Thanks for your responses. This is not one of those really old ones that bolt to the bumper -- had one of those on a Fiat with a steel bumper years ago. We used this one last on a Taurus wagon that we traded in in 2003, and the wife has a Civic that year, and I just bought a '96 to drive to work. I was thinking we attached the lower straps under the car, around the bumper? Maybe I just remember it wrong, or else we put it on wrong? I saw a small car with one yesterday that I think was a "Bones" brand, and the lower straps appeared to be attached to the bottom of the trunk lid. I should probably just look into buying a new rear rack. They are probably all set up to deal with this situation now, huh?