Well, it happened. My wife hit a deer on the way home last night. As far as I can tell, it needs a new front bumper and hood, but nothing else. I haven't ever had the front bumper off, so I don't know what else behind the bumper may have been damaged. My question is whether I can buy a pre-painted bumper or hood and change them myself. I suspect they would both be easy to replace at home, and avoiding a painting charge would save a lot. I'll do some calling around this morning, but I'd like more opinions.

Also, are the aftermarket front bumpers pre-painted or do they need to be painted before installation?

 

aftermarket is usually never painted so your gonna need to get it done...i would have a body shop look at it to be honest with you because you never know what damage may have been caused...there is allot of stuff up there that could be some cause of concern such as radiator, oil coolers, etc.....not to mention structural integrity from the hit....you could save some cash by searching the classifieds here for used bumpers and have one re-painted along with hoods....

 

RX-8 vs. deer

Man, deers have great handling capabilities and good acceloration. But they have the tendency to slide a lot in smooth road coarses. in th 1/4 the 8 definitely, but a track or auto cross ... man. Head to head competion the 8 will win, but it'll cost you LOL.

Just kidding man. But seriously, sorry about your misfortune. It's good your wife is ok and everthing seems pretty cool health wise I assume. I lost my sister to an accident with deer.

As far as your 8, yeah, have that checked out. There's know telling what could be messed up. Hope you get everything back in order soon. AND FOR CHEAP!!!!

 

I hit a deer 3 months before I got my RX-8. If you're gonna hit a deer, I recommend doing it that way. Then you can sell the car and still have an undamaged RX-8. In all seriousness, I'm glad no one was hurt (except the deer). I have had connections to two people who were killed in deer collisions. Count your blessings.

Oh and one more thing - definitely get it checked out by a body shop. Your comprehensive should cover the damage, and the claim should not affect your insurance at all. There are a lot of things that don't look damaged that probably are. I thought I just needed a new bumper, hood and headlight on my protege - turns out I needed a new radiator (cracked the old one) and a couple of new pieces of structural metal in the front end. Total bill: $3700 and I only had to pay my deductable.

 

No airbag deployment? She must not have hit the deer that hard.

 

Well, yeah, that happened too. Only before getting the RX-8, she hit a bank, not a deer. Says it jumped out in front of her. Says the deer jumped out in front of her, too.

I am going to do that. I think there's nothing major damaged, but I'm no expert. I have an appt. today to have it in to the body shop. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Nope. She thinks she hit it really hard, but she also said it was "bigger than the car". Hit the front bumper just inside the pass. headlight. Small tear in the bumper and dented the hood. The hood doesn't line up, but I think that's due to the dent and the hood being bent. The only light broken was the pass. foglight. It actually wasn't broken, but the black plastic mount is broken, so the light is loose. It also broke out the cover (that I didn't know about) in the grill that covers up the threaded receiver for what I believe is a tow hook (that I also didn't know about). No other damage that I can see.

 

There's some foam padding and associated plastic supports behind there. about $200 to replace, if I remember correctly.

 

3000 lb car vs 150-200 lb deer - the momentum of the car is going to overcome that of the deer. Since airbag deployment is caused by rapid decel, its pretty rare for hitting a deer to cause airbag deployment. Especially when most deer/car accidents aren't very high speed. I was going about 65 mph when I hit my deer, I only slowed to under 60 after hitting the brakes when I realized what was happening. The deer literally lept from the median in a 4 lane freeway, and landed on my hood. It was probably about 200 lb, 4 point buck. I know from experience that deer look very large - I thought the whole front end of my car must have been smashed in, and quickly pulled over to the side to check the damage. I was shocked by how little damage there was. I also remember that the seatbelt only got tight when I braked, there wasn't any tightening during the impact.