...smashing the headlight on a BMW. Confessing my own stupidity here. I needed to move the cars around to allow the HVAC service truck into the driveway. So I back my wife's BMW out, and park it on the street. Then I back the Defender out, intending to carefully park it in front of the BMW on the same street. Proximity alarms are going off left and right, but I was sleepy (literally right out of bed), it was dark, and the neighbor's discarded Xmas tree is sticking out past the curb so I figure that's what the car is so upset about. Bam! The bumpers never even contacted, and the spare wheel just blew the headlight apart.

I guess I'm lucky I didn't wrinkle the sheet metal, but honestly the BMW's adaptive headlight unit is so expensive a new hood might've been cheaper!

 

You may or may not already be aware of Pelican Parts. If not, heads up! The Hella (the actual manufacturer) part costs about half the genuine BMW part. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the tip, @CEHansen! I've already gotten it repaired at the dealer with a factory unit, but as the car ages i'll have to keep Pelican in mind.

 

Could have been worse...when a RAV4 makes contact with the spare tire, the hood gets pushed back through the RAV4 windshield.

 

Yikes!

 

Could be worse as a Lyft driver found out while I was stopped at a red light. To its credit the tire, mount, and door can take a significant amount of energy.

 

Wow, who knew?

 

@mdgs that's impressive!

My Defender had 53 miles on it and the first time I parked in a parking lot (day 1 of ownership) I came out and some jack@$$ had parked his F150 on my tire enough that when I put it in neutral we rolled forward. I wanted to stick around and let him know my true feelings but my responsible self just took photos of his plates and then I left.
good to know they are robust! I'm not as upset now.

 

I agree, looks just like mine...I needed a new bumper cover and exhaust heat shield which still added up to nearly $4K. One spare tire mount was pushed-in slightly but I did not want them to fill and repaint the entire rear door.