Accident with my STi (black ice)

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Commuting to work thursday morning the same road I drive every day. Very long, straight, wooded road. The road is wet from a shower the night before and the temperature on my dash is stating several degrees above freezing. I'm not one to feel invincible with awd and blizzacks- in fact I drive EXTREMELY conservative in snow/ice. However in this instance I apparently had a lesson to learn about judging road conditions.

Anyway, I was stuck behind someone driving 40 (speed limit is 50) so I go to pass them. Just as I start to pull to the left to pass my back end starts sliding out from under me. I quickly turn the wheel to keep the front wheels in front the the rear which causes the rear to immediatly start sliding the other direction, quickly accellterating into an uncontrolled fish tail. I slide diagonally off the road toward some trees, at the time with my foot jammed on the breaks. I slowed to at least 25-30 before impact. My front bumper clips a small tree which spins the car into a larger tree sideways absorbing most of the impact on the front driver side fender well. The car ends up on the right shoulder facing the opposte direction (due to the last little spin at it made impact).

The bumper is sitting a few feet into the woods, My right headlight leaning at a weird angle and my fender and tire both damaged. The fender wasn't crushed far enough in to damage the hood, in fact the hood looks like it took no damage at all. The wheel looks really bad cambered inwar at the top with the tire partially unmounted revealing a good 4" or so of the inter edge of the rim. The inner edge of the rim has a crack long-ways all the way around the inside...looking almost as if you could pull and separate the front area of the rim where the spokes are from the rest of it. They weren't the forged STi rims they were the cheap Tire Rack ASA/ Blizzack combo.

I thank god I'm not injured or anyone else for that matter. Now I'm concerned about the repairs. I hear people say once your car is in an accident it's never the same when you get it back. If it doesn't drive exactly the same when I get it back I'm going to go and trade it for another car. To my knowledge the official estimant is $5100 but the Adjuster even said it doesn't look like much damage- it's just that the STi is very expensive to work on. For example the right headlamp is going to cost $750. The most concerning damage to me would be to the suspension beings the wheel assembly took a good brunt of the impact. They did say the control arm was bent. Does this sound like damage that will forever change the way the STi handles/drives in the future following the repair. Or am I just being a bit over concerned. Thanks for reading.

[TehWagon]

suck, man, sorry to hear

it shouldn't affect anything if its done correctly, i don't think...

are you sure you want to go through insurance? lots of times shops will hike up the price because they know they'll get it from insurance... i KNOW you could do a lot better (esp on things like the headlamp?!) shopping for things on your own...

good luck with it...

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Originally Posted by TehWagon

suck, man, sorry to hear

it shouldn't affect anything if its done correctly, i don't think...

are you sure you want to go through insurance? lots of times shops will hike up the price because they know they'll get it from insurance... i KNOW you could do a lot better (esp on things like the headlamp?!) shopping for things on your own...

good luck with it...

Well I didn't know any other way. Do you mean have the adjuster/appraiser cut ME the check and I go spend it as I see fit to have it repaired?

[03tarmacblack]

Aslong as its a good body shop, and they dont cut corners, your car should be exactly the way it was. **** happens, good thing your car is the only thing that got hurt.Only thing I can reccomend dealing with a body shop, just keep on top of things, let them know its not another camry , and that everythings got to be perfect.

[TehWagon]

Originally Posted by Bubba Ho-Tep

Well I didn't know any other way. Do you mean have the adjuster/appraiser cut ME the check and I go spend it as I see fit to have it repaired?

no, i doubt they'll go for that. just if you had the means to pay for the repairs on your own, without going through insurance, you'd not only get it done for cheaper, you also wouldn't have to pay the surcharge down the road (you can plan to pay back everything they pay for you, eventually...)

[03tarmacblack]

Originally Posted by TehWagon

no, i doubt they'll go for that. just if you had the means to pay for the repairs on your own, without going through insurance, you'd not only get it done for cheaper, you also wouldn't have to pay the surcharge down the road (you can plan to pay back everything they pay for you, eventually...)

Thats what insurance is for, besides being legal to drive. So you dont have to go bankrupt when you get into an accident, and arent up ****s creek without a paddle.

Also make sure everything is replaced, and nothing is repaired.

[TehWagon]

That's a nice impression of how insurance should work, but from what I understand, the reality of that is not so rosey =/

[03tarmacblack]

Originally Posted by TehWagon

That's a nice impression of how insurance should work, but from what I understand, the reality of that is not so rosey =/

Insurance companys are on the same level as telemarketers for me...

[2point4DSM]

Glad to hear your ok. Sucks about the car. Take it to a good shop you can trust. If you take it to a shop to get it fixed it will be much easier for you to get it done right the first and not have to fight your insurance company for additional, hidden damage. Of course if you have experience fixing cars then you can often fix it yourself for a lot less.

[hystericfox]

Originally Posted by 03tarmacblack

Insurance companys are on the same level as telemarketers for me...

Lower.

[BlackBulletTSi]

Yea really sucks. If you feel comfortable though I'd say just like everyone else just do it yourself.......750 for a head lamp? How about maybe 100 on ebay for one

[Driven]

I'm sorry to hear about the accident but I'm glad you are okay.

Originally Posted by Bubba Ho-Tep

I hear people say once your car is in an accident it's never the same when you get it back. If it doesn't drive exactly the same when I get it back I'm going to go and trade it for another car.

I'm not sure who started this rumor but its untrue MOST of the time. My GSX was considered totaled because of a deer back in 2003, I took the time to get it fixed properly and I bet that you'd never find a single trace from that accident.

Here is my advice to you. Go to several body shops and speek to both the owner and who will be working on your car. You won't have to talk to them too long to get a feel for the people and how you like them. In my case, I was going to be spending a lot of time working with them on replacing some of the parts so this relationship was very important. In any case, you need to have it at a shop that gives you a good feeling and that you can trust. Don't go to one shop and the owner blows you full of all kinds of claims and settle on him without trying some other places. Talk to the shops and see what brand parts they will be using. NOTHING fits like OEM, so insist that is the only brand they use. From the sounds of it, your insurance company has already given you a quote using OEM parts so you should be safe there. If a shop says to you "I can possibly cut the cost to save you the deductable" make sure you find out why. They might use aftermarket parts or might cut out the blending. If they are excelent at mixing paints they might get away with not blending, but those skilled artists are very hard to come by these days.

FWIW, any shop that has a good report with insurance company doesn't inflate prices for insurance claims. I ended up developing a good relationship with the shop that fixed my car and actually worked there part time for a little while. The software that he used to write quotes and rates used was exactly the same for every car that came in there. All parts had the standard markup and all of the time required was figured pretty closely. Unless you have a spare $5100 laying around, just go through them. That is why we have insurance.

On the subject of the headlights: The headlights for my car (I got 99 eclipse headlights for it) were $380 each from the dealership. Yes they were very expensive to get them new and I could have gotten them cheaper countless other places but I am happy I went with OEM every single day. They fit right, look great, will last a long time and they shine the way they're supposed to. Aftermarket headlights blow and I'm sure used 05 STi headlights aren't easy to come by.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Thanks all for the condolences and insight. Much appreciated.

I'm using a shop that has fixed two previous cars in the past 7 years or so (no I don't get in accidents that often....both others weren't my fault) They do good work and if it should come back driving just like it did before the accident I guess the only concern at this point is having one of the employees beat it a bit when they take it for the test drive. I'm wondering if I should call the manager/owner and request HE be the only one that takes it out when they need to road test it.

As you can tell I'm a bit obsessive when it come to my car.

[reeksti]

damn sorry to hear that. i had the same problem with black ice but i was so close from hitting a curb and a parked car

[Raven18940]

That sucks man, couple years ago I did the same thing to my wrangler. Just cruising at 40, 4th gear, even had 4wd on (it was wet and I didn't know how bad that was for the 4WD system). I put my foot down to climb a hill and suddenly all 4 tires broke loose and the tail swung wildly to the left. I tried to counter steer, but lifted off the throttle which caused a more violent swing back in the opposite direction. It swung around one more time, passing the 90 degree mark before my bumper hit a dirt embankment on the side of the road. When things slide to a stop I realized I had the brake pedal completely to the floor. Humbling experience isn't it, having absolutely no control and being taken for a ride. I lost all faith in 4wd that day...

[2point4DSM]

Originally Posted by Driven

On the subject of the headlights: The headlights for my car (I got 99 eclipse headlights for it) were $380 each from the dealership. Yes they were very expensive to get them new and I could have gotten them cheaper countless other places but I am happy I went with OEM every single day. They fit right, look great, will last a long time and they shine the way they're supposed to. Aftermarket headlights blow and I'm sure used 05 STi headlights aren't easy to come by.

No matter which kind or how much the aftermarket lights cost, my experience is OEM is best. The reason aftermarket lights tend to blow out bulbs more often is the housings are more likely to leak cause they are built with crappy plastic or not put together well.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Originally Posted by Raven18940

That sucks man, couple years ago I did the same thing to my wrangler. Just cruising at 40, 4th gear, even had 4wd on (it was wet and I didn't know how bad that was for the 4WD system). I put my foot down to climb a hill and suddenly all 4 tires broke loose and the tail swung wildly to the left. I tried to counter steer, but lifted off the throttle which caused a more violent swing back in the opposite direction. It swung around one more time, passing the 90 degree mark before my bumper hit a dirt embankment on the side of the road. When things slide to a stop I realized I had the brake pedal completely to the floor. Humbling experience isn't it, having absolutely no control and being taken for a ride. I lost all faith in 4wd that day...

Yeah I'm assuming whatever I did in reaction to the initial rear sliding out from under me cause it to be worse. Just as you said when I tried getting it under control it got worse. The quick throttling off might have contributed to it.

I'm definitly going to take extra precaution from now on and note that an above freezing outside temp on my dash means nothing in regards to any lingering black ice, or otherwise. An unfortunate lesson I had to learn.