TBK

So, I was running late to work and had a low tire in my regular car. No worries, I thought to myself, its a nice day and I just got the S out from under its winter cover last weekend, I'll drive it today. Well, on the way home, about 3 blocks from the parking garage, on a multi-lane one-way street, the kid about half a car-length in front of me and on the right decided he REALLY REALLY needed to turn left and tried to whip it around the corner, across my lane. I stood on the brakes but nailed him right between the doors. I am really hoping it's fixable. The body shop seems confident (and they do excellent work, they've fixed multiple cars for me after accidents or deer encounters), but what worries me was the right front wheel was hanging lose. They managed to get it up on the flatbed without doing hopefully too much more damage, but they can't even start to look until the adjuster gets out there "sometime in the next day or two."
You in the first picture, the undamaged side you can't see, the wheel is pointed straight ahead. The damaged wheel is tilted in and back and the caliper is rotated down towards the bottom of the wheel.

I'm not sure if I'm more sad about the accident in total, or the loss of my matching VIN tags.

braytonia

That looks very minor... I think you will be good!

xxyion

Hopefully insurance will deem its his fault

cgarrett23

Well yes, matching VIN tags are gone but try and be positive. It could have been much worse and you could have been hurt. Beautiful car BTW and I'm sure you will have it back near perfect in no time.

GuthNW

I would be more concerned about having the car repaired to my satisfaction than how many VIN tags are still intact. I would be sure to take plenty of photos documenting the damage and the repairs if possible. I get the concern about the VIN tags, especially if you were planning on selling the car soon. But if you were planning on hanging on to the car then the VIN tags aren’t nearly as important and this all just becomes part of your car’s story. The biggest news here is that you should be able to keep this car out on the road where you will once again be able to enjoy it.

Car Analogy

Did the cops see this for what it was, and cite the kid? I've seen too many cases where cops make a judgement based on what parts of each car touched, that was way off of reality, despite what each driver story was (his assessment didn't match either drivers story.)

Its like they make up their mind as they walk up to the scene, and no amount of explaining or reason will alter their initial impression.

I agree the body damage doesn't look that bad. But what concerns me is the suspension damage. If it was a car to car impact only (no curb, etc), and it was severe enough to reach the suspension and sever ball joints, etc, that must have been a harder impact than body damage implies.

I'm having trouble seeing how the suspension damage occurred based on how little body damage there is.

Switchblade

Could be strut, lower control arm and/or outer tie rod damage. Wouldn't be too concerned. Fixable. Sucks but at least you weren't hurt. Could always be worse....

TBK

Yeah, he got a "improper lane usage" citation. Although I haven't gotten a copy of the police report yet, just saw the ticket he had to sign. I'm waiting for my insurance company to pull it, I refuse to pay the state of IL for anything I don't have to.

His story to the cops was "I was on the phone and noticed at the last minute that I needed to turn there, and turned across the inside lane without looking." Not much wiggle room there for him.

Yeah.... thats where the hidden damage is going to be....

Nope, no curb. I was in the left-most lane of a multi-lane one-way street, he was one lane to my right. The nearest curb would be to my left, the next nearest curb was three lanes to my right. The impact was with my front right corner into the middle of his back drivers door, sliding forward to the middle of his front drivers door.

I don't have any pictures of his car, but both driver's side doors are pretty well caved in and wouldn't open.



I really wasn't going all that fast. It's a downtown environment, I was a block from leaving a red light, second gear, 30mph in a 30 zone, getting ready to turn in a couple blocks. When I saw him start to come across my lane I stood on the brake and clutch, I have no idea how much I slowed before impact, but probably not a whole lot as he was literally feet in front of me....


You're right..... It's not like I plan on selling anytime in the near future, or anytime really. It's not the sole reason that I bought that car. But it was a consideration, that I could say "and it still has all its VIN tags."

Yes, no one was hurt, thankfully. I told him while he was waiting for his father to show up, "its only bent metal, and that can be fixed."

Thanks. I try and keep it looking nice. It's a car that deserves to look good.

cosmomiller

I recall Billman said that the knuckle joints or something like that (been some time ago) and was designed to be the "sacrificial lamb" for such impacts.

TBK

Good to know, maybe that saved other components and the suspension damage isn't as bad as I feared.

Still waiting on the adjuster to make it out.