[hopsis]

After owning the car just two weeks, My '13 Ampera got hit at a car park while I was shopping. The only casualty was the rear bumper. Insurance company is paying for the repairs so no biggie, I thought. I called the dealer yesterday and found out that Ampera rear bumpers aren't available anywhere. The guy told me over the phone that he looked at the availability from his computer and the stock said -44. So that's 44 bumpers required (before mine) and none available. I guess that's for the whole European region.

What I'm thinking now is just pulling the bumper myself and replacing with a Volt bumper, as they should be more readily available in the US. That means I would need to get one shipped overseas to Finland. I can get the insurance company to give me a fixed sum that will be enough to buy the parts and get them painted. Replacing the bumper seems easy enough.

These cars are still somewhat odd here, last time I checked, there were 74 Amperas in the whole country. 75 after I got mine registered. That means that nobody knows anything about it and I simply cannot get a new bumper bought no matter how much I wave cash around.

Any ideas? Does someone here maybe have experience in shipping larger parts overseas? I'm a new member here so I know it's a big ask. I'm talking about someone sourcing the bumper and shipping it here. All expences plus something for the trouble would of course be dealt with.

 

[Don M]

I think before I got too serious about having a large, expensive part shipped across the pond, I would do some research to make SURE the Volt bumper cover is a direct fit for your Ampera. The only thing worse than spending a fortune to get the part and have it shipped would be to find you can't use it once you get it

Don

 

[emg77]

If you know they fit, you can use www.car-part.com to do a search of junkyards in the US. They can probably arrange shipping directly.

I know you would have to modify the license plate holder at a minimum. Search the forum here though, there's probably someone who converted their Volt to an Ampera and that would be a good clue to whether the bumpers are interchangeable.

 

[Bretsuaz48]

That should be an easy fix for someone. If you were here, you could get that fixed for about $150.

 

[somms]

That should be an easy fix for someone. If you were here, you could get that fixed for about $150.

Agreed that should be a simple fix since the bumper is just plastic after all.
Have you attempted to pop the plastic back into place?

As you can see from the above comparison photos of your Ampera vs. Volt rear bumper they are not created equal and you would also have to score a pair of rear led lights at a couple hundred usd each at the very least to make this work and look legit because of the Ampera's 'lip' under the tail light...

 

[oldstuff]

That damage looks like it can be fixed with the careful use of a 2x4 with a little whittling and a good heat gun. Many plastic parts will return to original shape when heated. That has a few kinks so will probably need a little help. Most any paint shop can fix the paint if you get it to hot and burn it a little
Or you could put a big band-aid across it and wright "OUCH" somewhere near, and just drive it the way it is.

 

[hopsis]

Thanks for the tips, I hadn't noticed the small extra part under the tail light. I agree the bumper can probably be mended, still needs to be painted though and that's the most expensive part. Actually I was thinking about the OUCH-approach too, it's my daily driven car with about 3000km (or ~2000 miles) every month so some marks are inevitable.

I should get the repair quote this week, maybe an independent shop can get me an used bumper or fix the original. Dealership won't do any of that, they will only replace with new. The damage looks rather light in the picture but I noticed afterwards that the bumper is also cracked, or at least the paint is, at the left side too. I guess the bumper is attached to the car there and something has given when the car was hit.

 

[Davis0042]

I had a dent in mine like that get a tea kettle boil some water pore on the dented area have some in the car pull it up so you don't lay in hot water use a shortened boom stick that has the round end and start form the top and push the dent out you may have to repeat but it will come out the get it repainted if there is missing pain. trust me it works

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

I'm thinking you could pop that with some boiling water and possibly a tweek with a piece of wood. Check Youtube. Since it's your daily driver, fix it and foget about paint

 

[hopsis]

Got off from work earlier today and finally had time to take the car to the bodyshop. They just took the pictures and will send me a repair quote. I can then decide if I want to take it in to be repaired (they estimated four days for the repairs) or if I want to do the work myself and get some dough from the insurance company. I have already found a replacement bumper, paint code is the same, although there probably will still be some slight color difference, but the rear of the car is always dirty anyway so any minor difference shouldn't be noticeable anyhow.

Four days for painting and replacing the bumper seems ridiculous, my other car is an Audi S6 and if I drive that thing to work even for four days, it's going to hurt my wallet. So I'll wait for the repair quote and very likely just grab the money, get the bumper myself, get it painted if necessary and swap it myself.

 

[LauriJT]

I bought the car from op some weeks ago and guess what. Still waiting for bumper. Insurance guy found one somewhere used, but its still not here. I really hope its not a volt bumper. So this must be the most time taking repair i have ever seen and without anything repaired. What i also found is that none of the dealerships anywhere near me have permits to touch the high voltage system. So its pretty hard to maintain the battery warranty with services because nobody can service this thing. Nice to have a rare car here...

 

[LauriJT]

Finally. I soon get a new bumper, insurance person told today that scrapper sends the bumper to painter next week. This episode has soon taken 2 months. Even saab is easier to get body parts.