Crashed my MP3.

[jonlisle20]

Yesterday at 12:50p.m. I slammed into the back of a Toyota camry doing about 40 mph. (My car is ****** up!) I was just crusing along going about 48-50 mph in the left lane following a white Toyota Avalon. When I went over a bump all of my school papers fell of onto the floor. When this happened I looked ahead of me to check the scene and apparently I didn't see the Camry in front of the white Avalon (because he was riding its ass I assume.) I turned and grabbed the papers (for literally 1 second) and when I turned back the white avalon was swerving hard right and was already 3/4 of the way into the right lane. At that moment I saw what the Avalon was dodging. There was a Toyota Camry completely stopped waiting to make a left turn. My imediate response was to lightly brake and swerve to avoid collision, but there was incoming traffic on my left and someone directly to my right. I had nothing to do but brake. (Let me just tell you that it was way, way, way, too late.) I skidded right into the back of him and slammed my face against the bottom of the steering wheel.
I was wearing a seatbelt so I only had a bloody nose(not broken), a cut on my eye lid, and a little whiplash. Not to mention the feeling of total devistation. Why didn't the airbag go off? Sh*t I don't know, and frankly I didn't care. My pride and joy was crunched. The front end was destroyed( the radiator is crushed into the motor, the fenders are smooshed in ,my MHP intake tube is shattered, and I found the K&N cone filter twenty feet behind me).
I got out and made sure the elderly couple was alright, and they were fine. I pushed in their rear bumper and trunk about 8 inches. Those Camry's are stronger than I thought. After I swept the parts of my car into a pile with my foot, the rest of the story played out like all the other accident stories. The police came, a tow truck came and carried my car off to the dealership, and I got the police officer to drive me home.
The good news is that no one got seriously hurt, I didn't get any tickets, and I have collision coverage. The bad news is my car is dead, my intake is destroyed, I have a $1000 deductable, my insurance is going to go through the roof, and now my plans to hook up the engine are indefinitely postponed. :mad: :mad: If anyone cares I'll post how much damage I did to the car when I find out. Oh well, life goes on. Please be carefull out there people. I don't want anyone to go through all this or worse. Sorry about writing such a long post, I just had to get it out. Depressed Jon.

 

[OceanPark]

That's sad. :mad:

But Thank God you are ok.

 

[redwagon02]

Damn man, sorry to hear about that. I similar thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago but not as bad as yours. Like your accident my air bags didn't deploy either.
Heres my damage report on what needed to be replaced.

front bumper cover
absorber
reinforcement
right headlight assembly
left headlight assembly
upper tie bar
lock support
hood
grill
latch

when all was said and done. total cost for repairs was $3108.61

I dropped my car off at my dealership (Gunther Mazda) last monday afternoon and it was finished by thursday the same week.

Well anyway good luck with your car.

 

[NYCZMP3]

hey JON....sorry bout the MP#...but hey it is still just a car and money is still just money...they are both the same...u can get more..do what u gotta do first dont worry bout mod's on the car...get ya self outta the jam you are in...thats where i am right now workin my ass off 7days a week....but hey u gotta do what u gotta do to get what u want...i didn't know u had a mhp..i just got mine..gotta send it back and get a new one its all damaged...but did u like it....sorry if it hurts to talk bout it i jus need some info from someone around my way...

 

[initialRES]

That really sucks. I am so sorry to hear that. I remember when I wrecked my car. I rear ended someone going about 15 or 20 and it still caused tons of damage. I know exactly what it feels like to see your car all banged up. I was pissed but it will work out. Don't worry about it man.

 

[MP3skaterNC]

i almost rear ended an older model ford escort this morning, i looked down to get my coffee, looked up and he had slowed down considerably to make a right turn. luckaly i was on a 4 lane road so i swerved around him. lots of mp3's seem to be going down lately, aphat01mp3 and now you

 

[deepcover6]

I feel bad for you dude, in a way I can share your grievance. I wrecked the same way not too many years ago when I had an Eagle Talon. With just bumper damage and lights. Since then I have been keeping my distance from cars, or drivers who don't know what the heck they are doing on the road, or know about using indicators to take turns or changing lanes. Specially the ones who ride their brakes like its the gas pedal. :mad: After all that ....what really counts is that you have your health and still have the means to earn back what you lost. All of us get set backs, it is how we overcome them is what makes us better people overall.

 

[cfbjr]

I imagine that your brakes locked. Not that it would have saved you but I think the new version (if there ever is one) should employ an ABS system. The brakes on our cars are just a bit too touchy for my taste. It's also strange that your airbag didn't release either. It sounds like it was the "perfect" time for it to deploy. It would have either saved your face or caused more damage... Sorry to hear about the accident. I had one too not too long ago. My insurance didn't go up at all. Although, I didn't total my car, just some side damage thank to my cat-like reflexes! But I feel your pain! I'm glad you're OK, hopefully everything works out for the best. Like was said earlier, it's just metal, plastic and green paper!

 

[jonlisle20]

Thanks for all your support guys. I appreciate all your kind words. NYCZMP3, that sucks that you had to send your intake back because of damage. You wait all that time (it really isn't that long, but you know what I mean!) and just have to send it back and wait for it to come again.
As for the performance of the MHP on my car; I was definitely satisfied. Great intake roar, a few extra HP and lbs. ft. torque, and it looks/looked great! No complaints here. Especially since the head guy at the Mazda Dealer's body shop said the insurance company will replace my intake! The intake is still stuck in the car and that is all the evidence that they need. I'm trying to convince the guy to put in the Protege5 headlights instead of the originals. He says it may be a problem because of the warranty issue (messing with the wiring, etc.), but he said he'd work on it. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks again people. I'm feeling better already. Jon.

 

[Swimmer]

JonLisle20, sorry to hear about that. This exact same thing happened to me back in high school. I reached down to grab some papers that were blowing around, and then smash. Luckily it was just a POS Dodge Omni. I wonder why the airbag didn't deploy. That really worries me. This is twice that I've heard of the MP3's airbag not deploying. I would think that that would be a major problem that Mazda would want to fix before someone gets killed.

 

[YellowMP5]

I am really sorry to hear that. I am glad you are ok and hang on. Whatever happens with the car now, its more important you are ok. I have seen "redwagon02"'s car and it was NOT damaged that much. However you can see that the repair bill is through the roof.

 

[DuCKieMP3]

Glad to hear u're ok... but the airbag thing is scary because I don't wear my seltbeat and makes me wonder if I should from now on... I was saved by the airbag the last time I had an accident... HmmNN???

 

[AZxMP3]

AIR BAGS..... they are supposed to deploy past 18mph or sometimes even less on some cars. You can get whiplash at 10mph. Try going 10mph and slam on the brakes. I would seriously look in to this. 30-40mph both bags should have deployed with out a second thought. You may be looking at Mazda eating the bill on this one. I would have my insurance company get thier lawyers/claim team involved, or do it yourself. Im not all sue happy but this is wrong. :mad: Just my 2 cents.

 

[jonlisle20]

Thanks guys. Oh yeah, I was talking to the manager of Richard's Mazda & Isuzu and he said that airbags aren't covered by your insurance company! Those things are around $1000 a piece! I'm actually glad that they didn't pop! My face and my wallet might have been hurt worse. (broken teeth, arm and face burns, $2000 more, etc.) Those things deploy at about 160 mph! (At least that's what the tech guy told me)Damn, that's crazy!
The head guy at the body shop said that he wouldn't be suprised if the damages to my car were around $10,000! The insurance company hasn't contacted them yet so the actual number is still unknown. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks again, Jon

 

[jsesq]

Come on people! Not wearing seatbelts (DuCKieMP3)!??! The airbag is designed to work with a person held in place by the seatbelt. Think about it - you go flying forward at basically the speed the car was travelling and get rammed back into your seat by the airbag exploding at over 100mph! The stress on you body would be terrible.

Aside from all that - I like the feeling of being held into my seat when corning like these cars are capable of. Sliding around in the seat doesn't help my car control at all.

And aside from that - and back to the REAL concern - the airbag should have gone off. That is quite disturbing to hear.

JonLisle20 - glad to hear you're OK.

 

[C Rae]

REMEMBER THERE IS THE LAW THAT SAYS YOU CAN TAKE THE CAR TO THE SHOP OF YOUR CHOICE.
YOU DONT HAVE TO TAKE IT TO THE DEALER.
THAT WAY IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE...P5 HEADLIGHTS
INTAKE ALL THAT STUFF WILL BE INCLUDED.
CALL A LOCAL SHOP TO MAKE SURE.
SORRY BRO
I DONT MEEN TO BE A ASS BUT, DID YOU TAKE PICTURES?

 

[jonlisle20]

Yeah I just got back from the dealership and the estimate is.......$13,400!!! My car doesn't look that bad! Damn! Raerae, thanks for the info on the shop of my choice. As for you not wanting to be an ass; what exactly do you mean? If you just wanted to know if I took pictures, how could that make you an ass? If you don't believe me, hell, why should you? You don't know me, and there seems to be a problem with honesty on the board, so I won't hold it against you if you don't.
Let me just say that it would be pretty sad to make something like this up for kicks. I assure you that this definitely happened and that my pain is real. If you are still not satisfied I guess I could try to take some digital pictures. Here is my situation: I have a computer but I don't have the internet anymore (we got rid of comcast in favor of Direct TV and the cable connection went with it), therefore I am using the library computers at Brokdale Community College, I don't have a digital camera but I don't see getting my hands on one to be a problem. Would I need to install a program onto the school's computer to get the pictures? How do I get the pictures displayed on this site if I can get them?
Like I said before, I am nearly computer illiterate when it comes to things like this. I don't feel I have to prove myself to you, or anyone else for that matter, but it would teach me how to post pictures, which will come in handy when I want to post pics of my mods in the future. They may be starting work on my car soon, so the faster you respond the faster I get the pics up. If you don't want to post the info you can just email me at jonlisle20@onebox.com Be safe people, Jon.

 

[Kooldino]

Jon, i don't think that Raerae was asking for pics because he didn't believe you, but just because he wanted to see the damage. I was honestly curious myself to see what $13K damage looked like.

 

[jonlisle20]

I guess it was the whole "i don't mean to be ass but.." that confused me. I hope I didn't come off as being an ass myself. Anyway, my car is pretty banged up, but it doesn't LOOK that bad. They have to take the engine and transmition out to straighten the frame, which definitely ups the price. Its amazing how they can fix thing within zero tolerance of the original. (They use a machine which mesures things exactly using sonar!) Damn. I'll keep anyone who's interested in my misery posted. Jon.