They really just do not make them like the used to!
I left home at 3 am yesterday with my sister, she had just gotten up and i was tired so I let her drive while I just relaxed. Anyways, we're about an hour or so from home and we're on this sort of a highway type thing - it curves and then there's a stoplight - we're doing highway speed, she comes around the corner, and realizes the light is red. She gets on the brakes, doesn't quite lock up, but the car begins to slide. She's never been in an accident before and hasn't practiced this sort of thing - she takes the wheel back to center, still on the brakes, and doesn't counter steer - we're sideways at maybe 60 km/h (35-40mph) and we hit at about that speed. We do a 90 degree rotation, bounce off the no post divider, and do another 90 degree rotation. After asking her if she's okay and making sure I'm okay, (I braced for impact) automatically I'm thinking shit, no collision on this car(not worth that much) etc etc... I'm screwed I'll be driving a sedan with folded fenders until I can afford something else. And that's not for a few months yet. :kaboom:
I get out, another guy has gotten out of his cavalier and asks us if we're okay, we're fine, he sort of sits around for a minute and says "you got lucky you didn't do any damage"
i'm like "uhhhhh" So I walk to the front of the car as well as my sister... And sure enough - it's clean! :rockon: :shrug:
I managed to hit the little rubber bumperette - and while it was skewed slightly, the front was fine - the odds of her hitting the bumperette and not the chrome are, statistically, highly unlikely - I was stunned! We got the car turned back around and we were on our way. Whole thing was less than 5 minutes.
It was interesting because I was planning on actually taking off the rubber bumperettes a few weeks ago just for aesthetic purposes! They saved my sister! (and my car)
I was thinking about it and cars these days are made to take impacts - they're made to crumple to absorb the impact, the big plastic bumpers are meant to dissipate the impact throughout the entire car, but these old cars, aren't. If I had been driving something newer I'd be looking at a huge bill. Or if I had been driving a mustang of the same vintage with the plastic nose.
Coming back from our daytrip this afternoon we stopped at the same light going the other way and looked over - and you can see the bumperette hit twice, once initially and then a second time as we spun again.
Has anyone else had a similar situation where they got lucky? Or where they just bounced off a wall or a no post divider in an older car?
I left home at 3 am yesterday with my sister, she had just gotten up and i was tired so I let her drive while I just relaxed. Anyways, we're about an hour or so from home and we're on this sort of a highway type thing - it curves and then there's a stoplight - we're doing highway speed, she comes around the corner, and realizes the light is red. She gets on the brakes, doesn't quite lock up, but the car begins to slide. She's never been in an accident before and hasn't practiced this sort of thing - she takes the wheel back to center, still on the brakes, and doesn't counter steer - we're sideways at maybe 60 km/h (35-40mph) and we hit at about that speed. We do a 90 degree rotation, bounce off the no post divider, and do another 90 degree rotation. After asking her if she's okay and making sure I'm okay, (I braced for impact) automatically I'm thinking shit, no collision on this car(not worth that much) etc etc... I'm screwed I'll be driving a sedan with folded fenders until I can afford something else. And that's not for a few months yet. :kaboom:
I get out, another guy has gotten out of his cavalier and asks us if we're okay, we're fine, he sort of sits around for a minute and says "you got lucky you didn't do any damage"
i'm like "uhhhhh" So I walk to the front of the car as well as my sister... And sure enough - it's clean! :rockon: :shrug:
I managed to hit the little rubber bumperette - and while it was skewed slightly, the front was fine - the odds of her hitting the bumperette and not the chrome are, statistically, highly unlikely - I was stunned! We got the car turned back around and we were on our way. Whole thing was less than 5 minutes.
It was interesting because I was planning on actually taking off the rubber bumperettes a few weeks ago just for aesthetic purposes! They saved my sister! (and my car)
I was thinking about it and cars these days are made to take impacts - they're made to crumple to absorb the impact, the big plastic bumpers are meant to dissipate the impact throughout the entire car, but these old cars, aren't. If I had been driving something newer I'd be looking at a huge bill. Or if I had been driving a mustang of the same vintage with the plastic nose.
Coming back from our daytrip this afternoon we stopped at the same light going the other way and looked over - and you can see the bumperette hit twice, once initially and then a second time as we spun again.
Has anyone else had a similar situation where they got lucky? Or where they just bounced off a wall or a no post divider in an older car?
