We are alive, at least

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:39 am

My wife and I started our vacation yesterday and we were driving to New Brunswick to go whale watching among other things.

We got into a car accident at 6:30am yesterday. I lost control of the car in the rain.

I walked away without more than a few scratches. My wife almost lost her eye due to the air bag. She will regain full vision in it. We are lucky this happened n Montreal where her parents live.'

I'm waiting for the insurance to call me and find out what will happen next. I took pictures of the car but I'm just to tired to transfer them to the PC right now.

I will be online periodically this week to checck email and stuff.

Otherwise, I'll be back online by the weekend.

Glad to be alive.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:57 am

Ok, here are some pics.

roid · Post by **roid** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:09 am

glad to hear good things from a mess like that.
*pat on back*

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:37 am

Glad you two made it through that one! Sorry to hear about your wife's eye, it sounds like she's going to recover though, that's good! Was she wearing the seat belt too? Damn airbags are kind of scary but without it she probably would have been worse off.

Wareagle · Post by **Wareagle** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:57 am

Welp You took care of that car. Time to get another one. Was good thing you both didn't get hurt too bad.Airbags saves lives and sometimes they hurt you just like seat-belts.
Hope all goes well for you merlin

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:04 am

Both of us were wearing the seatbelts. The reason she was hit harder with hers is the passenger bag is bigger than drivers side. Also, the rear view mirror broke off and smacked her in the face.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:30 am

What did you hit? How fast were you going? The damage on that car looks pretty extensive for loosing control in the rain.

Im glad you are ok.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:37 pm

Wow, man. I got into an accident two weeks ago with eerily similar damage. I was following my mother up I-95 to New York. I was in the center lane, I swerved to the left to avoid a tire that was occupying the entire lane, and overcorrected to the right. Having rear-wheel drive, when I tried to come back I spun out and did a 720 across three lanes of traffic and got hit in the same spot you did. No air bags deployed, though. Glad to hear you're okay.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:41 pm

Glad you are OK man.

Modern cars are great at saving lives, but people who wear seatbelts always come out best. Next time choose a car with 6 or more airbags. My partners new Audi has 7!

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:55 pm

That's some really nasty damage. Glad to hear that both of you are all right.

dissent · Post by **dissent** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:24 pm

Take care of yourselves.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:26 pm

The insurance people told me my car is a write off due to the airbags being deployed. I was going about 100KM/H and I hit those highway concrete barriers they put between lanes or on the edge to stop you fom going over the edge.

So now I'm car shopping which isn't fun.
I did find a 2001 Impala fully loaded with 137,000KM on it for $8000. It's a V6. Not sure if I will take it as I have to find out how much I will get for my car.

Anyone have eperience with Imapalas?

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:17 pm

That depends. What kind of V6? Is it a supercharged 3.8, non supercharged 3.8, or is it the 3.4?

If its supercharged, hit it. I've worked on them and they are very reliable and easy to maintain and do repairs on. They have a solid track record and are in many cars so its easy to get parts and even third party upgrades if it suits your fancy. Getting them to go faster is real easy and cheap. They are good on the gas too.

If its a 3.8 non-supercharged, that will be an issue because they had plastic intakes with a bad grade of plastic and over time the plastic degrades around the EGR stovepipe, and after 80k miles you will begin to leak coolant into the engine which will destroy it. It MIGHT have been corrected after 1999 but im not sure. You can fix it yourself as there are third party parts you can get to permanently correct this issue, that is if you care about the car that much to do work on it immediately after you buy it. The job itself is very easy, you just need a whole Saturday, common sense, and a willingness to go under the hood with a wrench. Its a common issue so Googling for pictures and a replacement procedure is easy, or join an Impala forum. Or you can check if it has already been corrected. If it has not and you are not willing to get a bit of auto-repair experience, then stay away.

If its the 3.4, well I honestly dont know enough about the engine. Do a Google search on the car and engine if you want more info. Google for an Impala forum and do a basic search there, you will probably get alot more info that way.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:34 pm

glad ur ok!

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:04 am

o_0

Dude.. skip the car.. take up bicycling. No air bags.

reall glad to hear it's working out. Geez. wasn't that the car you bought from your mom a couple years back?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:14 am

Duper, yes it is the car I bought off my mom and my job requires travelling so I need a car.

The Impala I'm looking at is a 3.4L V6.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:01 pm

Here's a basic review:

http://www.epinions.com/content_112497626756

From what I gather from asking other people, you should have no problems with the 3.4. Hit it!

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:53 pm

Lemme tell you a story about Impalas.

I was doing 60mph in a line of traffic. Some dick up ahead would NOT pass a bus in the right lane. A few people starting zooming up the right lane and cutting people off to get in. Someone cut too close and someone else slammed the brakes...

I was behind a fagwag. Minivan. I could not see shiite past it. (I hate those things). All of a sudden, it's brake lights went on and it's ass went up in the air. \"Oh shiite\" I said, and laid on the brakes. I was a second too late, and plowed into it, doing at least 50.

Dead stop.

BAM!

The car behind me could not stop in time, and rear-ended me at about the same speed. I took the hit and was punched into the fagwag in front of me.

BAM!!

the car behind the car behind me slammed the car behind me, whihc propelled it into me again.

B A M !!

The car behind the car behind the car behind me (figure that one out..) apparently didn't hit the brakes at all, and slammed both cars into me.

All in all, I took 5 hits. One in front, four behind. I got me senses recollected, and got out to see how bad my car was destroyed. I had to be a complete loss given the impacts I received. Everything inside was tossed helter-skelter.

I got out, checked the rear bumper.

Guess what? a 4-inch crack you could barely see.

Ok..ok, what about the front? I smeared the car in front of me..

...Nothing...

??

Nothing. Not even chipped paint.

The car 2 cars back was destroyed. Literally. The front looked like it hit a tree at 5000mph. Some POS Escalade. Serves the moron right for buying some trendy piece of ★■◆● anyway.
the car behind me had a caved in front end and a caved in rear.

I drove away. Checked various parts of the car...no damage to anything. It runs as well as it did before.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:22 pm

Testi, are we to assume you were driving an Impala?

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:40 am

holy crap merlin. Glad to hear you're alright man. Can't imagine what that was like. Close calls are bad enough. Just two weeks ago I was heading to work and some dip\"expletive\" cuts all the way from the right hand lane next to me across to the far left lane to stay on the freeway.

Was so close infront of me while I was applying the brakes and I had to swerve into the other lane to avoid the collision. Lost control of the truck and started fishtailing. Damn near ran smack into the concrete barrier before getting control of my truck back. It had been raining...

Anyways, friggin sucks when stuff like this happens. Again, glad to hear you and the wife are safe and sound

Be careful out there

psionik · Post by **psionik** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:49 pm

Lothar wrote:Testi, are we to assume you were driving an Impala?

I think an Impala was jumping across the highway and caused the accident...

Merlin, glad you're ok man. Try to stick to just the game next time though...

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:05 pm

I just got back from the GM dealer and started the paper work for the Impala. Here's a pic.

It's the one on the left. The grey one cost to much for me.

Foil · Post by **Foil** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:41 am

Wow, Merlin, glad to hear you're okay.

Those pics gave me a bit of a flashback to an accident I was in about 10 years ago. 70-75mph, impact with an unmoving object in my Dad's little Toyota pickup.

If it weren't for the seatbelt and airbag, I wouldn't be here today. To this day, I still can't remember what happened during the seconds before the impact, and the rest is pretty fuzzy.

Anyway, take the time to get things straightened out, and pay attention to any little aches and pains, as they can be signs of something more serious from the impact.

Let us know how it goes.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:20 am

Yes, I was..still am, it's how I got to work today!

Beware the non-LS versions. Some do not come with cruise control!

Try to get a 2003 or therebouts. They changed the body style from the 2000/01, and it looks better.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 4:23 pm

Well, after 9 days we are finally back home. I bought the 2001 Impala because I couldn't afford the 2003 version. All I have to do now is go to the Insurance office to get the car value money for the Toyota.