oldcutlass

My son was involved in his first accident making all the work I put into fixing his car null and void.





At least no one was hurt.

coppercutlass

Hey sh*t happens. I wrecked my 72 1 year after restoring it. Lots of it looks cosmetic from the pics. Get an alignment and have him fix it as long as no frame damage. great way to learn.

Olds442redberet

Been there, Done that. It's a shame but at list your son is OK.

Sorry about the car

MDchanic

Ick. Is he in trouble or not? Is it fixable?

I totalled my first car after 10 days of driving it and 6 months of fixing it up - my '71 Celica was rear-ended by a '70 Chebby Brookwood and pushed into the back of a '73 Catalina. Nothing left worth keeping, really, though I was able to sell the wreck for the drivetrain.

The Ol' Man couldn't say much, because it was clearly not my fault, and the insurance company paid me well more than I had into it.

I'm glad he's okay, and I hope he's learned a little more about driving than he knew before.

Good luck with the resurrection! You needed something to do in 2017 anyway, right?

- Eric

oldcutlass

He's got full coverage insurance, I have not seen it. From what I understand he may have broken some steering linkage. The accident happened about an hour and a half from here. The car was towed to ... somewhere. I talked to the tow truck driver and he said the wheels were toed in bad and it was not drivable. I guess its in the hands of USAA.

steverw

So long as your son is ok thats what matters most. Cars can easily be repaired or replaced. Im glad hes ok.

Olds64

Good to hear your son is ok. A car can always be fixed. At least it was a Mustang and not an Oldsmobile.

btw

Quote of 2016!

Really glad to know the boy is OK.

redoldsman

Years ago my son who is now 49 turned in front of a truck and totaled a 70 Nova we had worked out butts off restoring. I was very disappointed but the good new was he was okay. We salvaged the driveline and built another one. However it was never the same to him. There are still plenty of Mustangs out there.

tru-blue 442

Ouch. Glad to hear the boy's ok. A car can be replaced, a Son, not so much.
Hope it works out with the Ins. Co. bud.

The day we were coming home from the hospital, my daughter's '15 Chevrolet
was totaled. She was sitting still in traffic at lunch and someone hit her
in the rear doing 30. She in slammed the car in front, they slammed the car in front on them.
Other than a sore neck for as few days, she is fine and picked up up a '16 yesterday.

oldcutlass

Its on its way from Hamilton to a body shop here in Mayberry. I'll get to see it tomorrow and talk with the adjuster and see what the damages are.

76olds

Good to hear your son is OK, I hope he's not too shaken from the accident and has no issues driving again soon after its fixed.
I hope you go heasy on the boy Eric.
Cheers to the good news, it was only the car that was hurt.

oldcutlass

He didn't need me to get on him, he's beaten himself up pretty good over it. He was worried that I would be mad. I didn't tell him how many cars I destroyed due to racing/stupidity when I was young, just told him thats why they call em accidents. I also told him he just needs to be responsible and learn from his mistake.

GammaFlat

Glad to hear he's okay. I have a friend in a blue uniform who says that if the air bags deployed the car is usually totaled. I pondered in disbelief momentarily before I bought his statement based on lots of experience. The airbags all by themselves are 'spensive. Not sure if your son's airbags deployed but it is great that he's not hurt.

I made crunching noises a couple times when I was young and "invincible". Over time, I learned I was not. I think it is part of the male experience as a testosterone filled youth - not an excuse, mind you, but an explanation for purposes of understanding.

Cars can be fixed/replaced. I'm sure you're doing your best to make this a meaningful learning experience... we try to teach them based on our life experiences but some things they need to learn on their own .

don71

Glad he wasn't hurt either. I can imagine how he feels. We're all young once and have our chance to learn from these things.

oldcutlass

Airbag did not deploy. It actually was not a frontal impact, it was more of a side swipe where he pulled out and the nose got clipped by a car going in the same direction.

coppercutlass

You will be amazed at how much air bags do not deploy . I have had cars that took serious impact to the air bag sensors breaking them and no deployment. Working in a body shop gives you a different perspective on safety and quality of modern cars.

oldcutlass

I got the same perspective from working at a used car lot for a decade. Many stories of car accidents from customers. I had not made it over to look at it yet, waiting for the body shop to appraise the damage and I'll look the car over at the same time. Probably Monday.

sammy

Glad you son is ok Eric. My boy did the same...fell asleep ..luckily not doing Mach 1 . I had the same reaction you did. He learned from it

Human

I hear you on that. I totaled my 1998 Aurora in the summer of 2009. Full frontal collision and the airbags didn't deploy. That car absorbed the impact so fully that inside, it felt like hitting a speed bump. I still miss that car. I got another Aurora a few years later but it's just not the same.

oldcutlass

Welllllllll, looks like it may be a total loss. The car books out to about $9200 and the initial est for repair is $5300. Pretty ugly. Its in USAA's hands now.

MDchanic

Yeesh.

What's included in the damage? Is it just sheetmetal and alignment, or is there more to it once you start peeling the onion?

- Eric

oldcutlass

Left wheel/tire, front cross brace, inner/outer left tie rod (don't know if it damaged the rack), possible front frame damage looking at the right fender, not evident looking under the car. The initial impact started on the wheel and dragged forward through the body. I would be willing to bet after tear down other damage will surface.

oldcutlass

I don't know what percentage of book the insurance co uses to determine if its totaled, it used to be 70% if I remember. I also have to consider this is a 2006 even though it has only 63k miles on it.

MDchanic

Damned shame, for such an apparently small impact, but, as we all know, from an engineering perspective, modern cars are designed to bend, so that the occupants don't.

Part of its job is getting from A to B, the other part is protecting the people inside.

It looks like it did the job it was supposed to do, so it's hard to criticize the car.

- Eric

coppercutlass

If it's not that bad. Buy it back take the check and fix her up. We do that from time to time at the shop when we are slow. We take totaled cars wi th low miles that need minimum work. Fix em up and sell em. In most cases we avoid the salvage title if we buy from the insurance companies before processing.

Koda

When it's done, please comment on USAA. I use them, but I find their "we're the best" schtick to be BS; they're OK, no more.

Jamesbo

Ouch, but glad he's Ok

BTW I was rear ended at a stop light by a semi going 35 mph and my air bag didn't engage. 3/4 ton Suburban totaled

oldcutlass

I'll let you know, my wife made the same comment.

I don't think the airbags would deploy on a rear end collision, the sensors are up front.

oldcutlass

Heard back, they are going to fix it... Yay, it would have been a shamed to total a low mileage car. Body shop said by the 20th.

Jamesbo

What I know about air bags wouldn't fill a thimble. I would have thought when the semi pushed me into a stopped car in front of me at the light which pushed them into another stopped car in front of them, they would have deployed

MDchanic

It all depends on the rate of forward deceleration.

If the sensors sense that the car is decelerating forward at a rate higher than X, it fires the airbags.

If it accelerates forward due to being struck in the rear, your back is pressed into the seatback, so, no airbags.

If it then decelerates forward by striking a car, which moves forward after being struck, then that second car absorbed a fair amount of energy, your car did not decelerate all at once, but gradually as it hit the other car and the other car moved, and the rate of deceleration of your car was not enough to trigger the airbags.

- Eric

Jamesbo

Thanks, Eric

Either way it wouldn't have mattered, I went to the ER because my head hit the sunglass//tissue holder in the roof of the suburban.IMHO leaning on the arm rest takes you out of the shoulder restraints

oldcutlass

Well, the saga took a 180* turn, its a total @$7700 damage. When they tore all the front sheet metal off there was additional hidden damage. USAA was initially off in the way the analysed the value with their comparable's as they did not take into consideration the factory adds over the base model, but after a short conversation they upped the value to where I was satisfied with the settlement. My son should consider himself lucky as he got 6 years of use on his car and received a bit more than I paid for it. I took it in trade when I was still selling cars, it had some paint issues on the hood due to a poor repair by the PO. Now we have to find him a new hooptie to get through the next few years while he gets his Masters, the search is on. Since he's living in an apartment I told him not to buy an expensive car while the difference in cash can help in his living expenses.

sammy

Good advice Dad!

oldcutlass

PFFFFFFFt, kids.... They hardly ever listen, my only saving grace is he did not fulfill the mothers curse, "I hope you have one just like you when you become a parent".

Jamesbo

Seems like I've also heard that

Human

I had a similar experience when I was in graduate school. I totaled my '86 Calais Supreme and got a fairly generous settlement from the insurance company. I picked up a base model '84 Buick Century sedan and pocketed almost $1,200. I backslid two years but the car only had 27,000 miles on it at eight years old (grannymobile) compared to a little more than 80,000 on the Calais. I was never particularly fond of that car but it got me through grad school and a year or two beyond. All told, I kept it four years, put about 40,000 miles on it, and sold the thing for $100 less than I paid for it. I replaced the Buick with a '91 Cutlass Supreme.

OLD SKL 69

Glad to hear that your son was ok and hopefully he'll be able to find another nice ride.

I have USAA too, and had a collision repair on my wife's car a couple of years ago. The adjuster had everything fixed and authorized all OEM parts, not aftermarket. The body shop told me that they are one of the best companies to deal with. Hopefully your experience will be the same when all is said and done.

oldcutlass

Darrell, as I said above USAA was easy to deal with. The search is still on for hooptie.