rverdoold Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Was going to pick up my dad in the morning, heavy snow fall last night for holland. Was driving carefully but not carfull enough i guess. Had to take a 90 degree turn to the right was reducing speed from maybe 30 km/h, then started to skid tried to correct and aim for the bushes but was already going sideways to much. Braced and bang. Engine still running but squeeling, gearbox jumped into N. Stopped engine directly and stepped out not being harmed at all. Hit the tree with ~15 km/h (no airbag deployment or seatbelt pre-tensioner). Car folded up much more than i would expect. Radiator was still ok and not leaking. Then had to call dad cause its his car . Car was towed to the dealer, will see if it is end of story. Drivetrain seems fine but front end damage is quite a lot, rear bumper has small scratch of moving sideways. Well i have nothing thats most important Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSubaruJunkie Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 OUch, you would think an impact like that would at least set off the airbag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 OUch, you would think an impact like that would at least set off the airbag. Air bags wont go off for every impact, as they are calibrated for a specific kind of shock wave. You hit the tree in the weakest part of the bumper, between the two supports. They arent calibrated for what is a single point impact at such a low speed. i'm glad no one was hurt. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3eyedwagon Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 On a lighter note; that is some top notch parallel parking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 On a lighter note; that is some top notch parallel parking! Ow yes quess it will not fit in there without folding the front up. Pitty you need a towtruck to get out there again though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Somehow i dont like ABS, its not helping in anyway in this situation. Question though would it been better without, most likely not. Maybe i should have given throttle to get out but then i most likely would have hit the tree on the side which would be my side. Although there are side airbags and a curtain i still prefer it like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Ice is Ice is Ice. Short of studded snow tires, nothing is going to help. Once the car starts sliding sideways, all bets are off. This is not like rain where if you release the brakes, or release the throttle, tires will regain traction. They wont. Sleet or slush is just as bad as ice. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xdeadhead Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 just curious...what brand/kind of tyres were on the vehicle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT95 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Car was towed to the dealer, will see if it is end of story. Drivetrain seems fine but front end damage is quite a lot, rear bumper has small scratch of moving sideways.t Actually, from the way things looked in the picture, as far a a front end crash, you had the best scenario for any sort of collision damage. No air bag deployment, no fenders to replace (at least they look good in the pics), and probably minimal damage to your rails compared to a corner impact w/ your front end. Physically, it looks like a pretty easy fix, but depending on the book value of the car and what labor charges will be, I guess they could total it. Sorry to hear about your accident. Side note regarding air bag deployment: I've noticed on several salvage cars that the air bags do not deploy when the car hits something like a tree or telephone pole right in the center of the front bumper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 just curious...what brand/kind of tyres were on the vehicle? They are the standard tyres for the EU (Michelin Geolander 215, 65 16r). Dont think snowtyres would have helped much on ice. Thing is that we only have 2 a 3 days a year like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 Actually, from the way things looked in the picture, as far a a front end crash, you had the best scenario for any sort of collision damage. No air bag deployment, no fenders to replace (at least they look good in the pics), and probably minimal damage to your rails compared to a corner impact w/ your front end. Physically, it looks like a pretty easy fix, but depending on the book value of the car and what labor charges will be, I guess they could total it. Sorry to hear about your accident. Side note regarding air bag deployment: I've noticed on several salvage cars that the air bags do not deploy when the car hits something like a tree or telephone pole right in the center of the front bumper. The tree wasnt hit like going full frontal in to it. I was sliding under sideways going forward. Hit the tree exactly in the middle and pushed it bit more towards the passenger side as you can see from image 3. The passenger side fender might be bended slightly. Actually i would not expect the airbags to deploy concerning the speed and angle of negative acceleration. Airbag sensor do not to be crushed in order to work but just pass the thresshold value of negative acceleration. Small posts usually set them off, but in many cases the seatbelt would be sufficient, like in this case. I was more happy i didnt struck the car on the side. Would give much more damage and, ok with side airbags and curtain, i still can not imagine it is better then a frontal crash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 some other pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericem Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Man that totally sucks. Definitely doesn't look like a write off though. What are the odds between two tree's to! For 15km/h seems like alot of damage for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Man that totally sucks. Definitely doesn't look like a write off though. What are the odds between two tree's to! For 15km/h seems like alot of damage for some reason. Thats what i thought as well, but keep in mind it weights over 1500 kg (its a bi-fuel) which has to be stopped. Somehow the middle of the front doesnt seem extremely strong, probably for reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktsubaru Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Ice is Ice is Ice. Short of studded snow tires, nothing is going to help. Once the car starts sliding sideways, all bets are off. This is not like rain where if you release the brakes, or release the throttle, tires will regain traction. They wont. Sleet or slush is just as bad as ice. nipper I'm sorry to hear the accident. When I had Legacy GT, it was AT and when I was driving on the ice, it slipped and bumped into the snow wall. It didn't crush the car, fortunately. Then this year, I have 5spd Outback Impreza and had a couple inches of snow. There was a moment that my car started to slip (tires were all-season tire, Bridgestone Potenza RE01) but when I quit putting my foot on the gas pedal, car started to gain the grip, I think its because when I quit feeding gas, what the 5spd does is to slowing down and it won't keep running ( I feel like bad expression, sorry for my English). So, I guess, when the weather is bad, maybe the manual transmission is better than AT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I'm sorry to hear the accident. When I had Legacy GT, it was AT and when I was driving on the ice, it slipped and bumped into the snow wall. It didn't crush the car, fortunately. Then this year, I have 5spd Outback Impreza and had a couple inches of snow. There was a moment that my car started to slip (tires were all-season tire, Bridgestone Potenza RE01) but when I quit putting my foot on the gas pedal, car started to gain the grip, I think its because when I quit feeding gas, what the 5spd does is to slowing down and it won't keep running ( I feel like bad expression, sorry for my English). So, I guess, when the weather is bad, maybe the manual transmission is better than AT? No just downshift the automatic. Thats what 3-2-1 is for. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDead Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Wow, glad ya didn't get hurt. +1 on studded snow tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Wow, glad ya didn't get hurt. +1 on studded snow tires. Pitty its not allowed to use studs or snowchains in holland. Only normall winter tyres are allowed. Since its only colder here, like arround 5 degrees Celsius on average. But yes it would have been better and my own car has them. If it is an write off we might go for the boxer diesel which is just introduced here +X (where X = infinite) for the engineers who make it possible that you just unbuckle and step out without being harmed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmithmmx Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Knowing that you are OK, I will be the first person to ask. Are you selling parts from it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene J Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Looks like it should just buff right out! Glad you are OK..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rverdoold Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Knowing that you are OK, I will be the first person to ask. Are you selling parts from it? You should know how low the dollar is against the euro. Its much better for me to get parts from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setright Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Dang it :-( Sorry you had to go through this, but very glad there wasn't more damage and best of all, no-one hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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