First of all, I wouldn't be posting anything if I had done something that appears to be self inflicted.

 

Just a few quick observations...
First, Aguilars2K... no matter the circumstances, sorry to see your car in that state. Hopefully you can work through all of the financial aspects with the car and still be able to keep a car for work and school. It's nearly impossible to get around the Metroplex without a car...

Secondly, 60N5.5... I wouldn't be so quick to give shops the benefit of the doubt on tires or repairs. Sure, most shops do a fine job, but they might miss something from time to time. Personally I've seen two major 'Oops' from shops. One was an S that had recently been in the shop for regular maintenance... it came out with rears on the front and vice versa... ouch. The other was a friend who actually got a car back from a reputable collision shop. The rear spoiler had been removed to work dents and repair paint on the trunk. The car was delivered to the owner with the spoiler missing, and the mounting holes plainly visible! If a shop can miss this kind of thing, I don't doubt that they might miss a stress fracture or hidden issue with the steering, it's entirely possible. Also, I've personally been asked by a Honda dealership if I wanted my tires rotated... eeek. (Did I mention I've started doing my own maintenance!)

C-

 

C..,

You are right! I may have jumped on the body shop bandwagon a little to quick.

I still believe that by looking at the pictures, the tie rod didn't just snap on its own. And if it did, it must have been under a tremendous amount of stress. Which leads me to believe that Aguilars2k must have been pushing the car extremely hard.

In my business, I see and hear almost everything and very few people want to admit that they were a primary contributor to an accident which possibly could have been avoided if they had either been more attentive or less aggressive.

Aguilars2k is eighteen years old and the S2000 is an awfully powerful car for such a young and most likely inexperienced operator. I am 52 and I felt from the first time that I got behind the wheel that I needed professional instruction to help me understand more about this car so that I could be a better driver. I enrolled in driving school and started using what I learned in my everyday driving.

I also hope that he gets the vehicle put back together and is able to use it for work and school. I also know from many years of driving experience and dealing with car accidents that he is going to have to change his driving habits or he may not be so lucky the next time there is an accident. He may not walk away from it.

Thanks for setting me straight.

60

 

Continuing on the "assumption" that nothing he did caused this... even if he had been pushing the car extremely hard parts shouldn't just snap on it. I don't think he could push it any harder than the everybody else does out at the auto-x and none of our cars seem to even be flinching when we push em hard.

He said that he hit a curb in his first accident so I'm going to go with EgoThreat on this one and the possibility of a fracture from the first accident and give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm getting pretty tired of everybody jumping his ass saying he's obviously not telling the truth just because of his age.

Since I haven't addressed it yet (and nobody else has):
[QUOTE=60N5.5,Dec 18 2005, 08:10 PM]

 

i never had any respect for me either. also, quotes taken out of context make me giggle. kinda like the saturday night live 'fun with real audio' cartoons. sorry i didn't run it by you first.

 

How you present yourself on the internet is based solely on being able to construct thoughts and put them down in a logical format using proper grammar and punctuation. If you can do that, then you will avoid flack from the vultures.

However, this guy has driven his car for only a few days and has two accidents. Additionally, he cannot spell or construct thoughts in a manner that is legible without deciphering every single phrase a few words at a time. Even then, there are multiple cracks.

Expecting a great deal of sympathy under the above conditions is naive at best and downright stupid at worst.

You sleep in the bed of your own making and most 'luck' is earned through hard work and good decision making. Unfortunately, reading this guys website shows some very poor decision making from his choice of friends to his financial priorities.

I feel sorry for the guy, but this is all of his own doing.

 

While I agree his "presentation" has much to be desired, hell I've even throw a small punch here and there. However people are not even listening to what happened and just assuming that it's his fault w/o even looking at what really happened, just what they want to see. Such as: I think the first argument is moot at best since he was hit by a drunk driver... that's like saying that I'm a horrible driver because somebody hit my parked car, It just doesn't work like that. Furthermore the second accident hasn't been show that it is or isn't his fault, that's what is being discussed so how do you expect to use that as an argument in the discussion?

Bringing his choice of friends and other financial decisions into the argument is uncalled for because it is not relevant to the question at hand. Maybe I missed the part in the first post where he said "Please evaluate all of my life decisions for me."

Everybody got so caught up in making fun of him that the purpose of the post was all but forgotten. He didn't ask for pity or sympathy, he asked if what happened could have been a result from damage caused by a previous incident (be it the drunk driver hitting him or something that happened w/ a previous owner)... there's a difference between not showing sympathy and an emotional beat down.

Hasn't he had enough of a hard time lately with this poor luck of his vehicle (even if the second accident was his fault)? Just cut the guy some slack at least until he can recover from the gut retching feeling that you get when you total a car out.... and all of us, as car guys and gals, should be able to understand that.
-Doug

 

I'm with EgoThreat and Doug0716. It's somewhat embarrassing the way some of you have decided Aguilars2k is automatically a liar and an incompetent driver because of his age and atrocious grammatical skills.

I think the most likely scenario is the control arm had a stress fracture in it from the first accident and had a complete failure within the short time he drove it after receiving the car from the repair shop.

I've had several cars into body shops over the years and have never had a car returned without something wrong.

Then again, Aguilars2k, please make more of an effort to communicate clearly, for your own sake.

 

Am I missing something or was the first wreck just body/rear window damage? How would that cause a control arm that's more or less not in reach to be damaged unless the lower part of the car was completely smsahed in? That being said, with damage to anything under the car being unlikely why would the shop be messing with suspension and steering componenets?

Also, how can you put a tie rod back together the wrong way? And in the unlikely event that they didn't bolt it in correctly on either end don't you think it would've popped out on the way to the alignment shop or the alignment shop would've caught it while doing an alignment? BTW, taking meds is not an excuse to crash your car. Maybe reading the bottle for instructions such as "not operating machinery or driving a car" would be helpful.