A Sad day for my Boxster
 

A week or so ago, the DAY before my wife and I left for vacation, (hence the delay in posting this) for a LONNGGG overdue rest for her, and me :) the Boxster was crunched. My wife was working late, as usual, getting ready to leave, son was with his girlfriend, and I was home alone and hungry. I went out to get something to eat at a new Cajun place I'd heard about. I was in the parking lot of the place, a strip mall, with the Boxster. There was an aisle going east/west, and an intersecting one going north/south. I stopped at the intersection, seeing an SUV approaching from the north. She turned the corner,, and kept turning,, and kept turning...right into the front of the Boxster. THere was nothing i could do....there was a car behind me and parked cars on the right. Fortunately, a witness was there and stared in disbelief as she just kept coming.

End result was.. bumper destroyed, front left fender destroyed, hood destroyed, radiators destroyed, front left suspension, tire, wheel, and I don't know what else, destroyed. A cop arrived about 30 seconds after the accident (he must have been on the street next to the strip mall and seen me jumping up and down screaming at this stupid lady). Apparently, in Missouri, if an accident occurs on private property, the police won't write tickets. However, he DID write a report stating that if this had occured on public property, she would have gotten at least three tickets: Crossing the center line, careless driving and something else i'm not remembering at the moment.

Her insurance company almost immediately accepted total responsibility for the claim, and it will be fixed. But dammmmmmm it just won't be the same. I damm near cried when it happened. This car was perfect and was my baby. You all can appreciate that. I know I know.. its just a car. I keep telling all my friends that when they get on me for driving it in the winter. It IS just a car in the final analysis, but still..........................

I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of damage incurred by the boxster in such an accident. I know the front is designed to crumple to absorb impact. But this was less than five mph. And it destroyed the whole front end. Around 10-12 K damage from a 5 mph crash. Not counting diminished value, which I and the insurance company have not discussed yet. Holy S*(***. The other thing is, I'm amazed at the LACK of damage to the SUV. Literally there was one small scratch on her bumper.. that's all. She drove home.. I'll be at least 4 - 5 weeks in the repair shop, IF they can get parts.

OK.. I feel a little better.. not much but a little.

Thanks for reading

Bob

Be strong on the diminished value negotiations, and don't hold back telling them your lawyer will be taking over when they try and give you too little.

What a total pain in the arse for you.

I bet that third ticket was driving while on the dang cell phone. Every person on the road is talking on their cell phone in Houston!

Don't get too caught up on just speed. Momentum is the factor that leads to damage and momentum is directly related to mass (weight). The SUV always wins, the motorcycle always looses.

wow, hopefully u get it up and running again, but thats what happens when u colide or the SUV colides with you.
hang in there

Physics, sometimes, is a wonderful thing, if you're on the right side of the equation. Given that F = M * A, it doesn't take much acceleration for a 5000+ pound SUV to create a lot of force, especially in relation to, in my particular case, zero acceleration!!! So yes.... the SUV doesn't need much speed (acceleration) to create a LOT of force, and, therefore, a huge amount of damage to the poor little Boxster in its path. But it's still amazing to me, looking at the car, how MUCH damage there is. Physics in action...Oh well, I guess my lab instructor would be nodding his head right now. That's no consolation!

Where in kansas city? I have had some weird people almost hit me bunches of times. One guy changed lanes without looking, I had to chuck norris my way over to the other lane. This was on ward pky.

I was actually in Blue Springs at the time, but no one knows Blue Springs from squat, so I said KC! I live in Lee's Summit, but, again, no one knows THAT burb either. Maybe I should say KC Area or some such in my listing.

Bob,

I'm sorry to hear about your car. I'm just wondering, since you have to have the whole front end redone anyway, have you considered having the Boxster parts replaced with the '02 and up 996 front end? You're in the perfect situation to have the conversion done for free. :D

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2/grizzly_011/8.jpg

Ya, all those and raytown, meriam, lenexa, and overland park are kinda fused in the city. I know to stay out of blue springs now, lol.

I'm guessing the damage is not final estimation? It would probably go up more for a hidden damages. You never know.

I did inquire of the body shop about that. The owner, an ex 356 and current, ummm something owner, (I forgot exactly what in all the confusion) checked prices on a GT3 bumper, and a few other things like the 996 front end. It would end up costing me around $1,200 or so above the insurance claim, or so he said. It wasn't worth it to me to do it. ( I think it was that high because the right fender wasn't damaged, at least on first inspection.. just left front fender, bumper, hood and underpinnings.. JUST!!. So, that would require me to buy the headlight and right fender, in addition to the up charge for the bumper and paint for the right side. I, and he, might be wrong on this but that's my understanding) There might be another shop that would do it for less, but, at this point, I just want my car back like it was. And, seriously, I like the look of my 01 as it is (was :( )

Bob,

So sorry to hear about your car :(

Just glad you are ok !

Good luck with the repairs...

Nick

Sorry to hear about that Bob. :(

Thankfull you are ok and did not miss the vacation. Sorry about the loss

Whats with it this week and Boxsters gettin wrecked? Must be bad Turkey or something.

Sorry to hear man. What did the lady in the SUV say about what she did btw?

You know, you could always wait till the car is fixed to look like new, and then sell it. Take the proceeds of that and buy a similar model year pre-owned S! Perfect way to turn this into a good experience for ya! :rolleyes:

Bob, sorry to hear, and do make sure you get ALL repairs covered + the loss of value due to a damaged/repaired car.

A small correction. Momentum = M*V (mass * speed). The SUV need not be accelerating (A=0) for it to produce the damaging momentum.

Z.

man, that sucks. but hey, when life hands lemons, make lemonaide, right? why not use this opportunity to pay a couple hundred bucks extra for a GT3 bumper or something. might as well get something worth while out of the situation.

Z: True, the equation for momentum is p = m * v (mass times velocity) from which can be derived Newton's second law - F(orce) = M(ass)*A(cceleration). Both are correct, in non relativistic classical mechanics. YOUhowever are correct in that momentum (not dependent upon acceleration or changing momentum....whoaaaa wait...let's NOT get into this) vs force was the deciding factor in the amount of damage. Minus 10 pts for me. Its been too many years since I had Mechanics. I KNEW I shoudn't have brought this up! :)
And yes.. the motocycle always loses

Bob

Would it be wrong to ask for pictures? I kind of want to see what it looks like. Sorry for your loss.

what kind of SUV was this?
Consider yourself lucky. There was a poster on this forum who had a family member who was severely injured (lost a limb) in frontal collision with telephone pole driving a Boxster. He posted pictures and it was scary. I drive 55 and steer clear and speed away from SUV's, people I notice talking on cellphones or weavers. Not that you could have done anything to prevent this though...

You could do what I did and get a dirty bodyshop. They quote it extra high then do the work cheap so you have money for extra parts, Or they just quote what itd cost to buy a new GT3 bumper, new headlights, fender, etc.... and say thats the cost of repairs. Its bad but when your in a pinch it helps to get the entire front end of your car repainted for $40 cash (my instance).

Insurance fraud huh. That's probably not the smartest thing to admit to and definitely not something that an honest person would do. My insurance rates are rediculously high because of behavior like this.

What's the name of that shop?

I never admitted to anything, It could have all been lies. Hypothetically every part that was hurt got repainted regardless of the extent of injury, so its justifiable. And it wasnt insurence fraud, the person who hit me paid out of their pocket. Id rather have repainted hood than a colormatched section is all im saying.

Thanks. I took a lot of pictures, but they're still on the camera. I never downloaded them since the insurance company accepted full responsibility almost immediately after I filed the claim. In fact, I filed the claim and 45 minutes later they were calling me back . Anyway, about the pics. I'm not sure I can bear to look at them again. While this was certainly not a "major" accident by any stretch, it still pains me to think about my baby being hurt. I'll see what I can do though. Heck, I need to get them off the camera anyway.

Bob

nahhhhhhh I don't want to do that. It looks like the whole front is going to get painted anyway. And I'd rather take the car to a reputable shop and have the work done correctly, and on the up and up.

Bob

Are you sure its not cause your drivin record and that your not a single white female with 2 kids ages 4 thur 8 driving a 87 Chevy Corsica... She gets the $25 a month rates... not the Porsche owners.

That sure looks like an admission to me.

Screw the guy instead of the insurance company. That's how you define justifyable? Wow.

Don't kid yourself, everyone pays more than they should because of crap like that.

you shouldnt kid yourself, most the time its the body shops that create damage on the vehicles to get more money from the insurace companies.

the auto body industry is inherently shady.
THe first question they ask you when you contact them is
"is this insurance or are you paying?"

?????????!!!!!!

Then ontop of that overbilling, which raises everyones insurance,
people file fraudulent claims. This is one of the many reasons why New Jersey has
the highest rates in the country and most insurance companies won't do business here, even with threshold limits on personal injury claims.

15 years of driving and not one insurance claim. (knock on wood)

My point exactly.