Totaled a car today *advice needed*
 

On my way to school this morning I decided to run my wife's car into a tree.

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Well, at least that was the result of a nice long slide downhill coming out of a curve, followed by a little grass surfing

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Don't ask me how I ended up here...

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Pics of the damage:

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All of this happened nearly 2 hrs before the pics were taken...I usually leave for school around 6am since it's a 1:20 drive. This morning the roads were very wet, but I felt pretty confident since I had just put new Pirelli P3000 Cinturatos on this car for my wife, which are very nice even in inclement weather. Touring all season, but those and some decent shocks really changed this car from a cheap domestic to something decent to cover the miles with.

As I was nearing the end of a turn, doing slightly over 50mph since the next turn is a posted 40mph, a full size truck was approaching with his high beams on. I lowered mine, he didn't. I kept my eyes on the white line (right side of road) like always, but after he passed I found myself leaving my lane, and in poor attitude for the rest of the turn. An abrupt correction brought the back end out as I hit the crest seen right about where the trees are in this pic.

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I fought it back and fourth after getting off the brakes, and never got traction back. I exited the road on the left, went through a field (in front of a cemetery no less) and was about 10ft short of saving it when I came up on the tree line. It looks like I went straight in but the first clump of trees turned me that way. I was almost driving parallel with the tree line when I went in, and tagged a stout little cedar with the right front.

Had I hit an inch further over it would have snagged the crossmember...and the force would have been much more violent. Instead the tree ran through the bumper, quarter panel, and wheel (sheering halfshaft from tranny), great reducing the g forces.

Airbags deployed, and I came away without a single injury. Very sore, but I'll live......that is if my wife doesn't murder me. When she moved here from Mexico City 9yrs ago this was the first thing she bought after working full time for a while. She had it paid off within a year, and it's always been her baby...regardless of my opinion. Now I've wrecked it...and trust me when I say I'm cut off for a while.


I might end up having to part out my car to replace hers.

I was within a week of wrapping up the Miata (rebuilding/upgrading brakes, Corbeau, frame rails, motor mounts etc), and was taking her's this week.

We took this car OFF of full coverage LAST MONTH. I made this call since the replacement value was finally below the premium difference over a two year span, and we were reducing all of our bills at the time (smaller phone package, cut the satellite etc.).

Either way we've lost a car we had paid off, which was well maintained and always treated us well. We can't afford any kind of payment, and it's pretty much worthless now.

I've considered parting it out but know they're non-desireable and don't want the headache in my garage. Wrecker yard is offering to take it to cover towing expenses.

Since there's no insurance involvement I could freely share photos and info...and thought ya'll might like to see what stupid looks like on a Friday morning.

Oooo I bet she's so happy with you right now.

Wet grass may as well be black ice.

No...no she's not.

I'd let go of anything Miata related (including car) in order to make her happy right now.


It was bad...I don't think I shaved more than 15mph off my speed in ALL of that sliding...I was still going at a pretty good clip when I caught that tree.

Duct tape?

When you leave pavement and hit wet grass you ACCELERATE. I watched this happen at a local autox in which an STI left the course and chased a worker at my station along the grass. Was pretty scary.

Glad to hear you're ok. It surely is an unfortunate situation to say the least. Good luck with the wife. Just tell her that you could only get like 500 bucks if you parted out your car and that its not really worth it at all =P

you did her a favor

Ugh....I totaled my pristine 1992 Sentra SE-R on a trip from Mississippi to Vermont (on my way to get married, actually). I had made it just across the border into Vermont when I caught a tire in a truck rut...when I corrected, the car spun on the morning dew and slid all the way across a grass lawn before I hit a large boulder sideways, passenger side first. The car came all the way over the boulder, landed on the passenger side, and then rocked back onto its wheels. If not for the boulder, the car would have been fine...but the rock changed all that.

The funniest part is that it was directly in front of the state rest stop....a guy came running out to my car. After asking if I was alright, his immediate concern was if I had "anything" I didn't want the cops to find, and offered to take it for me so I wouldn't get caught.

Ouch! Wet grass FTL! Glad you are OK though. A car can be replaced.

Sorry man, that sucks. Although as much as the whole situation sucks, I have to say thank you for taking a caviler off the road :laugh: Wish it was in better terms though.

He was a good man.

I would be tempted to do this...but we really are in bad shape now.

My daughter had a childhood asthma attack a couple of weeks back that the pediatrician couldn't fix...so we ended up taking an ambulance ride to the local ER. I'd do anything for my daughter, and I have no problem parting out my car to help cover those bills, or my wife's car.


Thanks for the concern everyone.

As much as I thought that car was a POS...it saved my life this morning. The Miata surely wouldn't have fared as well with the full force airbag, or playing ping-pong between the steering wheel and rollbar since I pulled the bag week before last.


I really wish this shit would buff right out :giggle:

It doesn't look bad, but there's a lot of mechanical fucked up there, and I could only crawl out of one of the doors.

As funny as that sounded in your head while typing it...it really isn't.


She was very proud of this car...and it's always been a fantastic vehicle. This car hasn't given us ONE SINGLE problem in 140K miles of use.

She was religious about oil changes before I even met her. During our first year of marriage she would remind me to change the oil, like clockwork, 500 miles before I planned to every single time.

Last compression numbers I ran when changing plugs and filter were solid across the line.

Maybe they built this car the day GM gave in to Union demands on more health care benefits?


Not only that...but this car represented to her what hard work could provide. Her family was seperated and spread between Houston and Mexico City for 5 yrs while they went through the LEGAL immigration process. Once here she got a job at Luby's (despite having studied at UNAM), and once she got a real job doing inventory control she went with her dad to their credit union and got a loan on what she considered a decent vehicle. Her family has bought 5 new Chevrolets from that same dealer.

She paid the $14K loan off in less than a year, shortly before we met. I couldn't believe she had a basically new vehicle she didn't owe a dime on, and I was driving an $800 shitbox. Needless to say we always made out in hers.





So...moral of the story:

I feel like a shithead for trashing her car...and I did NOT do us any sort of favor, emotionally or financially.

I retract my previous statement, that's quite a heartwarming story.

Why no insurance?

::edit::

Missed that part. But as mentioned, it was an accident, don't be too hard on yourself.

It's not your fault. The tire guy overinflated the tires and that caused the back end to get loose.

shit dude, sorry to hear that! my g/f would eat me alive if id crash her piece of crap integra which is barely worth $2k (if that!) so i can definitely relate!

I think witnessing me wrecking my car must have stressed him out and he just needed to relax, you know?

GoSpeed -

Sucks to hear about the car, however as many have already pointed out, both your wife and daugther still have you.

Now comes the hard part, finding another set of wheels...

- L

I'm not sure about Texas, but up where I am on craigslist there are allllways great daily drivers for sale <$1500. They might need a bit of work, but nothing major and could easily be done by you. Sucks you live in TX, I have an old accord that is in great shape I don't need I would def sell to another miata guy in need for dirt cheap :/

Anyways, like other people have said, you are still here. Although it's a bad situation you will figure it out and move past it. It's nice to hear someone willing to put their family first, even before their beloved Miata.

wow dude that is epic im sorry to hear about your loss.