How often are your car accidents? Some people drive a car for decades and never wreck. What about the other end of the spectrum? What is the record for shortest vehicle ownership before an accident? A month? Two weeks? A couple days? How about just over five hours?
In the fall of 2014 my mother was planning her retirement. The date she picked roughly coincided with the birthday of my very spoiled Nephew, Nicholas. He was turning 16. My sister decided to plan a big party for the whole extended family. This shin-dig would take place at a rented condo out on the water from Friday night through Sunday afternoon. There were lots of plans being made for balloons, cakes, barbecue, celebrating etc. Some family members couldn’t stay the entire weekend, so we all agreed that the festivities would primarily take place on Saturday evening. My mother’s office was planning a party for her that Friday. Nicholas, my bratty nephew complained that his party would be a day early. His birthday wasn’t until that Sunday.
During this same time-period my mother was thinking about getting a new car. She bought an Avalon about two years before, but she wanted to go back to an SUV. She liked sitting higher, to see traffic better. While at the dealer for service, she wandered over to the new Lexuses (Lexi?).
A friend of hers drove an RX 350 and mom really liked it. It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with a black example there on the lot. An astute salesman asked for the Avalon to be appraised while he went to fetch the keys to the RX 350. The story I got was that before she knew it, mom had committed to buying this black SUV. The only thing slowing down the process was running everything past my step-dad. She left the dealer after paying $55 for the Avalon’s oil change.
The Salesman was smooth. He called her with “good news” about getting the tires on the RX 350 filled with nitrogen and he asked when she was coming back in. He might be able to get that beautiful black paint sealed, she would only have to pay dealer cost. Should she get it? My step dad was non-committal. He told her that if she really liked it, she should buy it. It was her retirement present not his.
She decided to go ahead and get the black RX 350. The family reunion/ birthday/retirement party was that weekend so the salesman was told they would probably finalize the deal the coming week. This smooth-talking salesman was good. He called back to let her know that someone else was looking at the vehicle. It was Friday, anything could happen over the weekend. She needed to get there quickly! Should he hold it for her? She explained that her office was having a farewell party for her that afternoon and then the weekend was booked with party plans. The sales guy wasn’t letting the sale of a nearly $50,000 SUV get postponed. He said “Wouldn’t it be great to show up at the family reunion in your brand-new car?” He promised to have her in and out in no time, she just needed to sit with the F & I guy in the back for a little bit.
Remember that I was not privy to any of these shenanigans. My mother and step-father consistently buy cars and then inform me about their purchase later. I guess, in her mind, I am still a little kid putting plastic model cars together. What could I possibly know?
Sure enough, that Saturday, Mom pulled up at the condo a few minutes after 4:00 PM in the brand-new black Lexus. Everyone was oohing and ahhing. If I must say, it was a beautiful vehicle. Top-notch build quality with wonderful materials inside. She showed off the second row and explained that they did not need a third row, it was just her and my step-dad most of the time. The SUV had some neat features, but there was not time for the salesman to explain any of them to her.
Over dinner Nicholas kept asking to drive the Lexus. My mother kept saying “Sure, when you get your license.” But Grandma loved little Nicholas the most. He kept begging her to let him drive it. “I’m getting my license soon.” He kept on repeating.
Later that night, some of us were shooting pool downstairs when my uncle came in the room muttering something like “I can’t believe she let him take it.” I instantly knew what happened. Nicholas had been in the kitchen badgering my mother while all the men were downstairs. I went and looked outside, no Lexus. When I went upstairs, mom was standing right there! “Who went with Nicholas?” I asked. She said he went with his younger brother – just around the block. I shook my head. She did not treat my sister’s kids the way she treated my kids.
Not even five minutes later, I was still in the kitchen, chewing on a brownie, when my mom’s cellphone rang. It was Nicholas. There was a problem. Somehow, he scratched the front bumper. My mother was nonchalant; “It’s okay, we’ll get it fixed.” There was more, the hood was dented. Everyone turned toward mom, listening to this one-sided phone conversation. “What do you mean? How can the headlight be out, but it still works?” she asked. “Oh, the headlight is hanging out, but it is still on.” She was just restating what she was hearing on the other end of the phone.
This was far worse than a little fender-bender. Their conversation continued while my sister kept saying “Tell him to bring it back, just bring it back.” Then mom said “Oh, your eyes hurt, – because of the airbags?” The car was inoperable, he someone needed to come get him. Could uncle James help? Yes, but poor little Nicholas did not know what street he was on.
We finally found them. The thing was crunched down about a foot shorter. The entire front end of the car was completely demolished. It looked like Godzilla took a swipe at it. Nicholas claimed to be going about “Fifteen or twenty miles per hour.” Really? Then how was the hood pushed through the windshield and curled on to the roof? Nicholas commented that he didn’t think the SUV was very well built, mom nodded in agreement. I walked away. She bought her retirement present just after 4:00 PM, it was totaled before 10:00 PM. The odometer showed a whopping 38 miles.
Oh, and things got worse. My mom’s insurance company rejected her claim. They said her policy forbade allowing an unlicensed driver to take her vehicle on the road. And, at the time of the accident he technically wasn’t even eligible to be licensed. Later, I was surprised when I found out the car was going to be repaired. Obviously, it needed extensive work.
About a month later, I asked my mom how much everything cost. She said “It’s fixed now, it doesn’t matter.” And then she smiled, and said “You can’t even tell”.
Maybe, mom. But Carfax and I can’t forget.
Watched a brand spanking new Mercedes CLK try to pull out of Plaza Motors in St. Louis and get popped by a car flying by on Olive Blvd before the back tires left the lot…the salesmen helped push it back onto the lot.
Watched another new Mercedes leaving the dealership via the same driveway, the driver cut the turn too sharp, and crushed the right rocker panel on a tall curb. That one just kept going.
Glad Poor Little Nicholas wasn’t hurt, but she’s done him NO FAVORS, as this may set a precedent for the remainder of his life (if Uncle James doesn’t instill some fear into that impressionable young mind…).
Fortunately, your Mom didn’t get any time to get used to it, so she may not notice all the little things that aren’t right with it anymore. Hopeful that she’s learned a lesson too, about salesmen AND children!
Fifteen (15) Miles Per Hour, my A$$!
This caught my eye as I’m currently thinking about either leasing a new RX or maybe buying a 2014.
I know it’s your mother, but sounds like bad decisions were made all around. Usually a hit like that means it’ll never really be the same. Does she still have the RX and have there been any problems?
I’m surprised that was fixable. Wouldn’t want to be in another accident in that thing. Glad the kids were OK. What the heck did he hit to do that?
If I had to guess I’d say the back end of a dump truck.
there is a white car in the second picture from the last one that looks like it was hit, although the damage is not as bad.
Yikes, what a little s**t!
Oh my. How tempting it would be to congratulate Little Nicholas on his new car and negotiate the payment schedule. On the other hand, Grandma’s decision to let the unlicensed kid take the car is just beyond comprehension.
Yes, almost every insurance policy will deny coverage when an unlicensed driver is in an accident because the policy is written to assume that only those legally driving will be behind the wheel. Had he taken it without asking though, your mother’s insurer would probably have had to pay.
Yes, nobody in my family can beat your record.
Holy crap, that thing was a mess! Under normal circumstances that would surely have been a total.
Ouch. 25 years in the insurance industry has exposed me to plenty of stories of vehicular insanity, but even I’ve go to admit that this is one for the record books.
I can beat that, back in April we had a ’17 MKZ with all of 18 miles on it get towed in to the body shop, pretty good front end hit as well. It also got repaired.
Wow. Just wow.
Somehow, though, I expected this story to end by saying that Nicholas’s overindulgent parents realized after the accident that he deserved a much safer car than that Lexus… so they bought him a Range Rover for his birthday the next day.
Speechless.
Can’t even come close to that story. The closest did involve my youngest son who had only had his permanent license for a few months. My wife and sons had gone to a wedding in Georgia, and were driving straight from there to the music camp in Chicago the boys attended for a number of years. Ty was driving our 2006 Grand Caravan through Kentucky in a heavy rain storm, when there was a sudden flash and loud bang. He thought the semi next to them had blown a tire, but then realized the engine had died on the van.
He got it safely pulled over, and upon investigation, noticed that two of the van’s tires were blown out and the radio antenna was completely gone!
Turned out they took a direct lightning strike (Faraday Cage FTW!), which totaled the van due to frying most of the electronics – we had owned it right at one year.
What a story! Actually I think it is a huge tribute to the Lexus that no one was injured after an impact like that.
It’s shocking that this RX was repaired, but perhaps that is more common than you would think when it comes to new, high-end cars. My mother took a big hit in her 2009 Jaguar XF when it was nearly new, and the insurance company wouldn’t total it. Front and side airbags deployed, and the entire front of the car ahead of the firewall was badly damaged (she was his from the side at the left front corner and the whole front end was dislodged). IIRC, it was over $30k in damage, but that was still lower than the book value and/or the replacement cost for the car by whatever formulas they used.
To add salt to the wound, my mother was then worried that the car would never be right (undoubtedly true), so she promptly traded it in for another XF. But, the dealer knew all about the damage, as did CARFAX, and she got a terrible trade-in value and took a major loss on the car.
So, in this case, while there was nothing we could do about the loss, I did get my mother to change insurance companies.
That has been a topic in insurance circles in recent years – they pay for damage but then you are left with a car that is lower in value, so is that covered as well? As you can imagine, the insurance industry has been fighting hard on that one.
Should be accounted for as part of the damage really.
My aunt was rear ended by a large truck at about 40mph, the bull bar of the truck ended about 2 feet behind her seat, and amazingly they repaired the car (either a Camry or Mitsubishi Magna, it was about 20 years ago). Not surprisingly it was never quite right afterwards, for example the boot would not shut easily. Worse was she still sometimes gets back & neck pain from it.
If you recall my Outback was badly hit by an F150 a few years back. The initial claim was borderline regarding a total loss, but I started making a lot of noise about “diminished value” which is possible to do in my state as long as it’s a third party claim (I.e. Me going directly after the at-fault insurer, not through my own.). In the end the body shop got the total above the threshold anyway but the adjuster told me likely would have totaled it anyway due to the dismissed value aspect. The car had 8000 miles in it and was about 8 months old. My body shop told me it would very likely be fixed and be back on the road somewhere, but only after the mangled car was auctioned off.
How about the night before? Doesn’t count as actual ownership, but it was so close. Dad and I had been over at my best friend’s house and I had settled with his dad on buying his sweet 1966 VW Bug. I’d been saving up all summer. It was my first car! We’d have closed the sale that night, but he had to get the title from his safe deposit box, so I’d have to drive it home the next evening.
Later that night I my friend called, pretty shaken up. His dad had taken the Bug out for one last drive, and got plowed into by a drunk. Completely totaled the car. He was very lucky he hadn’t been hurt. I couldn’t believe it. My disappointment was epic.
It looked just like this one, this color, this clean. I eventually found a red ’63 Bug from a local engineer and it was my first car.
Wow! I can only imagine the level of disappointment!
You remind me that as I was going to pick my brand new 85 VW GTI up from the dealer, I got a call from the salesman. Their practice was to drive a few blocks down the street for a full tank of gas upon delivery. He told me that on the way some guy pulled out in front of him and he was able to avoid a crash but damaged a tire and wheel going over a tall curb to do so.
It was a Friday evening and they swapped a wheel from another car on it and he told me to bring it back Monday so that they could check the alignment. A close call for sure.
If it was “that Bug’s time” then you should be glad that it happened before you owned it!
I mean, would you have been carrying collision coverage; I know I didn’t on my first few cars. 😉
Couldn’t afford it, being a student I could barely afford having a car at all.
That really stinks, thank goodness he wasn’t hurt!
I had the same thing happen. Was going to buy a 72 (iirc) F100 from a friend’s dad several years back. The night before we were to do the deal, he let a niece (again, iirc) drive it and she wrecked it at low speed. It was in “farm truck” condition and therefore not worth repairing, so I elected not to proceed. Nobody hurt that time, either.
I think I just heard my father groan from the grave… and three or four broken paddles later, I’ve had the whupping of a lifetime!!… ?. Great story, James – well told, as always.
This one was in the news just last week. One hour from purchased to totalled:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/ferrari-driver-crashes-288000-supercar-just-an-hour-after-purchase.html
My aunt and uncle bought a ’57 Chevy Nomad at the local dealer, who was close. They parked in front of the house, showing it to us. It was overall the yellow-green color I never liked on them. They said they would have preferred the metallic blue one, but it was loaded. They came back in the house to visit. About 20 minutes later there was the loudest crash I’d heard at 9 years old. A drunk in a ’51 Studebaker Commander V8 Starlite was racing someone and didn’t stay in the lane. He squarely rear ended the Nomad at around 50-60 mph, and pushed it’s front, dead center, into a telephone pole. It was toast, having traveled less than one mile. The drunk was bloody but survived (that Studebaker was tough) Good news, they got the loaded blue one and still have it.
Another one, In 1963 a woman bought a new Electra 225 two door hardtop, in black. Paperwork finished they told her to pull over to the gas pumps to fill it. She started the car and put the 425 powered car into low instead of drive. She then put the gas pedal on the floor. Things happened fast. First pass she missed the gas pumps doing around 50. Heading for the back fence, she spun the wheel, The Electra swapped ends as it took out the wall of the body shop. This time past the gas pumps she was around 70, headed for the showroom. Spin the wheel again, the rear fender took out a window. There were other customers cars parked there, she went through two of them like a moonshiner at a roadblock, They estimated she was doing 80-90 mph when she took out the two gas pumps. The explosion lifted the rear of the Electra off the ground. In the south 40 were some trees, she did more redesigning as she passed them. She was on soft ground as she spun the wheel, at the same time meeting the stone retainer wall. The Electra, a beautiful car two minutes before sat there, the exhaust cooling. The lady was disheveled, but amazingly, unhurt (seatbelts any time she got in a car) She never let off the gas. I got the story from my Buick guru, a Buick Master mechanic. He told me one or two Buicks, Oldsmobiles, or Opels never made it off the lot. He said her replacement car was a light blue Electra coupe that they delivered to her house. The dealership was only partly closed a few days. He told me when she pulled the inside door handle up, the drivers door fell off.
” He told me when she pulled the inside door handle up, the drivers door fell off.”
That’s like the moment in The Blues Brothers when the car falls apart as soon as Jake and Elwood step away from it.
When reading this, I was hoping it was fiction. I’m stunned. The poor judgement and misfortune on all sides is horrible. A couple of my friends “borrowed” their parents’ cars without express permission, but at least they were licensed and insured to drive the cars they drove.
My ’84 Jeep Cherokee was hit on the dealers lot. The deal had been signed and I was to pick up the car the next day. We found the rear quarter panel had been hit badly, they claim, as it had sat in the dealer lot overnight. They fixed it, but it delayed delivery, that quarter panel creaked and groaned over some bumps forever more, and the paint was mismatched.
Years ago an employee of mine drove my 6 month old dump truck and trailer off a jobsite. He had lost his license due to a much earlier DUI and did not have permission to drive any of my vehicles.
He wrecked the truck and trailer that night. I had to call the police and report the truck “stolen” in order to get insurance coverage on $100k of losses. Even with the coverage, my out of pocket loss on depreciated assets was $20,000.
He got 30 days in jail.
The incident with your Cherokee reminds me of one of my Dad’s stories. He bought a new ’72 Nova coupe upon getting his first job after graduating college, and while he was waiting for it to be delivered, the dealership called and told him that it had acquired a damaged fender while being taken off the rail car after shipping. He refused to take delivery, since a damaged and repaired car was no longer “new”. The dealership eventually backed down and ordered him another one.
Considering that is the only brand-new car he’s ever owned, at least it was properly “new”.
God, my parents would’ve killed me if I’d done that at 15, or at least given me a damn good hiding! I looked at that crumpled Lexus photo, and pictured me at 15, and my Dad’s face as he arrives on the scene, with that ominous Doberman-like stare…. Yikes!!!
A couple of months ago a friend of mine was looking for a car for his daughter to take to college. They ended up getting a really nice 2012 Ford Fusion with about 80k miles on it. They paid for it, got the title, and decided to go pick up her mom and sister, get some ice cream and show it to her grandfather. They had just left the ice cream shop, drove 1 block and started to make a left turn when they were rear ended by an older F150 hard enough to spin them around and over the curb. Everyone was covered in ice cream but luckily no one was seriously hurt. The car was totaled, they had possession of it for 20 minutes.
About 20 years ago I was working on a dairy farm. There was a high school kid who worked there after school doing chores. For months he talked about buying a brand new dirt bike, and after much hard work and saving, he bought it. He brought it to work to show it off on the first day that he had it. The farm owners son, a real stoner and completely lacking in functioning brain cells, asked if he could ride it. He let him. After a couple of revs, he popped a wheelie and then dumped the bike. It was still operable, but did not look new anymore. One of the old-timers, who didn’t speak often, but when he did it was usually memorable, said to the bikes owner, “That’s what happens when you let a dummy ride your new bike.”
I actually feel kind of sorry for Nicholas. Yes he’s an idiot, but with being raised like that, who can blame him.
It’s just sad that one of these days he is going to mess up big time (again) but this time Gramma isn’t going to be there to bail him out.
You sound like you have your head on pretty straight James.
I hope you can convince his parents that they are going to regret this someday if they don’t start setting some rules.
this is where “Nicholas” is headed:
https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2015/may/affluenza-the-worst-parents-ever-ethan-couch/
After that, Nicholas didn’t deserve to get his license until he reached adulthood at 18.
And he should have had to buy his own car.
But something tells me…
Thankful that Nicholas wasn’t maimed or killed.
Thankful that someone else wasn’t maimed or killed by Nicholas’ actions.
Thankful that your mother didn’t have to go back to work to pay a judgment against her and your father for allowing an unlicensed driver to maim or kill an innocent victim.
I was raised in a family of attorneys, so you can only imagine what it took for me to be allowed to drive…
I agree with you on one count: the one about nobody else being maimed or killed.
I don’t agree with you about Nicholas. He’s the type to be causing other people pain, suffering, loss, and expense for the rest of his life.
I don’t agree with you about the “Sure, here y’go, have fun” mother, who sorely deserved to pay dearly and hard for being so incredibly, remarkably stupid.
Let me first say that I’m usually a big fan of the knowledge and depth you bring to CC. But (unless I’m interpreting incorrectly, which I hope I am) did you really just imply that you wished Nicholas had been maimed or killed? Certainly, what the kid did was stupid; nobody denies that. But based on a few paragraphs, you conclude that this naive teen is destined to be an enemy of society and that we’d be better off without him?
Please tell me I’m wrong. But barring some grave oversight on my behalf, this is a very bad take, and it is (or should be) beneath you.
Thanks, Professor. I started to reply last night to Daniel’s comment, but couldn’t find the words; you did so perfectly.
I have my own “tough love” moments, but have hopefully never wished physical harm, death, or catastrophic financial loss upon others. I’ll give Daniel the benefit of the doubt and assume he was having a lapse in judgment, not unlike that of the owner of the Lexus.
Your “hopefully” here saves you, by the skin of your teeth. It leaves you room not to remember all those times you wished exactly that and worse, even if you, y’know, didn’t really mean it, you were just, y’know, frustrated because traffic was bad, and the guy who cut you off was, y’know, being a douchenugget, etc.
As to what I meant, I refer you to my response to The Professor.
I think he’s saying that he wouldn’t be particularly upset had “Nicholas” not come through unscathed.
and I happen to agree. “Nicholas” sounds like a budding psychopath.
Thank you, Professor; your assumption of my worst intent and motive is noted.
I can’t top that one.
My ’62 Fairlane got rear ended when I had owned it just over a week. It wasn’t totaled and the damage wasn’t real bad, but, then, it wasn’t new either.
Two years later I traded it in on a 4 year old 1964 Galaxie because the 170 six in the Fairlane just wasn’t up to the driving habits of a 20 year old college student. That one was my fault. Not totaled either. Also the worse car I ever owned.
My sister was in the dealership signing the papers on her first new car, a 1976 Mustang II Cobra II when it started hailing on the car. Lucky her. There was no damage, but it sure freaked her out.
I was doing about 15 or so, not over 20 as I was making a left turn. A car came through the red light an I hit the rear fender. The bumper was replaced as well as both front fenders and hood…
That’ll buff right out .
-Nate
More or less, good as new after the price of a new Sonic or Cruze. At least the basic framework of the car did not get bent.
I know very well that the profession of a car salesperson is not very well respected, despite the long hours and amount of work put in. As a car salesperson, all I can say with regards to the stress of urgency of the Lexus salesperson your mother was working with is that in this industry it truly is about time.
The longer the amount of time spent working with some one, and by that I mean days, weeks, even months, the less likely they are to buy a car from you. In that amount of time they often will cross-shop with other dealers and other brands, and sometimes simply just move on as they lose interest.
In other cases, and this has happened to me several times, I’ve spent hours with a customer, reached a deal and then for various reasons they will just cancel the deal several days after agreeing to buy the car and putting a deposit down, but before signing paperwork and taking delivery. I don’t get paid for all those hours I put in and for the time I could’ve spent working with another customer who is serious.
I know there are some bad, sleazy car sales people out there, but for every rat sales person, there’s a rat customer.
I have never spent hours with a car salesperson before buying a car. What on earth do you talk about?
Most people do not come in to buy a specific in-stock vehicle.
Between the introduction of various models, test drive, vehicle selection, getting numbers, usually phone and email conversations, it’s usually at least several hours of work with one customer… and that’s if this all happens in one day. Plenty of people just come in during their “initial research” stage. The majority of sales involve a lot of legwork leading up to it.
I know that people do go around to look at new cars and will happily take one for a test drive even though they are not planning to buy anything. Then there are people who are looking for a new car, but don’t know quite what they want and want to look at a number of different makes before deciding anything. As a salesman you need to sort out who is just looking from someone who is serious. I like to cash in on the end of the year incentives, which is why I traded the CTS for a crossover. I did take it for a test drive after we mostly settled on the deal. My salesperson is a chevy guy, so a cadillac person had to do the delivery, and he said that I probably already knew more about the car than he did.
At my local Chevrolet/Cadillac dealer there seem to be more sales people than customers (at least on week days).
The kid says he was doing 15 or 20?
Any airbag equipped vehicle has a black box that records all the parameters at deployment. The trick I guess is how one goes about downloading it.
If I were involved, you bet I would exhaust every avenue to get that info.
A friend totaled a car on a test drive. She didn’t understand why I thought it was funny.
I leased a 2003 Acura TL on 6/18/03. Less than two miles away from the dealership, a work truck ran a red light and t-boned me. The car was destroyed. Luckily, I wasn’t seriously injured (just really p!ssed off). I was also fortunate that it was a $0 down payment lease and I had gap insurance.
“Hi, remember me from yesterday? I’d like to lease another Acura from you.”
The closest I came to that was getting into an accident in my 2015 Golf SportWagen TDI SEL when it was approximately one month and 2,500 miles old. A kid with a permit—his mother was in the car—pulled out in front of me to go left, and just didn’t get the timing right. It happened very slowly, so I was able to scrub a lot of speed, but I still couldn’t stop. The front fascia had to be replaced.
Maybe I’m way, way too OCD about my vehicles, because I’m afraid I’d call that “an accident,” not “close to getting into one.” ?
I mean “close-to” in the sense that it was a pretty new car that got heavily damaged.
How about 15 minutes after purchase?
I friend of mine purchased a second hand Elantra this past spring, about a two hour drive from home.
She picked up the car from the dealership and took it out to get some lunch while waiting for them to finish up a few things before she could take it home. About 15 minutes after leaving the lot, a woman in an SUV rear-ended her at a stop light. That woman was test driving the SUV at the time and hit the accelerator instead of the brake. She hit it so hard the body shop could read the license plate number on the bumper of the Elantra. She proceeded to push the car into the intersection, as she apparently forgot what brakes were. Luckily, the light had changed so there was no cross traffic.
She actually got out and yelled at my friend, accusing her of somehow causing her to crash on a test drive. She shut up pretty quick when she found out the car had just been purchased minutes earlier.
My friend didn’t have to pay for the repair, thankfully.
So I’ve read everything, and I’m not sure this has been determined: Was another vehicle involved?
the author’s story is a shining example of how “people” like Ethan Couch come to be.
so, so glad I don’t have kids.
I just remembered another one. When I was a kid my dad always had a new company car every year. They were always pretty nicely equipped. The morning after he had driven 250 miles over into Illinois to pick up his new ’58 Chevy I got up early to run out to take a look. There was this beautiful blue and white two tone brand new Chevy with the left rear quarter and bumper pushed in. Dad had driven only a few miles when he encountered smoke over the road due to someone burning brush. He slowed down but the guy in the ’56 Chevy behind him didn’t.
Dad got the insurance papers filled out and they were still sitting on the desk at home the next weekend when he and Mom went to a town about 20 miles away to visit some friends. Yup, they got hit again on the same spot.
The local body shop did a great job fixing the car and you couldn’t tell it had been hit. I used them later as a teen to fix damage to cars of mine.
So, if Mom had the car fixed without ever turning it in on her insurance or the body shop turning it in, Carfax may not have a record of damages. THAT would suck – to buy that used and find out when you got hom and things werent’ right….
Carfax can be cheated. As can the others.
And the whole situation was stupid and avoidable; I hope everyone realizes this now and has learned something. That’s the nicest thing I can say.
Don’t worry, it only cost a fraction of the car’s original price to fix. 7/10!
For several years in the 1990s I lived in a second-floor loft across the street from a Coral Gables, FL Mercedes dealership – a rather fancy place (see picture). I would occasionally talk with the mechanics there. One day I saw out the window an S-class sedan getting smacked by a Ford pickup as the Merc pulled out from the covered portico into Salzedo street. Fortunately, it’s a fairly slow street and the result was a significant thought not injury-causing fenderbender. Later that day, as I was heading out to walk, I saw a mechanic to told me that a man had just done the deal on the S-class and the car was leaving the dealership after finishing prep when it got hit. The man apparently wasn’t watching where he was going.
Well, I can’t come close to this, but here’s my story:
In 1972 I had my 1964 Chevy repainted, as the sun and heat took its toll over the years. It was in the shop for two weeks, and I picked it up about 5 pm. Cost: $225.00.
Exactly a week later, about 5 pm, I turned left off a side street onto a four lane street. I immediately crossed over into the curb lane at the same time a Cal Gas pickup pulled out of a parallel parking spot.
Result? Side swiped almost the entire passenger side.
Cost: $450.00. On me.
The Cal Gas guy filed a small claims suit against me. I counter-sued, realizing even though I probably was at fault, he didn’t look where he was going, either.. The result? The judge ruled both of us at fault. Expensive lesson learned.
Car sure did look good once again!
Yup, that story beats ahy other story due to the low mileage and irresponsilbity all around plus the repair cost spent…
I’d only seen a Kawasaki ZX-10 with 328 miles that the owner paid cash for, then proceeded to destroy it while trying to do a wheelie by sending the cycle end over end. And he hadn’t gotten insurance on the motorcycle yet either. The motorcycle salvage yard gave him $500 for the remains figuring that they would get $1500 from the low mileage engine as nothing else was salvagable (wheels bent, frame and forks bent, etc).
It didn’t happen to me but a friend’s daughter was hit by a drunk driver pulling out of the dealership after purchasing a car.
Wait—who was pulling out of the dealership after purchasing a car? Your friend’s daughter or the drunk driver?
Remembered one from way, way back when 🙂 . My father loved his AMCs, and in the fall of ’81 he special ordered a light blue metallic Concord wagon 4cyl stick from Joe Erdelac AMC/Jeep. They originally told him it would take roughly 6 weeks for the car to arrive but after 2 months he started getting a little antsy. One day he went into the dealer to ask the GM what the holdup was on his car, the GM made a couple of calls and finally got the answer. Seems the train his Concord was on was involved in a derailment and it and many other AMCs were destroyed! My dad just rolled his eyes and bought the dark blue 4cyl stick Spirit that was in the showroom instead of ordering another Concord! Which was another story in itself as that particular Spirit was stolen (!!!) before he had it one year and found 9 months later down in Florida!
Well, I wasn’t going to share this story, but, since everyone else is airing their dirty laundry I might as well.
The house I grew up in was “landlocked”, as in we had not road frontage and a 1/2 mile long driveway that wound through a right-of-way through a farm owned by another family. In 1987 my father finally had the entire length of the driveway paved, so that it was a slick one lane ribbon of blacktop with s-turns and up and downhill sections, as it pretty much literally went over a river (creek) and through the woods. It was a favorite course for my brother and I, and several of our friends to sort of test the limits of whatever we were driving at the time. Well, in the Winter of ’88 I was home from college and had been driving a ’75 MG that was in the shop, so I was temporarily using my younger brother’s twin-stick Dodge Colt while he was driving the ’85 Chrysler Conquest that had been relegated to “spare” status, but was usually off limits to my brother and I due to its rather tempting driving dynamic. Anyway, one fateful night around dusk I was headed out to my local pub to meet some friends, tooling along down the driveway at a good clip in the Colt, which was a lot of fun in a “slow car fast” kind of way, when while careening around the single blind curve about midway between house and roadway I came upon my newly licensed brother enjoying the merits of the turbocharged Conquest. I won’t elaborate much more, it’s pretty easy to see where this is going. We were probably each doing about 25 MPH, and both hit the brakes at about 15 feet from collision, so realistically might have gotten each car down to 15 MPH before impact, but both cars were nicely “customized”. And that’s how I came to own that 1985 Chrysler Conquest,as my father, being an insurance agent, refused to file a claim on his policy for this embarrassing event, so I was dispatched to the bank the following day to take out a personal loan for $4000 to take possession of my “new” car. My brother, for his part, was reunited with his Colt, which was taken to a body shop only to have the headlight assembly bolted back into place and alignment, and proceeded to drive the car, sans grille, with dented bumper and fender and with reverse-hinged hood unlatched, for about 18 months thereafter until it suffered an even greater indignity in a Spring snow squall.
That day lives on in infamy in family lore, where it’s referred to as “The Driveway Incident”. It was the source of much laughter among relatives far and wide. I did, however eventually save up the $1800 to have the Conquest repaired and drove it for almost 2 more years, so ultimately I was forced to spend about $5800 on a 3 year old car with about 42,000 miles on it that had stickered for $15,000 1985 dollars originally. So I didn’t fair TOO badly, and I did love that car.
Could have put it on Craigslist and said “small accident” as so many others do.
This is one of those: WOW!!! Just WOW!!! Just an unbelievably crazy sort of Wow!!! So much very poor judgment! Allowing an UNLICENSED DRIVER to operate a brand-new luxury vehicle!! And, the potential liability if something far more serious had happened!!
That old expression:This really blows my mind!!! Allowing a kid who is not yet a licensed driver behind the wheel of any vehicle while driven on public roads is pure insanity. I do have serious concerns about that kid, who is demonstrably quite a manipulator. If immediate family members are unable to tell him NO when he needs to hear it, then he has the potential to be a very real and serious menace to society.
And, must say, some very good follow-up stories from fellow commenters.
And, regarding that Lexus sales associate, I do not let pushy or overly aggressive salespeople manipulate me. I refuse to put up with somebody telling me what I need to do when I recognize that they are clearly motivated by self-interest. I’ll just walk away and find someone who makes the effort to be more professional help me. I won’t let someone make money off of me when they aren’t treating me the way I expect and demand to be treated. They can only get away with that sort of behavior if you let them. In summary, that’s what I consider to be unacceptable behavior.
But, getting back to the car, or SUV, I very much like the looks of that interior!
P.S. And, I do have serious concerns about the car driving, riding and handling exactly like it did before.
Seeing how much damage was done I can’t imagine that vehicle being ‘the same’ despite the 38 miles on the odometer before the accident.
It didn’t happen to his new vehicle, but a co-worker who had ordered a new Toyota truck (this was 32 years ago when many were selling for markup over sticker, so he likely paid a premium for it before this story starts) decided to go to the dealer the evening before it was supposed to arrive to check to see if he could find it in the lot.
He parked his ’82 Supra and started to walk around the lot, but soon heard a loud sound in front of the lot and ran over to investigate. Turns out he hadn’t set the parking brake on the Supra (or left the car in high enough gear, 5 speed manual) and the car had somehow rolled down Fredericksburg road (4 lane urban highway with center turn lane), done a “U” turn and crashed into a couple of cars at the same dealer’s front lot. He had been planning to trade in the Supra on the truck, but now it was damaged, along with a couple of other cars at the dealer. It is amazing that the car didn’t hit someone or something else before it stopped , as it happened in a major urban artery in a major city.
You can imagine the long face he had telling us the story after being so excited about his new truck (might have been his first new vehicle purchase)….I don’t know the details, but I’m sure his insurance was dinged a bit…I guess that the dealership hopefully had insurance on the cars in the front row, but of course they weren’t very happy with him…but as the deal had already transpired before this I’m not sure if they could have gotten more money out of him (though the trade-in value of the Supra would obviously be worth less even after it was repaired), but then again I’m pretty sure he paid top dollar for the truck even before this happened. So he had had an accident even before taking possession of his new truck (though the truck itself wasn’t involved in the accident).
Guess this is one reason I’m extra nervous when driving my car around a dealership (usually to drop someone off having service work done)…as if the story happened to me rather than my friend. By the way, he never told us if he had found his new truck in stock at the dealership that night (the original reason he was there) but I guess it was kind of a moot point after the accident.
This is why my parents said, when I got my license back in 2000, “you are not to allow anyone else to drive this car for any reason”. 16 year old me’s initial response was “but X and Y and Z have licenses” and my father responded “are you planning to write to DMV for confirmation on that each time you decided to let one of them drive this car? Otherwise as far as I’m concerned, they don’t have licenses”. He was right. Even if drinking had been involved on my part (which it wasn’t when I was 16) the smart thing to do was to call parents or a cab and leave the car. Not let another teenage friend, even if they hadn’t been drinking, drive. The only exception I can think of is if for some reason I had to be taken to the hospital immediately and someone else driving my car was the only way to do that.
Around 1982 I was driving home from work in my ’64 VW Squareback, going about 65 MPH in the left lane on the 101 Hwy around the Thousand Oaks area, I looked behind me and saw a headlamp coming up fast, next thing I knew the back of the VW was sliding to the right, I was sawing the steering wheel trying to control the swinging left to right rear end with the swing axles jacked up and tucked under. As I regained control I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a motorcycle on it’s side and it’s rider rolling head over heels like a rag doll, with a Cadillac, brakes locked, behind him closing in. At the last second he bounced on to the shoulder between the guardrail and the left lane as the Cadillac skidded past him in the left lane.
The brand new Harley had 23 miles on it, it was laying on it’s side in the left lane, There was a big black streak on my rear bumper and it was a little bent where his front tire slammed into me. He was basically OK, his full face helmet did break his collar bone which I could see, and his boot and calve had about an inch ground away. His leather jacket and gloves had holes burned down to the flesh and he still had ton’s of road rash. I asked him if he knew what happened, he said he didn’t know, he thought he hit a car. As we waited for the police and ambulance to show up, I told him as far as I was concerned he just fell down locking up his front brake behind me, he thanked me and that was what the police were told. One of them did look at my car and saw the damage but said nothing.
My car was already a rusted beater that looked like crap, I figured the least I could do was make his bad day a little brighter, also I didn’t want the police to check my insurance status.
He was on his way home from the Harley dealership with his brand new bike.
Sounds like he was having a little too much fun before he even got used to his new bike. I like the way you handled it.