won't show it well. but right along the rear side of the back right wheel, from 1" below the start of the bumper piece nearly to the bottom of the well. About an 1" wide... Awful.

I'm still pissed about it.

Waiting to get my JnC lights installed, then black vinyl most of my FWD front parking light area like Mattsacura. Putting on Tein SA's as well. Can buy a bumper for about $250, figure paint and install will put me around $5-600. Maybe my bodyshop has another idea that will be cheaper... Dunno, waiting until spring in case i do anything else stupid.

Worst part was that i was there in the fall getting the bumper replaced because i was hit from behind on the highway home from work. got that done about a month after they had pulled my rear bumper to paint my rear boomerang CBP... They are going to laugh when they have to pull my bumper AGAIN....

 

Feel your pain. Two weeks after getting my car, a deer jumped out in front of me and bye bye front end. Thank god for insurance, but it's still not the same. I got so tired of being without her, I just decided to accept the slight imperfections. The only thing that bothers me, is the horn isn't the same. At first it sounded like a clown car, now it sounds like a dying cow.

 

LOL, never heard a cow dying, audio clip please!

 

I hear ya on this. A month after buying my current car the car wash made me back up to turn in closer and I just used my cam to do it and the glare from the sun didnt allow me to see the white retaining wall. I slammed right into it!
The whole middle part of the rear bumper was full of chips and indentations from the gravel like finish on the wall.

7 months later my car is in the repair shop with 12k$ in damage from an accident on icy mountain roads. No fun but I'll have a shiny new bumper. (not a TL btw---)

 

HeartTLs, maybe not a dying cow but it's definitely not the same as the original horn. Nowhere as loud either. My mom has the 2013 TL and her horn makes me deaf, my horn makes me not want to use it.

 

Sounds like it's time for train horn upgrade !

 

haha for now i think i'm just gonna play dumb at the dealer when i go get the lip kit, remote start, and various rattles and maybe get them to fix/replace it

 

The first car I ever owned with a backup camera was my 2007 TL. After a couple of close calls using it, I realized that one still must look, especially to the right and left when backing. I now use the one on my '12 TL as an aid only. I don't rely solely on the camera. Sorry about your accident.

 

My wife's 2012 Pilot has different views for her backup camera, which I wish my 2010 TL had. She can use the standard view, wide view, or one looking down at the hitch. Obviously I'd be happy with just standard / wide views. Either way I still turn my head to check my surroundings though.

 

If you have wide view, why do you need a standard view?

 

Fish eye view isn't helpful if you're backing up into a narrow garage/spot. Predator vs prey angles are good for different scenarios.

 

I would probably just leave it on wide view if it were mine, but it skews the image a bit and hinders depth perception so for her I leave it on standard. It's a cleaner image using the latter too.