singingpond
New member
I was just reading Jeanum's very useful thread about carseat replacement (in the Articles and FAQs section). Unfortunately, I now have occasion to refer to it personally. I'll highlight my main questions below, since I know I tend to write too much .
My old and always reliable '96 Corolla was rear-ended yesterday, with 3 (unoccupied, fortunately) carseats in the back seat. It was a pretty major impact, and I'm confident the repair costs will far exceed the book value of the vehicle.
The rear hatch was smashed in, the rear glass broke, and the whole body of the car is deformed enough that 3 of the 4 doors won't open (only the front passenger door opens).
As far as the NHTSA 'minor crash' criteria mentioned in Jeanum's thread, can anyone clarify what 'damage to doors' actually means? In my case the doors themselves look OK (were not directly impacted), but neither rear door will open. No airbags deployed, and I was able to drive the car home after the trooper finished recording information. I felt physically OK right after the crash, although I have a sore neck (nothing terrible though) this morning -- not sure that that really qualifies as an injury; certainly it seems to be a minor one.
The seats in the car are FF Marathon, RF Radian XTSL, old-style Parkway.
My first intuition was that, since I felt pretty much OK, the unoccupied seats should be OK; however, on reading the replacement criteria in that thread, I'm not so sure now.
And, although I'm grateful that my children weren't in the car, and that I came out OK, I'm getting steamed about the carelessness of the other driver (an 18-year-old, who told me "I just didn't look for a moment!") -- my car, old as it was, was running just fine, and we really really didn't need the expense and hassle of buying another car right now . Whatever her parents' insurance ends up paying won't even come close to fixing the financial results of her carelessness . And my 9-year-old, who is feeling emotionally shaky already at the moment for other reasons, is absolutely in tears over the coming loss of the car he's ridden in since he was born...
Katrin (who is really in the holiday spirit this morning, as I head outside to clean out my no longer very weather-proof car)
My old and always reliable '96 Corolla was rear-ended yesterday, with 3 (unoccupied, fortunately) carseats in the back seat. It was a pretty major impact, and I'm confident the repair costs will far exceed the book value of the vehicle.
The rear hatch was smashed in, the rear glass broke, and the whole body of the car is deformed enough that 3 of the 4 doors won't open (only the front passenger door opens).
As far as the NHTSA 'minor crash' criteria mentioned in Jeanum's thread, can anyone clarify what 'damage to doors' actually means? In my case the doors themselves look OK (were not directly impacted), but neither rear door will open. No airbags deployed, and I was able to drive the car home after the trooper finished recording information. I felt physically OK right after the crash, although I have a sore neck (nothing terrible though) this morning -- not sure that that really qualifies as an injury; certainly it seems to be a minor one.
The seats in the car are FF Marathon, RF Radian XTSL, old-style Parkway.
My first intuition was that, since I felt pretty much OK, the unoccupied seats should be OK; however, on reading the replacement criteria in that thread, I'm not so sure now.
And, although I'm grateful that my children weren't in the car, and that I came out OK, I'm getting steamed about the carelessness of the other driver (an 18-year-old, who told me "I just didn't look for a moment!") -- my car, old as it was, was running just fine, and we really really didn't need the expense and hassle of buying another car right now . Whatever her parents' insurance ends up paying won't even come close to fixing the financial results of her carelessness . And my 9-year-old, who is feeling emotionally shaky already at the moment for other reasons, is absolutely in tears over the coming loss of the car he's ridden in since he was born...
Katrin (who is really in the holiday spirit this morning, as I head outside to clean out my no longer very weather-proof car)