I was down in Southern Oregon visiting some friends, and we went for a morning walk to a nearby lake. Along the way, I noticed this outer door skin wedged very securely in the seam between two sections of guardrail. I mean very securely; part of it was wedged far into the rail. It wouldn’t budge.
I also noticed some black skid marks on the pavement heading to this point. It’s on a curve, and the car obviously went across the center line and hit the guard rail, and left behind the door outer skin. Can you ID it?
My friends said that crashes of all kinds are quite common, almost invariably intoxicated drivers at night. They cross center lines, drive down embankments, plunge into rivers and lakes, and sometimes just leave a door skin behind.
My first guess was Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique, but their door skins seem to include a window frame, so…maybe not!
A Mondeo (aka Contour/Mystique) was my first thought too. Failing that, a 90s-onwards Mazda of some type.
Older Camry
Nope. The 92 and 97 gens had the flush handles and a simple google image search shows this doesn’t match.
The stereotypical camry driver doesn’t reach the speeds required to do this.
Don’t know what it is, but I know what it is not: Saturn SL
LOL. I feel fairly safe in stating in is not from a 1967 Cadillac either.
That door handle screams Ford to me. I’ll say 1995 Explorer Limited.
Really? They look nothing whatsoever alike.
I see the lock position is different, but that molding and possible two/three tone (maybe silver and taupe at the bottom) and I’m not sure the white isn’t pearlescent, it just struck me as the likely based on the color choices and handle shape, and the possibility of the vehicle turning into a handful suddenly as the driver ran out of talent.
I think the biggest distinguishing feature is that the entire Explorer handle pulls out, while only the center section does in this guardrail casualty.
1994-2001 Impreza?
I’m getting a late 90s-early 2000s GM feel from this, but it’s just a guess.
Wow. Someone soiled their pants doing this.
Fun find, wish my internet connection was a bit quicker so i could scan through the many images it would take to ID this.
I’m gonna guess 2004 honda civic
Not a bad guess, it looks like the Civic has a body character line running through the door handle. Hard to tell if this does by the angle, but I think it could be.
Looks close enough to me.
It’s shedding weight to be faster, brah!
On top of the missing character line, the outer door handle molding curve doesn’t exactly match. With that said, it still might be a Civic, just from a differrent year.
As to someone soiling their drawers over this, I would imagine they were too drunk/stoned and probably didn’t even notice until the next day when they walked out to their car and discovered there wasn’t an exterior door handle, anymore. Hell, they probably thought someone was trying to break into their car and just ripped off the door skin in the process.
I’ve had a similar experience, though mine was on a bicycle. Card night at a mate’s. Alcohol *may* have been involved. Woke up Sunday morning, sore wrists.
Thought nothing of it. Until I got on the bike Monday to ride to work. Flat front tyre, buckled rim.
Yes, the character line is difficult to ascertain. The line on the coupe looks more subtle than the sedans and the flat white and flat light of these photos may hide it. The first pic shows a subtle line forward of the handle, but the door’s pretty mangled.
I’m sticking with this gen Civic due to the distinctive door handle shape.
This is more fun than it should be, I’ve gotta move on…
It might be from a Honda Civic.
Or……you could search around the neighborhood and look for a car missing the drivers door.
….. needs more fabric softener ;
to enter the ‘wrinkle – free zone’
Better “shout it out” before using fabric softener.
I don’t have a size reference, but the handle looks Ford. Might it be a Crown Vic or Grand Marquis? The window frame might have been torn off.
I hate it when that happens!
I’ll bet that the driver was sore in the morning. Drunks seem to survive crashes that cause more injuries to sober drivers. I guess that they don’t tense up before impact.
That’s exactly it—they stay limp and limber, so they bend and flex rather than breaking and tearing.
My vote goes to a 1996-1998 Audi A4.
I might be able to get this right if there were another shot taken with the camera on the ground beneath the door, facing up, with the flash on, so we could see part of the inner door panel. Those are usually more distinctive than outer doors in newer cars.
Anyway, all I feel safe with is that it’s a car not a van/crossover/SUV as that would be too tall to get wedged in that low, and the door length and handle position seems consistent with a front driver side door from a four door sedan – a coupe door would be wider. Still trying to imagine a scenario where a door gets lodged in a guard rail in this fashion, unsuccessfully.
The truly sad thing is, is that this could be the door off of a Hotpoint refrigerator. We know that it isn’t because Hotpoint refrigerators had more stylish door handles.
Hilarious and true!
I’ve had a similar experience, though mine was on a bicycle. Card night at a mate’s. Alcohol *may* have been involved. Woke up Sunday morning, sore wrists.
Thought nothing of it. Until I got on the bike Monday to ride to work. Flat front tyre, buckled rim.
I don’t have a clue what it is, but it looks like one of those cars built with “structural adhesives”, meaning glued together. Which mostly hold up ok, but not to guardrails apparently. I also saw one in a junkyard one time with the roof peeled back about 3/4 of the way. I guess glue works until it doesn’t.
Oh, yes ~ I see front bumper covers ripped off and stuck in the #1 lane guardrail all the time .
If I’m lit I simply refuse to drive .
I hope no one was badly hurt, the comments abut drunks being looesy-goosey is spot on .
-Nate