Kel Rx8

good to hear nobody in your vehicle was injuried.sad to see the 8
get t-boned though.hope you stick around if you get paided for it.

Doomcue

I love the 8. I don't know how insurance works if the car is totaled. I think they just pay off what is owed on the car, and then I have to go shopping again for a new car. Thing is, I just took out a substantial home equity loan, so I don't know if I can get the same deal/rate I got on this one. That's really gonna **** me off if that happens. If I can't get the same deal/rate, I'll probably have to go with a different car.

aggietiff28

LOL...for the first time ever I will have to differ with this. My little brother just got T-boned about 4 months ago by a 16 year old guy who also ran a stopsign at somewhere near 40 mph. His truck was totalled and looked pretty bad, but the guy's convertible mustang was looking much worse than his truck and I wouldn't have wanted to deal with his mama once it was all over.

Maybe they just need to go back to making all kids actually take a "driving" test or possibly put them in old beat-up crappy cars that didn't have any HP or sportiness to them like what I had to drive. Jobs would be good also. If a kid is paying for that car or some part of it (insurance, gas, maintenance, etc)...they are for some strange reason much more likely to drive responsibly.

joseight

the more pics i see like that, the more i think this country needs stricter license requirements. what a waste.

army_rx8

^ no kidding..that pictures makes my heart hurt

poor rx-8

but at least she protected you..a 40 mph crash is nothign to sneeze at glad you are okay...here's hoping tha tyou can get anouther 8 :D...get a silver..lightning doesn't strick twice so you don't have to worry about the curse :D

MarthaStewart

I'm glad to know that you are okay. Was the girl on the phone?

You're not alone when it comes to how the other drivers react when they see us driving an rx8.

I'll say one thing for sure. I've definately become a more aware and a smarter driver since I got the rx8.

I surely hope all will work out for you. God was there for you and you did'nt get hurt. I should say, Thank God no-one got hurt.

StealthFox

wow good thing no one got hurt, i bet you'll find a simular deal if your car is declared totaled so you can get a new 8

G-ReX

Ugh!

Good to hear you're OK. Are you sore? A thwack like that will give you a neck ache the next day. These are tough cars; makes me glad I didn't get a mini.

Good luck with insurance.

Sea Ray

First thing I noticed, it was NOT silver!!

Glad your ok.

Good luck with the insurance ordeal.

BlueFrenzy

OH!!! Sweet Yoda!! Sorry for you loss! Glad you're ok.

Makes you wonder how some people can totally miss a BRIGHT red car and plow into it. She seriously must have been yakking on the phone, putting on makeup, and drinking coffee all at the same time.

StealthFox

and eating cereal as well

Air Force RX8

Can you take some pics from inside looking at the damaged area? I would like to see the
amount of intrusion into the cabin area....

Glad you were OK. Looks like you took a pretty hard lick.

Doomcue

There wasn't much interior damage, other than broken glass everywhere, the airbags, and the doors are crushed up against the passenger seats. Instead of putting up the pics, I'm just going to put a link to them below.

http://home.nc.rr.com/doomcue/images/RX8-002.jpg
http://home.nc.rr.com/doomcue/images/RX8-003.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the front passenger seat, but in the second link above, you can see how the door is kind of rippling the rear seat.

-djb

jenkins-crew

can't see the pic.

Glad your ok though!

Doomcue

I totally agree, and that's not a knee-jerk reaction because my car got smashed; I've been saying it for years. I see too many people who don't know what to do at stop signs, don't use turn signals, don't go into the proper lanes during left-hand turns, don't realize they're slower traffic so they need to KEEP RIGHT, don't look before changing lanes, don't know how to parallel park, don't know how to drive in reverse, can't read a map or street signs, run through stop signs and stop lights, etc. In the case of kids, it seems most kids (and yes, I was one once) think driving is a God-given birthright. It isn't, it's an earned privilege, but it's just too goddamn easy to earn. Any idiot can get a license. Driving tests are a joke, so why even have them? They're simply a formality. Here in NC, the driving test consists of a loop where you do one right hand turn, a lane change, a left hand turn, and a three point turn. Takes all of two minutes, and from that, the DMV is supposed to judge whether or not someone should be cleared to drive. That's bullshit. That's like giving me a doctorate degree in Mathematics because I know the Pythagorean theorem.

Personally, I've always felt the punishment for traffic violations is too lenient. What are the repercussions for this girl who hit me? Nothing. Daddy's insurance will go up, he'll get her a new car, and she'll still be an idiot. What I'd like to see happen in cases like this is jail time. I look at it this way. If I'd been accidentally shot, she'd be looking at jail-time. If I'd been killed, she'd definitely be in jail. If people would see cars as more than just toys and REALLY big stereos, maybe they'd be a little more careful with them. I think of the car as a bullet, and the last thing I want to do is put a bullet through anyone. If more traffic violations resulted in jail time, you'd see speeding, running stops signs and red lights, and tailgating DISAPPEAR. It's amazing how motivating the fear of a good cornholing can be.

-djb

Jdunsh

*Tear

TwitchFD

sadly most only learn once they have been in a wreck

Discman2

16 year olds shouldn't be allowed to drive anything but scooters


a 16 year old girl at the wheel of an SUV she most likely can't handle.....

Doomcue

Well, it's official. The insurance adjuster looked at the car today and said it's a total loss. Kinda sad, kinda happy. Sad to see my car dead, happy I don't have to drive a refurbished 9 month old car. What happens from here, I don't know. I think what happens is the insurance company will make an offer for what they think the car is worth. Then we haggle. What they're looking for is to get off cheap. What I'm looking for is to AT LEAST get the payoff on the car, and hopefully get a little extra to use as a down payment for a new car. According to Kelley Blue Book online, the value of a 2004 MT with my options is $28,070, so they're going to need to offer at least that, I'd assume. I guess I'll have to figure up what my payoff is....

I'm sure there have been other people on here whose cars were totaled. If any of you have any advice, I'm all ears. This is my first accident and my first dealing with an insurance company. It took 32 years, but it finally happened.

-djb

Doomcue

I posted it earlier, but you may have missed it. She wasn't driving a SUV, she was in a '94 Toyota Celica.

Discman2

Ah. My B, yo...


still, I think 16 year olds should go through a tougher program to get their liscense.

them and old people

Daemonicus

That girl was 16!? Don't know where you guys live but you can't legally drive a car until 17 here in England. At least you're not damaged and we now know how safe the 8's are.. =S
And that wreck really does make me weep...

therm8

Hopefully she loses her license til she's 18 (at least).

That's tough to look at, but it looks suprisingly good for being t-boned at 40mph. Makes me feel safe, considering all the idiots i have to dodge around here. I'm tempted to mount a camera and take video of my commute every day, eventually one of these a-holes is going to get me, and at least I'll have something to show the cops to maybe take them down. :p

Very glad you're ok.

Doomcue

Well, the insurance guys have totaled the car, and I'm officially screwed.

In NC, insurance companies are only required to reimburse the car owner for the "fair" market value of the vehicle. I put fair in quotes because there's nothing fair about it. What they do is look at a few criteria, and whatever comes up with the lowest value is what they'll offer. Fair is entirely subjective, and when there's a difference in opinion between an insurance company and Joe Shmoe, the insurance company is going to win every time. In my case, their offer happens to be about $900 short of payoff on the car. That means that I have to come up with $900 to finish paying off the car, then turn around and come up with a down payment for a new car. It doesn't matter that I decided on exactly what I wanted, from packages to color, and had to wait for the car for two months for it to be delivered. It doesn't matter that I'm not at fault in this so-called accident. It doesn't matter that the car was under a year old (9 months, actually). It doesn't matter that the girl broke a law in order to destroy my car. Insurance companies are neither legally, nor ethically, bound to do what's right. Yeah, that's fair....

So far, the results of the accident are as follows: I'm out a new car, I'm out $900, and now I have to shop for and buy another car, which may or may not be a new car. Oh yeah, I forgot, the insurance company stops paying for my rental tomorrow, so now I have no way to shop for a car anyway.

I have learned something from the experience, though. I'm not sure about other states, but here, an option which is offered during the buying of a car is "gap coverage." Not knowing what that is, I declined it when I signed the paperwork for my car. Now I know that gap coverage is the difference between what the "fair" market value is and what money may be owed to the lienholder. In other words, if I had gap coverage, I wouldn't be out $900 (but I probably would've spent more than that in premiums for the coverage). Personally, I'd rather pay out that $900 in monthly premiums rather than spend the whole nut at once.

To those who have inquired, I will NOT be buying the remains of the car from the insurance company, so I have no parts to sell you.

-djb

Artzy8

You may consider "payoff insurance" w/ your next purchase. You should be able to get it w/ your current policy or you can buy it w/ most financing agreements, though it costs more...

Really sorry.

As for the 16 y.o., she made a mistake and you unfortunately were the victim of her inexperience. We all make mistakes and I wonder how many of those critical of young drivers here would have agreed to have sacrificed their own licenses when they were 16 to laws for higher driving ages?

You were all 16 once and I dare say most of you screwed up at least once driving and were not hung!