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Sideswiped my own car into a light pole


adamgt

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So yeah just as I was getting all excited about my satellite radio install that I just completed, and my Passport hardwire job that I was quite proud of, I was pulling out of a space in the mall parking lot last night while changing said satellite radio station at the same time. The lot was pretty much empty, so I had turned the wheel hard right to make a U-turn to head towards the exit. The light poles in this parking lot have a square concrete base that is probably 2 feet tall, then a narrow metal lightpole that extends upwards from that. The base of the lightpole was entirely below the height of the window, so I didnt see it right away. The pole part of the lightpole was neatly obstructed by my vision by the A-pillar. As I accelerated and turned right, I plowed my own car into the concrete base of the pole, at the leading edge of the front passengers side door. I was travelling at a speed somewhere between 5 and 10 miles per hour, and wasnt 100% focused on driving, so the car only car to a stop after the block has wreaked its destuction all the way to the trailing edge of the rear door. Both doors are badly caved in and scraped, the rocker panel trim piece fell off, and the actual structural rocker panel itself is fairly crushed at the point of impact. At the least, I am looking at two new doors, a new rocker panel, and some serious structural unibody work. At best the car will be totalled.

 

Has anybody else had any experience with accident damage on these cars? I have no clue whether this will be repairable or not. I do have a list of some very good body shops in the area (that we would contract out $85k Range Rovers to for custom paint, etc) and will be getting estimates this coming week.

 

Regardless, I am pissed... but not livid. It's only a car, and it's only a Subaru.

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Sorry to hear about the damage :(

 

I just had a little accident. A woman in a small SUV pulled out right in front of me. "I just didn't see you!" DOH.

 

Anyway, it's in the shop right now. Most reputable shops and dealerships will be able to fix it. Parts are available. The only thing that concerns me is the paint matching. From what I understand nobody uses "factory" paint. They use computerized matching to match colors, but 5-10 years down the road it's probably not going to match anymore.

 

It doesn't sound like you had any unibody damage, so they should be able to just remove and replace the damaged parts.

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The rocker panel/sill piece is caved in. Think of where the chrome "Subaru" engraved trim pieces are inside the door jamb. That is, from everything my past auto experience has told me, a structural piece. We will see what the body shops say about it.
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probably won't total, so don't get your hopes up for that....if the rocker/uniside is damaged like you say, it may need to be replaced..that's going to def be the worst of it.....also, with two doors replaced, they will most likely end up blending the fender and quarter panel along with the outer roof rail, so that whole side of the car might end up with new paint....most def might reach near a $8-10K repair depending on what you need....good luck, let us know both your prelim estimates and final repair cost....sorry for your loss...

If you can read this, you're following too close.

 

 

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doh, poles aren't like traffic cones.. it's not going to be totalled at all. It' about $3000 tops worth to fix from what you are mentioning.....

 

I went of the track at VIR with my WRX and spent about $1500 on the rear quarter panel to be fixed, I hit the end of the guardrail by spinning and losing control of the car at over 100 mph.. it looked like this (thank goodness VIR has plenty of run-off for the car to slow down to 55mph before impact, oh yea, wet grass kinda helps with the spin in the grass too):

 

http://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic155.jpghttp://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic156.jpg

 

The insurance company/body shop will replace your doors, pull the frame out some, hammer it, replace the mechanisms for the windows, maybe new windows, pull out/bondo the metal, and repaint the side of the car.. so it's going to be around $3000 to $5000 range, but nowhere near to totalling the car.. you would need to exceed 3/4ths of the value of the car to be considered total (the old insurance law/rule was 50% of the value of the car, some states may still have this rule)

 

Mental note: dont drive fast in a parking lot unless you are autocrossing?

Keefe
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Guest *Jedimaster*

S when do driving lessons start? :lol:

 

doh, poles aren't like traffic cones.. it's not going to be totalled at all. It' about $3000 tops worth to fix from what you are mentioning.....

 

I went of the track at VIR with my WRX and spent about $1500 on the rear quarter panel to be fixed, I hit the end of the guardrail by spinning and losing control of the car at over 100 mph.. it looked like this (thank goodness VIR has plenty of run-off):

 

http://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic155.jpghttp://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic156.jpg

 

The insurance company/body shop will replace your doors, mechanisms for the windows, maybe new windows, pull out/bondo the metal, and repaint the side of the car.. so it's going to be around $3000 to $5000 range, but nowhere near to totalling the car.. you would need to exceed 3/4ths of the value of the car to be considered total (the old insurance law/rule was 50% of the value of the car, some states may still have this rule)

 

Mental note: dont drive fast in a parking lot unless you are autocrossing?

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sorry to hear about it, but...

 

" It's only a car, and it's only a Subaru." :icon_conf

Yup ... Only a car, and definitely only a Subaru.

 

How many people have the delusion that we're driving some kind of exotic or special car. Hell, it's even cheaper than a lot of it's competition. Other cars I would pit against the LGT: Acura TL, Infiniti G35, Audi A4 (maybe even A6 in some cases), Lexus IS. In general, which has the most cachet? It's just a Subaru. I certainly didn't buy this car to impress anyone. It's not like I'm like "yeah, I drive a Subaru" expecting girls to drop their panties. You might as well tell people you drive a Volvo.

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Ding ding ding... The elitist thing isn't my business, thats one of the reasons why I bought this car. Yeah its a nice car and I love it, but I'm not going to trick myself into thinking I mangled an irreplaceable thoroughbred racecar. I'll try to take some pics today to satisfy your need for carnage this week.
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I don't know if it was "any" car ... but we're certainly a long way from the class of car where this would be a great tragedy. Rare and hard to fix would be a good qualifier.

 

If this was a 22B: Tragedy

Original Porsche 356: Tragedy

Ferrari 250 GTO: Tragedy

Duesenberg: Tragedy

 

You get the idea.

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any pics? Sorry to hear about the pole. I saw a lady drive straight into one of the poles in a supermarket parking lot. Atleast it wasnt a pedestrian or another car...

 

Totally off topic, but where did you install the radar? Im looking to do the same thing this week..

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Why fix it? That tape job looks slick. :icon_bigg

 

doh, poles aren't like traffic cones.. it's not going to be totalled at all. It' about $3000 tops worth to fix from what you are mentioning.....

 

I went of the track at VIR with my WRX and spent about $1500 on the rear quarter panel to be fixed, I hit the end of the guardrail by spinning and losing control of the car at over 100 mph.. it looked like this (thank goodness VIR has plenty of run-off for the car to slow down to 55mph before impact, oh yea, wet grass kinda helps with the spin in the grass too):

 

http://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic155.jpghttp://www.speedoptions.com/members/38458/27877/pic156.jpg

 

The insurance company/body shop will replace your doors, pull the frame out some, hammer it, replace the mechanisms for the windows, maybe new windows, pull out/bondo the metal, and repaint the side of the car.. so it's going to be around $3000 to $5000 range, but nowhere near to totalling the car.. you would need to exceed 3/4ths of the value of the car to be considered total (the old insurance law/rule was 50% of the value of the car, some states may still have this rule)

 

Mental note: dont drive fast in a parking lot unless you are autocrossing?

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