We were told you can't get diminished value in Oregon because unless your car is totalled accident damage is not recorded on file anywhere unless you, personally, fill out paperwork to report it. My mom was seeking it for her wounded Tribute and that was what we were told. They had to replace the bumper, towing package, and re-weld parts of the frame as it was pushed sideways and snapped in the rear. J&M did a great job on it. It took awhile when they fixed the frame, though, as they get it to a less than 1 mm deviation from straight whereas the standard is somewhere around 3 mm (again, what we were told and relayed to me by mom). At least I am pretty sure they said millimeters as opposed to centimeters, which would be a whole lot nicer.

This is also the body shop that fixed that scary rock dent in my hood. I highly recommended them but if you are in Hillsboro it is probably a little far for you to go out to Milwaukie to have your car fixed.

 

I see an MS kit coming to someone

 

Ouch, sorry to see that!

 

Just got back from the autobody shop and they put a prelim estimate of repairs at $6500...so yeah no way they'll total it. They're going to start tearing it down and see if there's any internal damage they're not seeing at the moment. The guy is a huge RX8 fan, so I'm feeling good about this particular place.

My only question really at this point is whether the parts they replace is going to match the paint of the rest of the car...I'm thinking a total repaint may be a good option. I'll have to talk to the adjuster or the body shop guy to see if I could push for that...but then I want to do some body modifications to it and may just wait. And yeah, I'll be painting it school bus yellow!

 

The great thing about plastic body parts is that they hide damage well with their flexibility making damage seem less severe. The bad thing is that they hide damage well with their flexibility making damage seem less severe

You really can't tell what the extent of the crash was until they remove those bumper covers and inspect the crumple zones of the unibody.

Good luck.

 

Regarding paint: a good body shop should have absolutely no problem getting a perfect match. Complete repaint is not necessary.

 

You know..., you can turn this into a "positive event" !?

Good things:
* You survived the accident
* You'll be one of the few people without Orange Peel in their paint
* It's a good time to upgrade to aftermarket bumpers and wing.

As for the Silver Curse...
My 04' Silver 8 had many close calls! My curse was 9 MPG

Glad you're OK!

 

Talk to the body shop about the body mods you want. If they have to order replacements you may be able to pay the difference for the kit you want.

 

Which body shop are you using? When I had my hood fixed I had to have it repainted and I got a complete and perfect match. My mom's tribute has a perfectly matched new "butt" too. The owner of the body shop I used owns a racing team that races in the Star Mazda series with the RX-8 engine in an open wheel car. One of their cars is actually shown in the 2006 Mazda brochure (car number 38 in the bottom left picture on the racing pages).

 

My car is at Autobody Excellence...it was the one that my insurance co suggested and they have been pretty quick to get things going. I talked to the guy there about body mods and paint, and so I just need to figure out which mods I want and then we'll discuss how to order.

I'm liking either the Mazdaspeed or the Autoexe front bumper. I tried searching for information from others who have had it installed cause the body shop guy seemed a bit concerned about needing to make alot of modifications to the bumper if it doesn't fit...he seemed more open to using MS parts if I want to make mods. Also thinking I won't have them reinstall the spoiler since they have to replace the trunk lid...I think the clean look of no spoiler would be cool in combo with the autoexe front bumper. Not sure about side skirts...or the rearend bumper. I do want the GReddy exhaust though...I love the sound of a sandrail! haha...but that will probably have to wait. lol

 

You laugh, but this is not necessarily a good thing. I once had a body shop repaint a Miata trunk lid so well that it was perfect—completely devoid of the traditional Mazda orange peel. Just one problem: the orange peel on the rest of the car was now more noticeable than ever! So they actually went back and repainted the lid, adding just enough orange peel to match the rest of the car! (Needless to say, I also think that a complete repaint is not necessary—and not even a good idea.)

 

My car doesn't seem to have any "orange peel" look.

 

WOO HOO!!

Convert. It's better on this side . . .

 

Man sorry to hear about your car. Yah you should of stayed home and just hit up the BG'S. I tihnk it was Arathi basin Weekend . btw i play on Alleria sever, pm if you do and sorry about your car again.

 

im in titanium but i was in a fender bender where the lady said she didnt see me.


not shockingly my second choice for personalized plates (hopefully arriving in the next few weeks) is INVZBL8

 

First and formost. you walked away from a real close and deadly accident that a lot of other people might not have made it out of.i have had my grey rx8 for two and a half years now and have been hit two times at a stop light(no real bad damage just the bumper)it seems from my wife point of view that if i go slow and granny drive most people just pull in front of me like there is an invisble cloaking devce hiding me from there view.but i mostly stay ahead of the crowd at a reasonable speed to give them and myself the room to keep out of the way.it's mostly weird the way they do not see you but you learn the hard or easy way of working around it.also watch out for the cell phone driver's they just can't talk and see around grey cars.sounds crazy but i have taken people on rides with me and they all agreed that we can't be seen almost until it's too late.
my point is simple:always watch out for the one's that don't or won't watch out for you!!also glad you made it out ok..cars can be replaced but people cannot!!!

 

My personal favorite stupid driver I encountered while driving downtown on my way to work. They are building condos all over the place so that day they had all the lights flashing red instead of normal. There was some guy driving a newer Dodge Caravan behind me. Everytime a car in front would go I would move forward. Each time he would move forward his engine wound rev up, he would shoot forward rather fast, and then slam on the brakes and do a nosedive behind me. After three blocks of that crap I was finally able to turn off onto a different street to get away from him. I can't understand what his problem with slowing moving forward was. His van is an automatic. I guess he was too stupid to know that if you just let off the brake the car will inch forward on its own without having to mash on the gas. Some people are just idiots. I was full well expecting to get rearended with him behind me. I was in full panic every time I had to move.

I don't think people pay attention to what they are doing anymore or that they even care.

 

The guy that hit me I think was a litte out of the ordinary situation...hmm, an illegal alien driving drunk and uninsured. lol. And only 2 months ago I had surgery for cancer...yeah, I'm definitely taking the positive out of this.

Looks the repair bill is inching up...last night talked to the body shop and he told me they found more extensive damage after they took the front bumper off. I know I sound like a total girl when I say this, but I don't really remember the exact wording...he told me that the crossbar? is broken which is attached to the headlamps? So even though the headlamps looked fine, that they're actually broken. I've been trying to look online for structural diagrams to explain this more to myself because it seems to be that if the crossbar has been damaged that there would be frame damage to the overall vehicle.

And so, now it's going to be at least $8K for the repairs. I'm just waiting around to see what he says next cause he told me he'd have an estimate for me to sign off on this morning and no word as of yet. Not going to call him and bug him anymore so I'm just going to wait and see what I hear next. Since my car's value is at around 16.5K, I'd say we have another 3K to go before they total it. lol.

 

RXAnna, I'm really sorry to read of your misfortune. Hope all works out well. Please ignore all the crap about the silver curse. It would not have made any difference if it had been yellow, green or pink. He would have still plowed into you. I look forward to hering a positive outcome.

 

...Must look closer...
Don't you drive a silver 8 too?
Probably "stealth" peel...

Seriously, unless you've wet-sanded your car or had a
professional detailer work on your body,
I can almost guaranty that you have orange peel.
It's Mazda's trademark!

 

Mine's winning blue. When I bought it, it was teflon sealed. Then I had to have my hood fixed from that rock dent. Mine has actually been professionally detailed on the outside now twice by the body shop that fixed it. They did it when it was in there being fixed and they just completed doing it this week. It looks and feels completely and totally smooth and slippery.

It does sound like a lot of fun, though, having a professional detailer working on my body.