First accident I've had in 9 years of driving, and my wife's 10 years of driving.
Well, we were driving the Jetta up to Lexington this afternoon for some shopping. The highway is two lanes, no shoulder. The car in front of us signals (which is a miracle around here) and begins to slow down for a left turn into the gas station. We are well behind, slow down and come to a stop (from 55-60mph). However the idiot behind us somehow didn't manage to notice that we were all stopped. I heard a brief tire squeal and checked the rearview as the 07 Civic slammed into the passenger side rear of the car, and watched it go off into the ditch and rollover as we came to a stop 60-70 feet later.
I looked at my wife, she was okay, looked in the mirror, everyone else stopped, and jumped out to check on the Civic that was upside down. It was a couple driving with two babies in the back seat (fortunately in child seats which is also surprising around here). The rear window was busted out and the driver was laying on the cieling of the car trying to unstrap the babies who were hanging upside down. I helped pass them out of the car and everyone appeared okay.
My lower back is sore as hell, Tye's back/neck is sore and she has some airbag burn from the side impact bags (out of the a-pillar and seat).
The tow truck driver drove us home and dropped the car off at his storage lot.
We went to the ER to get checked out, got x-rays and nothing is broken, just both sore as hell. My wife is really shaken up and couldn't even figure out what happened for a few minutes. Oddly enough my heart rate never increase much, my adrenaline wasn't surging, wasn't shaking or anything. I swear after so many student helicopter pilots trying to kill me over the last few years it takes a lot to get me worked up!
I'm glad the car was not a truck or something otherwise it could have been messy. There is an accident here it seems like every week from the EXACT same thing, something needs to be done imo.

Anyway, I'm pretty sad about the Jetta, however I am really hoping they will total it. We were hit hard on the corner, the rear 'axle' is bend up, brackets are all bent, quarter panel, bumper, light, trunk, wheel is shoved up into the body/door, side airbags deployed. I kind of have a hard time imagining the chassis is not bent up from being hit hard at the angle.

Based on the horrible quality and service we have had from everything here I really don't want it coming out of a shoddy shop with crappy repairs and lowered resale value.
KBB lists retail at $13,500.

If anyone has advice about dealing with adjusters it would be MUCH appreciated..

 

idiots now-a-days man.. need to learn to pay attention and not to be in a hurry to get places

 

Damn brian. Glad nobody was seriously hurt.

 

Nice (Was atleast) mk4.

It is more then likely totaled, but hey, not much damage on the jetta.

Feel better.

 

oh wow. im glad everyone was okay! having 2 babies in the back bust have been scary as hell. i dont know what i would have done if i would have taken someones life. esp. a babys.

 

Hope yall feel better man.

I had something similar happen however i was the one who rear ended the women who pulled out infront of me and didnt even see me. Yall will be sore for a couple months but them after some therapy yall will feel better even though yall will still have some back/neck pain occasionally months after

 

OUTCH! I read the title and thought "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" thinking it was the fiddy. I'm glad ya'll are alright and hopefully those kids in the Civic are alright too.



so.....how does a fusion sound to Tye? I would say SHO, but we all know the price of those. lol. I do really really dig those new GLI's.

 

Brian, glad to hear everyone is okay.
Sorry to hear about your car...its definitely totaled...that crease in the corner panel is a good sign that the unibody is bent.

Also, when did VW come out with rear steering....????

 

^ my neighbor had an old honda with 4wheel steering and boy did that thing handle. he could weave cones at almost 75 80 mph

 

I don't know yet. I wanted to test drive a Fusion recently but I would only want the sport model and the are so expensive.
She really wants another VW (if they total it), so we may look for a new or late model GTI, or Jetta TDI. I have also seen some very nice late model A3 sport wagons that might be pretty nice. I would love to buy new for once but it is still like throwing money down the pooper I think. We'll just have to see what happens.

I need to call the adjuster in the morning so I can meet with them when they look at it. It doesn't have a ton of aftermarket stuff, but it is lowered with new shocks/springs and bigger sway bars, wheels/tires, $500 catback and whatnot. I know that won't bring much but I want to make sure everything is accounted for when they decide what to do with it.

I wonder if the adjuster is on the fence about totaling the car, if they will have to tow it to somewhere to make sure it is still straight.

 

damn an upside down civic is my favorite mod! lol good thing everyone is ok.....
oh i was lookin at the 9th picture down, did everyone get their tickets to the gun show?! lol sorry i had too

 

lol
This is the first thing I said after everyone was okay and accounted for. Looked at my wife and said "Didn't know your car had four wheel steering did you?"

 

Wow... glad everyone is ok... All I know about getting stuff totaled is (atleast when my mom was in her accident) the adjuster gets to pick what percentage of the cars value is equivelant to a total. In our case the adjuster wanted like 85% of the value to be a total and they listed the car as being worth something like $45K when we only paid like $35K. Hopefully it all works out for you!

 

damn man good job on reacting to the children in the rear of the over turned civic..glad everyone is ok with minor injuries.

 

Brian, glad you and the better half are ok. I hate looking at these threads, not knowing how my fellow RF's are. But thankfully you and your wife are safe and sound.....

 

Oh wow! I'm glad you are all ok. I also thought the 150 was trashed. Good luck with the car man.

 

glad you guys are alright!!


strong little car to take that type of hit and not completely destroy itself

 

damn, glad youre ok. the jettas not totalled though, id put money on it. those unibodies are really strong, looks like your suspension components took most of the impact. good luck with the insurance claim!

 

sucks man. at least you guys are good. where did that civic guy think he was going? there's not much room on the grass. if they total it, buy it back and swap that motor into a mk2 or 3

 

Patrick it may not be totaled, hard to say. It is probably repairable but at what cost? Retail is between $10,300 and $13,500. Who knows what they will value it at. There are a lot of components that were damaged, some airbags (overhead and out of the leather seat), and who knows what all is going on underneath. I just don't want a car that has had that much repair work done to it by someone I don't know or trust. But there isn't a lot I can do about it, so we'll see what happens. Fortunately we both have decent jobs and can afford to get into another car payment if we have to.

The guy in the Civic just wasn't paying attention somehow. About 20 feet behind the initial impact marks his skid starts. He slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve off to the right. Would have been better than straight into the back of us probably if he hadn't rolled. There isn't much room in the grass but it probably looked better than the back of another car! lol

 

glad you guys are alright man.


but that will buff right out

 

Sucks man. Im glad you and your wife are O.K. I hope you get everything sorted out.
My advice for the adjusters is..hold your ground...not much help I know.

 

I am questioning whether or not it was a good decision to let the wrecker store it at his yard. I want to get a quote from VW with VW parts in case it is not totaled.
I guess I will either have to move it or pay for someone from a shop to go look at it.

 

the side airbags could possibly put it over the top i guess. didnt think of that before. airbags are pricey. depending on the cost of suspension parts i suppose its possible it could be totalled considering the retail value.

 

From the looks of it, that rear quarter will need some serious pulling with the car on the frame rack. Depends on the guy doing the estimate, it may even get a new rear quarter. And on top of that it will need bags, rear bumper, taillight, bumper reinforcement. My bet is that it will get totaled. Vehicles usually get totaled after they surpass about 80-85% of their value in damage.