lyonkster

So after 35 years of accident free driving, my turn finally came last month. I just stopped at a light because of the backup ahead of me. The driver behind me did too. The driver behind her did not even slow down, all I heard was a "crash" sound as she plowed into the car behind me, who promptly smashed into me, pushing me right into the car in front of me.

We all pulled over (except for the woman who caused the whole thing, she decided she was too busy for this and took off down a side street). My pristine baby ended up with a smashed grille, damaged front bumper, crunched hood, damaged headlights, a dented rear bumper, and a dented trunk.

Here is how it looked after the wreck, it looked much worse in person than in these photos.





Based on some recent stories here, I was worried the insurance would total it, but the body shop sent them lots of pictures documenting the pristine condition of the car, and it looks like they will pay for the repairs.

Of course now I am hovering over the body shop making sure they take care of all the small things, like putting in the correct labels in the correct locations under the hood, put the trunk emblems in the right place, etc. They've been putting up with me so far, so that's good .

So hopefully this will all end well, the important thing is no one got hurt. And the GS will be repaired. I'll post the "after" photos after I get the car back.

MrBen

Wow! Brilliant stuff!

SoCal Cyco

iTrader: (20)

well.......did they get the culprit?

lyonkster

Don't know yet... Apparently the police report has not yet been released to the insurance company.

I actually can't imagine how she managed to drive off; judging by the obliterated bumper and trunk of the car behind me, that must have been quite a wallop to her front end. But I think she had an SUV, so maybe just her bumper got hit. I did look for signs of license plate imprints on the back of the car behind me, but couldn't find any.

The only practical difference for me is that if they find her, and she has insurance, it would cover my $500 deductible. Which of course would be nice, plus she would be a convicted felon, so hopefully she wouldn't do that again.

SoCal Cyco

iTrader: (20)

wow, like you said at least no one got hurt....hopefully she gets what is coming to her

tiguy99

That sucks but glad you and car are okay.

My 1st GS was totaled a year ago by a drunk driver who smashed it and a few other cars parked in front of my house last year.

She too fled the scene.
They eventually caught her....hope the cops catch your driver too

AmanO

If mine gets hit like that and either insurance company wants to total it, we may have a problem.

How far away from the car ahead of you do you think you were?

lexo98

iTrader: (2)

Just look for a shop that will cover your deductible for you.

Bhubb18

Wow, those headlights are mint! Bad luck with the crash though

kevin3344

Oh man that's tough but glad there were no injuries. I've had my front end repaired twice! Once I hit a deer going about 45mph at night...took out the bumper, hood, grill, and the passenger fog light believe it or not. The second time, I rear ended someone. It was raining and I had brand new tires about a week old. Totally forgot they needed a break-in period. Tried to stop abruptly and slid right into them. I was only going about 30mph and wasn't even following that close lol.

Both times the car was repaired like new and you can't even tell.

lyonkster

Yeah, I believe in karma, so hopefully she'll get hers (and I'll get my deductible ).

lyonkster

Well the total estimate was almost $6000, of which almost a quarter ($1400) was just the headlights. That number was really close to the magic ~75% of book value cutoff before totaling. Teh body shop really helped me out here, they documented that the car was in near perfect condition inside and out, so that pushed the value up a bit. I had a whopping 4 miles on a $1000 set of new tires, that would have been a shame to lose!

I was probably about 10 feet from the car on front of me. I have been wondering if I had my foot on the brake more firmly, maybe I would not have been pushed into the car in front of me. But everything happened so fast, I really can't remember what I did or didn't do in that 1/4 second of the chain reaction,

lyonkster

I picked out a shop based on 55+ 5 star yelp reviews, plus it's a lifetime warranty type shop. So far I like them. I'll be able to cover the deductible by not using the estimated $1400 for two used headlights, and instead buying two brand new Lexus housing/lens assemblies for about $700, and transferring all my old bulbs, ballasts, and computers into them.

lyonkster

No kidding! I just transplanted new lenses onto my original housings less than six months ago, so it really sucked getting the headlights damaged!

lyonkster

Beautiful car! That's my hope too, that after dealing with all this crap, my car will actually be nicer than it was before, my attempt at making lemonade out of lemons.

The timing is funny, I have been considering for the past few months switching from the GS to something newer, but just a few weeks back decided to stay with the GS for another couple of years. So I put on a new set of tires, mentally got prepared to drive the GS for another couple of years, and then this...