Two wrecks in one day

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Birdman

Active Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
908
Location
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Car
E55 & Phaeton
The first one was down to my lending the number 2 german car to a ditzy young California girl my son had met while they were travelling around Australia. She had all her limbs, and all her marbles, apparently, and a California driving licence, and as my son has no licence I lent her the car for them to use. She parked up without applying the handbrake or putting it in park, so while she took her holiday photos the car ran away and struck a wall, damaging the rear bumper and surrounds, crumpling the rear quarter panel, pushing the sub-frame forward and wedging the doors in their frames, rendering it an insurance write-off five minutes after I had lent her the keys.

The second occurred that same evening. As they now had no car I drove them to the cinema, and stayed on to see the film at their invitation. On the way home, a very large and suicidal badger ran across the road and hurled itself under the front wheels. A badger can weigh up to thirty pounds, mostly muscle and bone, and hitting a galloping brock at 65mph makes for a long list of repairs. In this case, replacement bumper, headlight, under-tray, radiator, grill, fan, air-con condenser, blower, polybelt and assorted odds and ends. That’s before checking wheel geometry – each wheel struck the beast with a massive thump and one shock absorber appears to be leaking. So my E55 went out of commission too, and both cars remain at the bodyshop still.

However by way of consolation I got a forfour Smart car as a runaround. Nice car, but unrefined, I think they ran out of money before they’d finished developing it. I can’t help holding Charlie and Chocolate Factory responsible for the second wreck, although the first was definitely down to romantic love. Or was it simple negligence? I can’t quite decide which.
 
What rotten luck! Can't believe it all happened on the same day! Sorry to hear of your troubles
 
Man that is one hell of a bad day. Sorry to hear that. :(
 
Thats bad sorry to read that. Dont really know what to say.
 
That is one seriously bad day! Sorry for your loss.

My first merc had a similar run in against a wall, again when lent to a female friend. My mecchanic (a very charismatic elderly spanish gentleman) took me aside after looking over the car and said "There are 2 things you never give a woman, especially if shes your friend - your credit card and your car keys". I guess there is truth in that.

P.s. no offence intended pammy :)
 
Spinal said:
That is one seriously bad day! Sorry for your loss.
My first merc had a similar run in against a wall, again when lent to a female friend. My mecchanic (a very charismatic elderly spanish gentleman) took me aside after looking over the car and said "There are 2 things you never give a woman, especially if shes your friend - your credit card and your car keys". I guess there is truth in that.
You know, it hadn't occurred to me I should ever lend my credit card. But then, it was pretty dumb to lend the car, because I loved it, it had that beautiful patina of age, it had once belonged to my elderly parents, and was still completely original. So I did something that proves I'm stupid and told the shop to repair it out of my own pocket rather than get into an endless go-round with the insurers, who would say it wasn't even worth the cost of the new parts (it is to me!) offer a pittance, and then axe my no-claims.
 
Birdman said:
You know, it hadn't occurred to me I should ever lend my credit card. But then, it was pretty dumb to lend the car, because I loved it, it had that beautiful patina of age, it had once belonged to my elderly parents, and was still completely original. So I did something that proves I'm stupid and told the shop to repair it out of my own pocket rather than get into an endless go-round with the insurers, who would say it wasn't even worth the cost of the new parts (it is to me!) offer a pittance, and then axe my no-claims.

/me offers a reassuring hug
 
Spinal said:
"There are 2 things you never give a woman, especially if shes your friend - your credit card and your car keys". I guess there is truth in that.

P.s. no offence intended pammy :)

:D none taken :D

It depends who you're lending them to ;) Although I can blow credit cards easily - my hubby actually struggles to get me to spend money on me at times :crazy:

I'd only ever lend the keys of my car to someone I trusted implicitly and knew they could handle it - but also operate all it's bits without breaking it. hence hubby has to get on his hands and knees and beg to borrow Edna :D (not quite true)

Sorry to hear of your woes Birdman - bad luck that little lot :(
 
Pammy you can spend money on me and I wont be offended in any way, or you could get your car paintwork finished!
 
damm , thats tough dude ....

what was the first car that was written off?
 
Let's have some positive thinking here guys, Birdman has cheated the odds ;)

They say things happen in three's!! :eek:

Birdman has only had one car (his absolute pride and joy) wrote off, and a very nice E55 very badly damaged!!

Some folks just want to moan about the slightest thing!!!

(Do NOT let 'dizzy' young Americans drive your highly valued vehicles, they drive on the wrong side of the road, are not used to negotiating bends, have no idea what a handbrake is, or how to apply it!!! :rolleyes: :D )

Please forgive my humour and I really feel sorry for you and respect the decision about getting the car repaired.

Regards,
John
 
Talking about wrecks...

364 BHP Lorinser tunned S 500 (V8, 1994). But no! this was not enuf! :)

So I ordered a superchip for the ECU (not the resistor and two wires :) ). What then? Well, I installed it myself, reset the ECU, let it get used to the chip and took it for a drive.

Started the engine, drove off nicely and took a first right into the neighbouring street. It's quite a bit to the end of it, so I figured I'd have a shot of stepping on it. So I did. Stepped on it to the very bottom. The "kick-down" button pressed and... Nothing happened.... For the first three seconds. As I was keeping my foot down and started to receive frustrated thoughts, the car jumped forward and I got slammed back into the seat. But oops! There's the end of the street and have to take either the left or the right turn. I decided to take right and released the accelerator and applied the brakes. Apparently, the car KEPT GOING FORWARD!!! That is: front brakes were fully on, but the back wheels kept pushing the car forward... :) :) :)
I ended up with my neighbour's fence being under my car and the car being in her front garden. Luckilly enough - minor damages to the car (repaired the same day) and no injuries to no one. The luckiest part - no car was parked in front of the neighbour's house...
Moral of the story - always read the instructions, supplied with the aftermarket parts. The one I had said - please drive carefully for the first 150 miles for your vehicle to get used to the mod... :)
 
To whoever gave me a bad rating for my story - thank you very much. Hope this makes you feel better! Tw*t!
 
Rottweiler, I enjoyed your story. How did you get the name, Btw?!

Update on the repairs to both cars.

The BMW came back beautifully straightened for the cost of ten hours labour (I supplied the replacement lens cluster from a scrap dealer, costing £30). But I found the panel beater had attacked, from the inside of the boot, the previously undamaged top corner at the rear flank, with a sharp metal hammer. This was to re-position the panel so it fitted the lid and it lifted some of the external paintwork clear of the metal at the same time.

The estimator had the terminal cheek to say that he hadn't costed in the repair to the broken paintwork, as we had both agreed the panel would be too costly to replace and repaint. I had to point out that he hadn't told me his man would be vandalising previously undamaged paintwork with a metal hammer. Oh how we laughed! :crazy:

In the end, we both agreed to pay half the cost to sand down and repaint the damaged corner. And he agreed to re-fit the glove compartment lid that had fallen out when the car got whacked, which I had already paid him to do...

The Merc came back in very good condition, beautifully polished, although it took the repair shop four weeks to finish the job. Except now I have only one half of the two-tone horn sounding. Where should I start searching for the missing chord? A loose connector maybe?
 

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