When I pulled in last night, I pulled in such that my rearview mirror was between two support beams on the right-hand side of the car, so that if I had backed out without correcting the problem, I would’ve lost the rearview mirror on that side of the car. After adjusting for this and starting to back out properly, I started turning the wheel a little too soon and heard a nice, sickening pop. I swiped one of the poles pulling out. Needless to say, I immediately stopped, pulled forward, hit park, and checked to see how bad the damage was. There’s quite a bit of paint transfer and a couple nice scratches on the bumper which looks worse than it probably is in terms of the bumper itself.

On a Prius, you can’t see the front of the car, so judging distance from an object is nearly impossible (the same is true, I’m told, of Volkswagen New Beetles). Thus, the scratches.

After coming back from work, Amanda and I took a closer look — it looks like the bumper on the right side of the car might’ve actually shifted down a tiny fraction from its original position, since comparing the left side of the car with the right side of the car shows a slightly larger gap on the right side between the headlight and the bumper.

(Note: when I say “right” here, I mean the right-hand side as if I were sitting in the driver’s seat.)

I’ve been pissed at myself all day for hurting my precious baby. Grr. And this after about a week and a half of ownership…