Darned Road Alligators

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kyleb

Final Approach
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Marietta, GA
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Drake the Outlaw
So, as I was cruising home today in traffic doing about 70, a big 'ol road alligator jumped up and attacked my car. There was really nowhere to dodge, with the traffic, and the tire tread was airborne, so I knew the left front corner of the car was gonna take a hit. I was on the phone with SWMBO at the time and told her "I think I just lost the left front corner of the car." I was right. It looked like the aftermath of a F1 wreck when I looked in the rearview - lots of plastic flying about. I drove the rest of the way home with most of this stuff jammed up under the car. Sadly, there's lots of underside damage and the fender is bent too. I'm guessing a month and $5K to get it fixed.

 
If you have comprehensive coverage as part of your car insurance, and can prove that the tire carcass was airborne/moving/unavoidable (think dashcam video) your insurance will likely cover the repairs. Still a PITA though.
 
Matthew Johnson said:
If you have comprehensive coverage as part of your car insurance, and can prove that the tire carcass was airborne/moving/unavoidable (think dashcam video) your insurance will likely cover the repairs. Still a PITA though.
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It is covered. Problem is the inconvenience and the fact that the paint/parts will never color match or fit as well as the originals. And there's always the quality of repair issue where you never know if the shop half-assed some hidden portion of the work or missed some of the damage.
 
kyleb said:
It is covered. Problem is the inconvenience and the fact that the paint/parts will never color match or fit as well as the originals. And there's always the quality of repair issue where you never know if the shop half-assed some hidden portion of the work or missed some of the damage.
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I agree... Fix it and sell it.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Tread section, normally from a semi truck tire.
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I'm about 99% sure it was from the truck that had just pulled off onto the shoulder at "my" exit, but there is no way to prove that.

At least this one wasn't scary. The last one (probably 5 years ago) got tossed into the air like a frisbee and I was afraid it might come through the windshield. Fortunately, it only whacked the "A" pillar, and barely left a mark.
 
Quite a while back, I was returning from the Petit LeMans auto race, driving down I-85, and the guy in front of me swerved to avoid one of those five gallon Igloo coolers that way in the roadway. By the time he got out of the lane it was too late for me to miss it. It broke the bumper and bent the radiator mount. I got the bumper fixed but the radiator mount stayed bent for the life of the car. I suspect they can fix your car so it will drive just like it did before the accident, and it will look more than acceptable, if not quite as nice as it did pre-alligator.

Unfortunately for your car's resale value, that will show up on Carfax, and typically knocks you down from Clean to Average even after it's fixed. If you were happy with it pre-accident, I think you'll be happy with it once it's done. I got hit hard in the driver's side door a few years ago. Some of the interior trim doesn't fit as well as it should, but if you're not looking for it you don't notice it. Since I've taken the depreciation hit already, I figure I'll keep driving it, I can get my money's worth out of it more effectively by using it rather than selling it.
 
FormerHangie said:
Quite a while back, I was returning from the Petit LeMans auto race, driving down I-85, and the guy in front of me swerved to avoid one of those five gallon Igloo coolers that way in the roadway.
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I learned a long time ago that unless you're about to hit something big and heavy, sometimes it is best just to hit it than try to avoid it. Today, I didn't even have an option. Back in the day (30 years ago) I was in my Golf GTI going up I-85 behind a box van, when a board with nails and a bunch of other crap attached to it suddenly appeared right under the box truck. The truck didn't disturb it, it was just sitting in the roadway, but I took a hard (4 wheel drift) right into the emergency lane to avoid it, and as soon as I had a sightline to the right of the truck, I could see another vehicle stopped in the emergency lane, directly ahead. And there were people standing around it. So I did another 4 wheel drift back to the left, and missed the people and the car. The risk to others scared me pretty badly, and I've just "plowed on through" a couple of things in the interim, rather than risking an extreme maneuver. That doesn't mean an extreme maneuver is ruled out, just that there is a time and place and it isn't "anywhere, always."

Regarding the car, it is just a daily driver with about 90K miles. I'll put 250-300K on it before I'm done with it, and this shouldn't change that plan. It is just a pi sser that I do a fairly good job of taking care of things and something unavoidable happens. Oh well...
 
Sorry to hear about this kyleb. Good it was just the car and not something more serious.
@denverpilot and I have just had our weird habit of driving used pick up trucks and SUVs with excessive mileage vindicated (although I think Nate got himself a shiny newer Suuubie, didn't he?)
We just don't really give a damn if something like a deer or alligator happens. :D
I just ticked over 265,000 on my Denali pickup and figure I'll get it past 300,000 before the wheels fall off it. Unless I hit an elk or a moose on the way to the airport one morning. Although I am thinking about maybe buying a good used Toyota Corroded as a commuter car to save on gas.
 
The only 2 vehicles I’ve intentionally disposed of prior to crossing the 300k mile mark, was a MB 240 that rode like a brick and the Porsche 914 I had. The 914 needed the J-Tronics FI system replaced and I didn’t want to dump that much money into a car that had no a/c in Houston.
 
kyleb said:
So, as I was cruising home today in traffic doing about 70, . . .

I was on the phone with SWMBO at the time and told her "I think I just lost the left front corner of the car."
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That almost sounds like you were talking on the phone while going 70mph. :dunno::nono:
 
That sucks. It happens.

We’re generally in the habit of running Waze even when we don’t need it for navigation. The various alerts can come in very handy, in this case “Object In Road”. It won’t work all the time, obviously - you may be the first to stumble upon the object - but at least one time at night I’m convinced it saved us from a similar fate.
 
kyleb said:
Hands free is a thing. ;-)

We have laws here about holding your phone while driving. I follow 'em.
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I find humor in the fact that “they” think one hand off the wheel is more dangerous than just talking on the phone.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I find humor in the fact that “they” think one hand off the wheel is more dangerous than just talking on the phone.
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There was a study a few years back that showed having passengers in the car was more dangerous than talking on the phone while driving. Why? Because of most people's inherent need to look at the person they are talking to, which means turning their head and taking their eyes off the road. The counter is that you have multiple sets of eyes. Except the problem with the counter is that the passenger has to see the danger, recognize it, process it, verbalize it, and then the driver has to process the warning, confirm, and then react, which probably is not enough time to consider the second person as a backup set of eyes for a person locking up the brakes in front of you.
 
FastEddieB said:
That sucks. It happens.

We’re generally in the habit of running Waze even when we don’t need it for navigation. The various alerts can come in very handy, in this case “Object In Road”. It won’t work all the time, obviously - you may be the first to stumble upon the object - but at least one time at night I’m convinced it saved us from a similar fate.
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I think this one was probably 30 seconds or a minute old based on location and condition and that I think I saw the truck that shed it slowing to a stop a mile or three down the road.
 
EdFred said:
There was a study a few years back that showed having passengers in the car was more dangerous than talking on the phone while driving. Why? Because of most people's inherent need to look at the person they are talking to, which means turning their head and taking their eyes off the road. The counter is that you have multiple sets of eyes. Except the problem with the counter is that the passenger has to see the danger, recognize it, process it, verbalize it, and then the driver has to process the warning, confirm, and then react, which probably is not enough time to consider the second person as a backup set of eyes for a person locking up the brakes in front of you.
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One of the reasons young drivers are limited in how many people they can have in the car, I suppose.

But by observation, the overwhelming majority of drivers that wander around the road badly enough for me to notice are on the phone.
 
kyleb said:
Regarding the car, it is just a daily driver with about 90K miles. I'll put 250-300K on it before I'm done with it, and this shouldn't change that plan. It is just a pi sser that I do a fairly good job of taking care of things and something unavoidable happens. Oh well...
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Sorry about your bad luck. Our '19 Civic Si was 4 months old and had 4500mi on it when a cell phone talking teenage girl absolutely creamed the rear end. Since the car was new, the insurance co did not total the car. Over $9k in repairs including having to cut out the rear trunk floor and side channels and welding new ones in. I took it to the shop of my choosing, and the car still looks and drives great two years later.

A good shop and do good things.
 
MauleSkinner said:
One of the reasons young drivers are limited in how many people they can have in the car, I suppose.

But by observation, the overwhelming majority of drivers that wander around the road badly enough for me to notice are on the phone.
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Yeah, trying to text.
 
When I was a staff engineer at a utility, one of my interns was a ditzy blonde who was driving home on a mountain road late night when she saw a cardboard box on the road. Figuring it was probably a bad idea to swerve to avoid it, she hit it.

The box contained an engine block. Her car was completely totalled.
 
EdFred said:
There was a study a few years back that showed having passengers in the car was more dangerous than talking on the phone while driving. Why? Because of most people's inherent need to look at the person they are talking to, which means turning their head and taking their eyes off the road. The counter is that you have multiple sets of eyes. Except the problem with the counter is that the passenger has to see the danger, recognize it, process it, verbalize it, and then the driver has to process the warning, confirm, and then react, which probably is not enough time to consider the second person as a backup set of eyes for a person locking up the brakes in front of you.
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Some the people whom need to look at you and talk often have to talk so much they are literally depleting the oxygen in the car while staring at you while they drive.
 
bnt83 said:
Some the people whom need to look at you and talk often have to talk so much they are literally depleting the oxygen in the car while staring at you while they drive.
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I had a co-worker once upon a time who couldn't talk without looking you in the eye. We made one 50 mile business trip with him at the wheel and I was mortified the whole time. He never looked at the road. I told him I'd do the driving on the return leg and never, ever rode with him again.
 
Sac Arrow said:
When I was a staff engineer at a utility, one of my interns was a ditzy blonde who was driving home on a mountain road late night when she saw a cardboard box on the road. Figuring it was probably a bad idea to swerve to avoid it, she hit it.

The box contained an engine block. Her car was completely totalled.
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Dead centering the box might have been better than avoiding the box, running off the road and hitting an immovable object like a tree or whatever is on the dropoff side of the mountain road. A totaled car isn't the end of the world. What's worse is a really effed up one (mechanically or structurally) they fix. That isn't my situation, thankfully.
 
Sac Arrow said:
When I was a staff engineer at a utility, one of my interns was a ditzy blonde who was driving home on a mountain road late night when she saw a cardboard box on the road. Figuring it was probably a bad idea to swerve to avoid it, she hit it.

The box contained an engine block. Her car was completely totalled.
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Sounds like something my grandpa would’ve done...leaving the box on the road, I mean, not driving into it.:rolleyes:

Of course, he had an engine block come through the back of his pickup cab and end up on the seat next to him when he rear-ended somebody...I was told as a teenager in no uncertain terms that the load in the pickup should always be pushed snugly against the front of the pickup box.
 
kyleb said:
Dead centering the box might have been better than avoiding the box, running off the road and hitting an immovable object like a tree or whatever is on the dropoff side of the mountain road. A totaled car isn't the end of the world. What's worse is a really effed up one (mechanically or structurally) they fix. That isn't my situation, thankfully.
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I had a second cousin, she was 17, swerved to avoid a deer, lost control of her car, and it went under the rear wheels of a semi truck travelling the opposite direction. She was killed instantly.
 
And now I'm looking for a car to drive for a couple of weeks. We have a Jeep Wrangler that doesn't get driven much, but it is a rotten ride for an 40 mile one way interstate commute. My neighbor wouldn't loan me either his spare Ferarri 512 BB or his LS-whatever swapped Lotus Esprit. Says he sees how I take care of my cars. ;-)
 
Bill said:
I had a second cousin, she was 17, swerved to avoid a deer, lost control of her car, and it went under the rear wheels of a semi truck travelling the opposite direction. She was killed instantly.
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Uggh. Yeah, a controlled impact with anything other than an immovable object usually results in a not-horrible outcome. Similar to your cousin, a childhood friend swerved to avoid a dog, and crashed into something where he wouldn't have been hurt if he hadn't swerved. He hit a fence and was impaled by a 3" diameter post through his chest and out his back. The paramedics cut the post and transported him with a foot long section still embedded. He survived with no horrible side effects other than a couple of really impressive scars.
 
GRG55 said:
@denverpilot and I have just had our weird habit of driving used pick up trucks and SUVs with excessive mileage vindicated (although I think Nate got himself a shiny newer Suuubie, didn't he?)
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I should have kept the Yukon. LOL.

Oh well. It was the right call at the time.

I played with the Subie in the snow drifts after that last big storm. XMode is garbage. Subie replaced their good AWD system with computerized junk that has bad code running it.

Oh well. That’s why I played with it. High centered it in a very very small amount of snow because the computers freak out at wheel spin and then start doing exactly the wrong things.

Always good to see where the limits are of the equipment.

We’ve been making lots and lots of fun of the new Outback “Wilderness” edition over on the Subie forum. They added more recovery screw points because it’s going to need them. Haha.
 
denverpilot said:
I played with the Subie in the snow drifts after that last big storm. XMode is garbage. Subie replaced their good AWD system with computerized junk that has bad code running it.
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From what I understand, the code cuts engine power early as the CVT is quick to overheat and die. I really like my 3.6R, but am not a fan of the CVT. This car would be perfect with a real 8 to 10 speed automatic.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I find humor in the fact that “they” think one hand off the wheel is more dangerous than just talking on the phone.
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A while back I looked at the NHTSA data on car accidents in the USA but before texting was particularly popular. I looked at the period from before cellphones until cellphones were ubiquitous. The way some people think about cellphone use while driving, you'd expect that the accident rate would have skyrocketed. Nope. Remained flat or dipped slightly.
 
Bob Noel said:
A while back I looked at the NHTSA data on car accidents in the USA but before texting was particularly popular. I looked at the period from before cellphones until cellphones were ubiquitous. The way some people think about cellphone use while driving, you'd expect that the accident rate would have skyrocketed. Nope. Remained flat or dipped slightly.
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Maybe the people prone to cell phone accidents are going to find a way to get into an accident anyway. As @EdFred indicated, distractions from passenger conversations are at least as dangerous.

Of course, wandering back and forth between mid-opposite lane to curb must be safe if there’s no accident. :rolleyes:
 
Bill said:
From what I understand, the code cuts engine power early as the CVT is quick to overheat and die. I really like my 3.6R, but am not a fan of the CVT. This car would be perfect with a real 8 to 10 speed automatic.
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I purposefully played with disabling a safety system at a time. Besides killing the throttle when you need it (CVT protection) it also really can’t figure out which wheel to actively brake to regain traction when only one has it.

The old limited slip center diff Subie would have done donuts around the stuck one. (2000 vs 2017)

Glad we kept the 2000. I’ve had the old one up to the front bumper in mud and it kept going. The 2017 would definitely give up and stop in the middle of the mud pit.

There’s some good YT videos of putting a modern Subie on a set of rollers. Between it trying to figure out which wheel has traction and the CVT cutout, it can’t move.

Reprogramming XMode to take the CVT cutout into consideration would help them immensely.

It acts like the engineering group doing the wheel spin code expected continuous engine power so they’d have time to try braking wheels, then it runs out of time when the CVT engineers shut them down.
 
Bob Noel said:
A while back I looked at the NHTSA data on car accidents in the USA but before texting was particularly popular. I looked at the period from before cellphones until cellphones were ubiquitous. The way some people think about cellphone use while driving, you'd expect that the accident rate would have skyrocketed. Nope. Remained flat or dipped slightly.
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It would be interesting to have the data to actually correlate phone use with accidents. Generally, if I see someone weaving in their lane or unable to maintain a steady speed, they have a phone in their hand. I got a laugh several years ago at a woman driving a Miata who passed me on the interstate, then immediately changed into my lane and slowed down. When I passed her, she was on her phone. A minute later, she sped up and passed me again. Off the phone now. Then got back on the phone, slowed down, and changed back into my lane, so I passed her again. Lather, rinse, repeat about 3 times. She simply couldn't talk on the phone and maintain a steady pace.
 
kyleb said:
It would be interesting to have the data to actually correlate phone use with accidents. Generally, if I see someone weaving in their lane or unable to maintain a steady speed, they have a phone in their hand. I got a laugh several years ago at a woman driving a Miata who passed me on the interstate, then immediately changed into my lane and slowed down. When I passed her, she was on her phone. A minute later, she sped up and passed me again. Off the phone now. Then got back on the phone, slowed down, and changed back into my lane, so I passed her again. Lather, rinse, repeat about 3 times. She simply couldn't talk on the phone and maintain a steady pace.
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Every road trip I take, there’s somebody that I pass 2 or 3 times.
 
Bill said:
From what I understand, the code cuts engine power early as the CVT is quick to overheat and die. I really like my 3.6R, but am not a fan of the CVT. This car would be perfect with a real 8 to 10 speed automatic.
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After watching at least 10 hours of these guys the thought of a 10 speed makes me vomit a little, as do CVTs.

https://www.youtube.com/c/PrecisionTransmission/videos
 
I once dated a girl that would read books as she drove on highways, looking up about once every 15 seconds.
 
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