On my way to work this morning, it was slick out, and a damn squirrel ran in front of me. My 92 Buick Century has no ABS, so it went into a slide, and I plowed into a firehydrant. Well, it wasn't exactly the hydrant itself, but one of the two poles that surround it to protect it. I had to get a tow-truck to pull it out. The left front quarter panel is demolished along with the signal marker and headlight housing, and a piece of the air dam hits the ground when I take a corner. Mechanically the car seems fine amazingly enough, it drove perfectly normal to the mechanic, although I'm sure it needs an alignment. The mechanic said I'm looking at between 1000-1500 to fix it. I'm really pissed at myself for letting this happen, this is my first motor vehicle incident since I've had my license, which I got in 1995.
Just smashed up my car:(
- Thread starter RambleOn
- Start date
You braked for a squirrel?
No animal smaller than a deer is worth risking your life to avoid hitting, & depending on the vehicle a deer may be fair game as well.
Viper GTS
No animal smaller than a deer is worth risking your life to avoid hitting, & depending on the vehicle a deer may be fair game as well.
Viper GTS
bunker
Lifer
- Apr 23, 2001
- 10,572
- 0
- 71
<< I don't swerve for any animal smaller than a big racoon. A 20 pound my excellent compatriot can bang up your car pretty well.
Sorry you banged up your car though
>>I gotta agree with this. I've taken out a few squrrels and a possum myself
. Too bad the deer won when I tried taking it out though .my ex hit a deer once when I was in the car. Damm thing ran into the road when we were going 70, and the left-sde mirror caught its neck. Ripped the mirror off and left a nasty bloodstain on the window, but we survived! :Q
Sorry to hear about yer car. Insurance covering it?
Sorry to hear about yer car. Insurance covering it?
MichaelD
Lifer
- Jan 16, 2001
- 31,528
- 3
- 76
<< You braked for a squirrel?
No animal smaller than a deer is worth risking your life to avoid hitting, & depending on the vehicle a deer may be fair game as well.
Viper GTS >>
Listen to ViperGTS, he knows what he's talking about. In fact, Viper is THE MAN; he doesn't mess around with squirrels or racoons. He's a real man. He goes STRAIGHT for the 8-foot, 1700-pound MOOSE. ViperGTS: MooseKiller Extraordinaire.
Hehehehehe Gotta rib'ya, Gregg. Sorry to hear about your car, RambleOn. You've learned a valuable lesson; hit the animal next time. I realize what you did was a reflex reaction; something ran out, you yanked the wheel. *shrugs* Crap happens. Good luck.
Well the whole thing happened so quick, I wasn't immediately sure if it was a squirrel, puppy, cat etc. I'd feel bad running over someone's pet. If the road wasn't rain slicked I could've stopped just fine, oh well. Damn squirrels, the mechanic it could cost anywhere from 1000-1500 to repair.
Mechanically the car seems fine. The tow truck had to jack up the front end to get it off the metal post it was hung up on. Cosmetically in the front left corner it's mangled to hell. It drove fine to the mechanics, except for the rippled hood, and the 3 inch gap between the drivers door and the quarter panel. I'm thinking of not filing this with the insurance company and having the mechanic fix the essentials only...
<< Damn squirrels, the mechanic it could cost anywhere from 1000-1500 to repair. >>
If that is coming out of your pocket, I'd go find that squirrel and take $1500 out of it's a$$ :|
MichaelD
Lifer
- Jan 16, 2001
- 31,528
- 3
- 76
Depending on how hot your are for your car to be "asthetically pleasing", here's an option.
Assuming there's nothing mechanically wrong w/the car, go to a junkyard. Get the necessary pieces (inner/outer fenders/headlight bezel/turnsignal lens, etc) and fix it yourself. The parts just bolt to the frame. The paint might not be the same color, but at least you'll be on the road. You can get a ticket for having only one working headlight/turnsignal.
Assuming there's nothing mechanically wrong w/the car, go to a junkyard. Get the necessary pieces (inner/outer fenders/headlight bezel/turnsignal lens, etc) and fix it yourself. The parts just bolt to the frame. The paint might not be the same color, but at least you'll be on the road. You can get a ticket for having only one working headlight/turnsignal.
It was kind've funny about an hour later, after I dropped off my Buick, and got a loaner car from my mechanic, I drove up the same street to head home. There was a Department of Public Works parked next to the hydrant, they had straightened out the pole I bent, and were flushing the hydrant (presumably to make sure I didn't break it).
<< Depending on how hot your are for your car to be "asthetically pleasing", here's an option.
Assuming there's nothing mechanically wrong w/the car, go to a junkyard. Get the necessary pieces (inner/outer fenders/headlight bezel/turnsignal lens, etc) and fix it yourself. The parts just bolt to the frame. The paint might not be the same color, but at least you'll be on the road. You can get a ticket for having only one working headlight/turnsignal. >>
The problem is, I'm just not that mechanically savvy. I'm also torn over the idea of spending 1000-1500 to fix the body damage, only have to something else go wrong with the car. It's on the original engine with 112k miles, and an original 3 speed auto tranny, which are both in decent shape.
<<
<< You braked for a squirrel?
No animal smaller than a deer is worth risking your life to avoid hitting, & depending on the vehicle a deer may be fair game as well.
Viper GTS >>
Listen to ViperGTS, he knows what he's talking about. In fact, Viper is THE MAN; he doesn't mess around with squirrels or racoons. He's a real man. He goes STRAIGHT for the 8-foot, 1700-pound MOOSE. ViperGTS: MooseKiller Extraordinaire.
Hehehehehe Gotta rib'ya, Gregg. Sorry to hear about your car, RambleOn. You've learned a valuable lesson; hit the animal next time. I realize what you did was a reflex reaction; something ran out, you yanked the wheel. *shrugs* Crap happens. Good luck. >>
Actually, it was elk... So not nearly as big as a moose. BUT...
I hit two of them at once (missed the third), though, so combined total was probably 2000 lbs.
Viper GTS
I saw a bad wreck on Saturday in Salt Lake. A brand-new Porsche 911 GT2 was going down foothill at about 80 mph (its a 40 mph zone) and smashed it the rearend of a Buick. It sent the Buick flying into some persons living room and the Porsche continued on to take out 8 trees in the median. Saw the driver of the Porsche just sitting on the side of the road, shaking his head. He couldn't have been more than 19 or so, so you know it was his Daddy's Porsche. I'd hate to have to be the one to tell my father that I qrecked his $200,000 + sports car. I don't think that anyone was hurt to seriously, there weren't any ambulances on the site.
NFS4
No Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 72,636
- 47
- 91
Oh, so YOU were the guy in the Geico commercial with the two squirrels high-5'n each other afterwards??:Q
http://www.ads.com/ads/adInfo.jsp?ad_id=1966&us=4967&pt=0
http://www.ads.com/ads/adInfo.jsp?ad_id=1966&us=4967&pt=0
<< You braked for a squirrel?
No animal smaller than a deer is worth risking your life to avoid hitting, & depending on the vehicle a deer may be fair game as well.
Viper GTS >>
hmm I don't think I'd swerve to avoid a squirrel unless there were no other cars and conditions were great. I would for a deer, moose, etc.. though. I imagine those would seriously f!ck up the car, and besides I don't like taking life if I don't have to. Humans do enough damage as it is :Q
next time, run em over.
True story here.
My friend mom ran over a squirrel but it didn't died. The back half of his body was flat. she looked back, it was still crawling really fast with the 2 front feet. So she told her son, "Mike, should I backup and run him over again."
That was some funny $hit when he told me.
True story here.
My friend mom ran over a squirrel but it didn't died. The back half of his body was flat. she looked back, it was still crawling really fast with the 2 front feet. So she told her son, "Mike, should I backup and run him over again."
That was some funny $hit when he told me.
Well, it's easy for folks to say "I'd never try to avoid a squirrel" but certainly if something jumps out in front of you there is an instinct to avoid it... it basically requires some conditioning to just let yourself run over small varmints.
As to you having avoided the accident if you had ABS, I don't know about that. Standard brakes are fine, you just can't lock them up.
As to you having avoided the accident if you had ABS, I don't know about that. Standard brakes are fine, you just can't lock them up.
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