Rammed my Volvo S60 at 40-50 mph straight into the back of a Chevy Tahoe stopped at an intersection. (like ramming into concrete) And it had the towing thing at the back.

Both airbags came out... nose cartilage is swollen from the impact with the airbag. Otherwise I am fine.

Tahoe suffered 2 tiny dents in the tailgate and a very slightly damaged bumper. Showed pic to people and they couldn't even see the damage until them zoomed.

My car however is another story. Front end is completely shattered. Boot lid folded onto itself. Left body panel front of driver's door is very loose. Radiator, and other things around it and behind it annihilated. Engine seems to be OK according to the mechanic I took my car to, but he said he can only tell for sure when he removes all the debris infront of it and inspects it more thoroughly. But currently he is trying to procure parts from the auto junkyard, but he didn't find an S60. Found an S80 but that won't do. He is looking tomorrow at another junkyard. New parts from the Volvo dealer would cost an arm and a leg.

His estimate for used parts and labor: $2,700

His estimate for new parts and labor: $5,400

If dealer fixes car (with new parts): ~ $8,000

Oh, and the mechanic said only the dealer can put in new airbags. He will just put the deployed ones back in, but of course, they won't work again. Airbags would cost an additional ~$3,000 at the dealer's. Or, I could choose to drive without airbags.

Don't know what to do if he is unable to locate a suitable donor S60 at the other junkyard. Should I spring for new parts and pay around 5K to 6K in total (plus 3K for airbags)? Or should I sell it to the junkyard? He estimates I would get only about $1,500 to $2,000 for it if I am lucky. Then I could buy something that is a lot easier and a lot cheaper to fix and maintain, like a used Camry or something.

I shouldn't have gotten the Volvo in the first place. Had I had a Camry/Corolla/Civic, it would cost only about $1,500 for parts and labor, and lots of workshops would have been able to fix it. (Only a few people do Volvos)

Or if I had comprehensive insurance (only 3rd-party is mandatory here), it would have cost me nothing. Can't help thinking like that... I was planning on getting insurance in a week or two

And in the meantime, I have to pay loads on renting a car till my car is fixed/buy a new one. Fuck.

3/21/2010 5:58:28 PM

comprehensive wouldn't pay for that. you would need collision insurance.

3/21/2010 5:59:59 PM

fuck it, get a new car

3/21/2010 6:02:23 PM

^

[Edited on March 21, 2010 at 6:04 PM. Reason : (new to you at least)]

3/21/2010 6:04:01 PM

3/21/2010 6:05:07 PM

Glad to hear you're ok, and hope that you're well on the road to a full recovery.

3/21/2010 6:06:12 PM

any good mechanic should be able to replace the airbags, its a pain in the ass to do, but he should be able to do it

3/21/2010 6:11:13 PM

Quote :

"comprehensive wouldn't pay for that. you would need collision insurance."

i guess it is just a matter of terminology*... i was planning on getting it next week, whatever it is called. i even priced it out ($384/yr... 4% of car's purchase price). it would have covered any damage (no matter whose fault) up to the full value at which i purchased it last year ($9,600). and if it is a total loss, they give you the purchase price in cash.

*most people call it "full insurance" here.

3/21/2010 6:12:44 PM

If you plan on getting in any more serious accidents, I can vouch for used Camrys.

3/21/2010 6:13:48 PM

how did the accident happen? did the tahoe stop suddenly or was it stopped at a red light and you just weren't paying attention?

3/21/2010 6:15:52 PM

Quote :

"If you plan on getting in any more serious accidents, I can vouch for used Camrys."

is this advice or a joke?


to OEP or OP, why did you ram into a car stopped at an intersection while going 40mph

and if you ram into any car going that fast they would not come away with minor damage, you must've hit the breaks beforehand

3/21/2010 6:18:46 PM

Advice. Because clearly everyone schedules their serious car accidents.

3/21/2010 6:21:04 PM

it was stopped at an intersection with no stop lights. i pass through there everyday on my way to work, and i know i have to stop there, and i do stop there everyday.

i have gone over it hundreds of times in my head, and i can't figure out what happened. when i was just about 50-60 m away from the intersection, i looked down (somewhere around my lap) for some reason i can't figure out. when i looked back up again within a second... "OH SHIT THIS BIG ASS BLACK TAHOE IS JUST A METER AWAY FROM ME AND THERE IS NO TIME TO BRAKE... BOOM". i didn't even brake because it was so sudden.

for the life of me, i can't figure out why i looked away/down. and it is pissing me off because it wasn't even a real 'accident'. i might look away from the road for a second when on the highway or on a road with not much cars, but i don't know why i looked away/down when i knew i would have to brake to a complete stop after 50-60 m, especially when I DO IT EVERYDAY

3/21/2010 6:22:03 PM

put a trailer hitch on a tahoe and it's like it has a damn force field

3/21/2010 6:23:27 PM

Could I email pics to someone in this thread and then can post them here? Like 3 or 4 pics only, taken with my 2 MP phone.

Thank you.

3/21/2010 6:25:27 PM

glad to hear you're not seriously injured. i take it wife/baby were not with you?

3/21/2010 6:26:32 PM

^^flikr?

i still dont see how the tahoe gets away without barely a scratch, perhaps we should all put trailer hitches on our cars

[Edited on March 21, 2010 at 6:29 PM. Reason : ,]

3/21/2010 6:28:44 PM

a friend of mine did something similar not too long ago, except she was only going ~15mph...just a couple of dents and broken headlights.

that sucks, just glad to hear no one was seriously injured

[Edited on March 21, 2010 at 6:29 PM. Reason : -]

3/21/2010 6:28:51 PM

^,^^^ Thanks (and to EMCE).

I was going to work when it happened... thank God they weren't with me. They would have been fine as well, but knowing my wife's constitution, she would have been shaken up for weeks, if not months.

\/ Thanks.


[Edited on March 21, 2010 at 6:32 PM. Reason : ]

3/21/2010 6:29:32 PM

[Edited on March 21, 2010 at 6:31 PM. Reason : ]

3/21/2010 6:30:29 PM

good to hear you're ok.

3/21/2010 6:31:37 PM

I'm so sorry! Keep us updated on your recovery!

3/21/2010 6:33:28 PM

yeah dude, old camry, old honda, if you don't owe too much on that volvo I'd consider a change if I were you. could save you a few thousand, and plus could be cheaper to insure as well as be cheaper if you got in any future wrecks

3/21/2010 6:33:40 PM

if you wife was there, she would of given you the heads up that you needed to stop way in advance thus avoiding the accident.

3/21/2010 7:45:46 PM

does the OP know the difference between the boot and the bonnet?

3/21/2010 8:00:45 PM

1) I am glad you are alright
2) I am also glad that the people on the receiving end are alright. This is almost exactly how someone I know just got killed over a week ago. (They were in the backseat of a car that got rear-ended by someone at ~45mph).

edit: I don't mean that in a condescending way either. We all make mistakes, it was just eerie to read this thread though because of that.

[Edited on March 22, 2010 at 9:30 AM. Reason : ]

3/22/2010 9:29:33 AM

For what's it worth, be grateful that you have the opportunity to bitch about the replacement parts for your Volvo. That Volvo may have saved your life, where other cars without a serious reputation for safety, may have not. I'm glad you, and everyone involved, are OK; but don't be ungrateful that you were in a Volvo. In this type of situation, Volvo's excel, where other cars, although less expensive, perhaps fail.

[Edited on March 22, 2010 at 10:18 AM. Reason : -]

3/22/2010 10:15:10 AM

For the OP

-I'm glad you're okay
-there's no way you were going 40+ mph when you hit that Tahoe b/c the car would without a doubt be competely totalled.

3/22/2010 10:35:09 AM

yo holmes to bel-air!

3/22/2010 10:36:29 AM

maybe he means 40-50 kph

3/22/2010 10:37:30 AM

Glad you're ok. Sorry to hear about your car.

3/22/2010 10:38:20 AM

Glad you're ok. Sorry to hear about your car.

3/22/2010 10:38:47 AM

^^^yeah that thought did occur to me.

3/22/2010 10:41:58 AM

Quote :

"for the life of me, i can't figure out why i looked away/down. and it is pissing me off because it wasn't even a real 'accident'. i might look away from the road for a second when on the highway or on a road with not much cars, but i don't know why i looked away/down when i knew i would have to brake to a complete stop after 50-60 m, especially when I DO IT EVERYDAY "

Absence seizure?

3/22/2010 11:13:59 AM

Hopefully the place you're at isn't as litigious as the US. I was in a similar type (though much lower speed and less damage) accident a few years back that has produced three lawsuits aimed at me.

At least you're not permanently fucked up, and your wife/kid weren't in there with you.

3/22/2010 1:05:31 PM

new car

3/22/2010 1:06:30 PM

That's what you get for buying a rich person's car. Time will show you the errors of your greedy rich person ways.

3/22/2010 1:07:48 PM

lol, a Volvo a rich person's car?

lmao

3/22/2010 1:25:24 PM

a midlevel volvo is way out of the price range of the average american's budget (or at least it should be)


that being said, you can find used ones for cheap, and they are still safe cars... and they aren't bentleys or jaguars (but not hondas or toyotas either)

3/22/2010 1:30:52 PM

^He's not in America, first of all. But a Volvo S60 would probably fall into the near-luxury or entry-level Luxury category. But he bought it used, so I don't buy the whole "rich person's car" thing (if that was even serious anyway)

0EP, first of all, glad you're okay. if your mechanic can find a used S60, I'd say go for the fix with replacement parts. This is assuming that he's sure that there is no frame damage. Hopefully they're not that uncommon, and if you were uninjured and the frame held, the car did well. Volvos are still known for their safety even if they're not the tanks that the 240 series were. And they're nice to drive and have great interiors, you'd probably notice the step down moving into a Camry or an Accord. But if you'd have to drop $5k plus--harder decision. For a cash outlay of $5500 you'd have your Volvo back, repaired. Compared to selling the car to junkyard and getting $2k, then turning that around and spending the $5500 that you would anyway--could you get a car for $7500 that you would be as happy with as you would with your car repaired with new parts? That's the deciding factor.

I also find it hard to believe that new airbags would cost $3k, or could only be installed by the dealer. Might want to get a second opinion on that one.

3/22/2010 2:19:04 PM

lots of interesting comments... will respond to them in a couple of days.

in the meantime, here are the pics. check out my 'victim' at the end.

Quote :

"put a trailer hitch on a tahoe and it's like it has a damn force field"

yes it does, yes it does

4/15/2010 6:16:26 PM

its always crazy how one vehicle can get a lot more damage than another vehicle in the same accident

i ran into the back of my buddy's Saturn back in high school...I had to replace my front bumper because the chrome was all dented in and fucked up...but since he had a Saturn, his bumper pretty much popped right back into place right after the collision

also were you going 40-50 mph, or kph?

also also, i couldn't drive over there, cause if I hit the SUV and somebody was like "whats the license plate number" I'd look at the license # on that SUV and be all like

4/15/2010 6:22:07 PM

40-50 mph

(i know because i am always going between 60 and 80 kph on that strip)

4/15/2010 6:23:45 PM

what's all over the radio? puke?

4/15/2010 6:23:52 PM

sucks dood

4/15/2010 6:24:22 PM

Quote :

"what's all over the radio? puke?"

cereal (you can see the mug in my footwell)

dude i hit asked me the same question... twice!

4/15/2010 6:25:40 PM

maybe you should try to not eat cereal while you drive

4/15/2010 6:26:30 PM

ummm maybe you looked down because you had a bowl of cereal in your lap?

4/15/2010 6:27:21 PM

yes, let's make assumptions! there is also a soft ball in my footwell... maybe i was bouncing the ball off of the side window?!

cereal in my lap? are you fucking retarded? it was in the cup holder


[Edited on April 15, 2010 at 6:28 PM. Reason : ]

4/15/2010 6:27:36 PM

i ain't sayin, i'm just sayin

4/15/2010 6:28:09 PM