Section : General

General Triumph Lounge Bar messages

Screech, crunch, ouch, phew

Posted By : Paul Bodiam, 10-Jun-2004, 12:17pm

This morning I was pootling up the A4074 towards Oxford from Reading when a prat in red J - reg rover pulls out of a minor road on the left straight across my path, turning right to head towards Reading. I perform an emergency stop (and just miss him), the car behind me uses my rear bumper to aid in their emergency stop.

CRUNCH

Thank goodness that I was driving my Saab 9-5 and not my Spitfire today. The Saab sustained a scratched and cracked rear bumper and slight dent in the tailgate. The car that rear-ended me (a Rover 220 coupe) was totalled - everything pushed back as far as the front wheels.

Fortunately no-one in the Rover coupe was hurt. I've just got minor whiplash.

The Police who attended could not believe there was so little damage to my car given the state of the one that hit me.

I dread to think what state I would have been in if I'd been driving the Spitfire.

cheers
Paul

Followups :

Screech, crunch, ouch, phew

Posted By : James Carruthers, 10-Jun-2004, 12:34pm

I had a similar incident to this one.

I was a passenger in my mates (actually his mum's) brand new Fiesta - a car was coming the other way and my mate jammed on the brakes - we went straight in to the back of a Saab.

The Saab was pretty much untouched - you wouldn't have guessed that we had just gone in to it with such force!

The Fiesta however was a totally different state - the whole front of the car was squashed - fluids leaking everywhere... nasty.

OOO! What a coincidence! Just heard my neighbour has just reversed in to the front of my Spit - albeit very slowly - best go look...

James
- Screech, crunch, ouch, phew
  
  Posted By : Graham Reeks, 10-Jun-2004, 01:04pm
  
  I crashed a late 900 Saab through a hedge via a tree - bent all four wheels, wings, etc. but the CD didn't skip and it was really quite comfortable ... The bumper wasn't really bent despite the glancing blow on the tree, and other than losing all the glass it just needed straightening out, it was still way off the radiator.
  - Screech, crunch, ouch, phew
    
    Posted By : Tim Everitt, 10-Jun-2004, 03:41pm
    
    I would just recommend you have your car checked out thoroughly by an engineer - I ran into the back of someone a while ago. I was driving my wife's Mercedes which had substantial (but actually superficial) damage, after all, the crumple zones are designed to crumple. It cost a few bob, but it was repairable. The car I hit was superficially pretty well undamaged - a cracked rear bumper seemed to be it. But after professional inspection I'm told that the entire bodyshell was distorted and I believe it was written off.
    - Screech, crunch, ouch, phew
      
      Posted By : Graham Reeks, 10-Jun-2004, 05:22pm
      
      Yeah, I had that with a Fiesta that someone rear-ended on the Forth Bridge - my tow ball wrecked the front of his car, mine looked fine, but had a grand's worth of distortion on the floorpan!!!
      - Screech, crunch, ouch, phew
        
        Posted By : Suzie Singleton, 10-Jun-2004, 05:31pm
        
        Ditto.
        About 20 years ago I was driving (don't laugh!) a Morris Marina 1300. I was rear-ended by a Cortina doing about 5mph while I was stopped at a roundabout.
        Cortina suffered a cracked front number plate.
        Marina was a complete write-off, with the entire body shell distorted.
        Suzie
        
        PS. had bought the Marina for Â£50. Insurance payoff of Â£200 softeneed the blow somewhat!
        
        Screech, crunch, ouch, phew
        
        Posted By : Tim Willis, 10-Jun-2004, 11:00pm
        
        Recently had to scrap my trusty '88 SAAB 900 after some git put all the windows through one night.....nice.
        Totally indestructible cars, and cool to boot. People did treat that car with respect also, moving out of the way when coming towards you.
        Gutted to have to scrap it but it wasn't worth anything, in all the time I owned it it never let me down and had just got a fresh MOT when the windows were done.
        Bought the later model GM 900 and it isn't a patch on that old one, keeps costing me a fortune to fix and just failed its MOT!! Apparantly SAAB have got their act together again for the 9-3 and 9-5.
        
        My advice is tom have your bumper removed (before it falls off) as all the brackets will be broken and there will be damage underneath.
        Nice to know you're in a tough car though.
        
        Tim (thinking of defecting to a Volvo 850 estate)
        
        Willow Triumph
Screech, crunch, ouch, phew

Posted By : Philip Brammer, 10-Jun-2004, 09:43pm

I have owned 2 saab's, a 1700cc 99 and a 99 turbo (black of course) and they were pretty much indestructable. The turbo even wrote off a tesco's shopping trolly without leaving a mark!