Hit a Tree...(NOW WITH PICS!)

[Custom88]

Well, I have some bad news. Last night the Aurora went off the road on a sharp curve and clipped some trees at 50 MPH or so. A deer ran in front of the car and in an attempt to miss the deer, a quick swerve was attempted, and the deer was missed, but the car was unable to regain control before the curve and hit some gravel. From there, the car plowed directly off the road and into some trees. The damage includes the front bumper, windsheild, roof, driver's side mirror (cracked in half) , driver's side door, driver's side rear door, rear door door handle (broke off), back bumper, driver's fender and quarter panl, and the rear bumper. Basically the entire driver's side of the car is crinkled from being bounced off of trees that are in a line. Luckily, the car hit them on the very front corner of the bumper, and not towards the center, or the car probably would have been totaled. The bad news, is juding from the damage, I'd say it's probably going to be a $6,000-$8,000 repair.
The somewhat good news however, is that this wasn't my car, it was my buddy's 2001 Burgundy Aurora that this happened to. I got to work today and saw the damage and was in awe over the condition of his car now.. It really sucks, and he wasn't too happy about it obviously. It'll be fixed within a week though. I took pictures, but my camera phone was set on "thumbnails" so you can't make anything out.

[A-boy95]

AWWW, its sad to hear a aurora getting hurt, i know it may sound odd but wheni se a car totaly meesed up is brings a tear to my eye,

im that much of a car nit i guess, and thank god it will be repaird, any frame damage??

[scottydl]

Dude you freaked me out! Sneakily written post. Not that your buddy's Aurora is a good victim, but at least it wasn't YOURS. It's deer season folks, keep your eyes open!!

[A-boy95]

Deer whats a Deer? oh you meen Food ^^

man they are some good eating.

[Marc]

Back in the spring of 2000, while I was still driving that 442 that I had before my Aurora, I almost hit a fawn......the stupid thing was standing in my driveway, in broad daylight! I almost hit it, backing out of the garage.

[Rocketv8]

thats really sad news, but, the important thing is everyone's ok!!!! except maybe the deer

[95mushroom]

Glad he's okay. There's probably a good bit of suspension damage too. The tie-rods must have took a beating. Usually though, roof damage is a sign the car's totalled.

I guess the best thing you can do is just hit the brakes as hard as you can and pray the deer jumps out of the way at the last minute. A new bumper, headlight, hood, is not worth completely destorying the car or injurying yourself over a stupid deer.

Duck too

[Aurora40]

Wow, well if he hit trees offset on the drivers side at 50mph, and apparently is doing ok, I'd say that's quite a testament to the crash structure of these cars. I'm sorry to hear a red Aurora got banged up, though.

I am curious, did his car have PCS? Of course it's not like it can prevent everything, but I'm just wondering.

95mushroom, you never know. Hitting a deer isn't any small thing either. They can weigh a lot, and it's always a danger that they will slide over the hood and crash into the passenger compartment.

[Marc]

aurora40 said:

I am curious, did his car have PCS? Of course it's not like it can prevent everything, but I'm just wondering.

My experience with PCS is that it will definitely help, but you have to know how to handle any sudden or violent maneuvers to begin with.

[Custom88]

his car doesn't have PCS or traction control on it. He's alright, but he did get hit with a few branches as he smashed his way into the woods. hah. He couldn't of hit any of the trees head on though, he must have brushed up against them all. The most damage is to the side/rear of the car, not the front oddly enough.

[Custom88]

After looking the car over more today, there is more damage than was apparent before. He said when he drives the car, it is pulling to the left side and the car "stutters" while he's driving it, and sometimes grinds while turning. Both driver's side doors making creaking/cracking noises when you open them, and are out of alignment. They do not close/open properly. The door jamb along the bottom of the doors sticks out over .25" of an inch, while on my car, it is flush with the doors. On his, it is sticking out. you can see that in the pictures showing the bottom of the rear door. The car is pretty clean in these pictures, all the white specks/streaks are where the paint is scratched or messed up. The hood took quite the beating and the paint is gone over a lot of the tip area. The whole car will need to be repained probably.

Before:



Here are the pictures from after the accident. It doesn't look too bad in the pictures, but the sides of the doors and quarterpanel/fender have dents all throughout the panel. It's not apparent in the pictures though.

[Marc]

That's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm glad that the damage is not worse, and that this 2nd gen is still driveable, although it's going to have to spend some time in a body shop.

[mission008]

that sucks.....still looks better all banged up than a lot of other cars on the road, lol. hopefully you can get it fixed in a timely fashion. hope everything works out for u

[omegaic]

Aurora took it like a champ. A civic or saturn would have been totaled!

[bufo]

"It'll buff right out."

95mushroom said:

I guess the best thing you can do is just hit the brakes as hard as you can and pray the deer jumps out of the way at the last minute.

Pray hard for sure. It's a lose-lose proposition between swerving into a tree or crashing into the deer. Remember these gruesome old pics?
www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=777869

Don't deer get crazy in the fall when it's mating season? It'll be fall soon . . .

[Marc]

omegaic said:

Aurora took it like a champ. A civic or saturn would have been totaled!

I remembered a thread from last year about a 2nd Gen that was in a rollover, "How much would you pay for this rolled Aurora?" Reply #23, posted by Javi, shows pictures of how little damage that Aurora sustained, which bears out the fact that all Auroras have very strong body construction.

[flintoid]

That could have been a LOT worse. BTW, put some small yellow tapes on the scratches and punctures so you can inventory them in the photographs and know where to inspect it later - I had an insurance job done on the Alero, when I finally got it back the dealer had missed one of the punctures.

[unirok]

nowhere near as bad as it sounded. Shoot I would drive it around just like that but fix the mirror.

[Custom88]

First estimate came in at around $6,000 to fix all of the damage. There's a lot of unseen damage on the car. Neither door opens properly now. It looks like the pillars are slightly bent from the impact.

[gpriest]

bufo said:

It's a lose-lose proposition between swerving into a tree or crashing into the deer. Remember these gruesome old pics?
www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=777869

Don't deer get crazy in the fall when it's mating season? It'll be fall soon . . .

Holy heck!!!!! how did the parts go into the rear of the car? Did the driver get killed?

[froggyscike]

Just glad ur ok, it would suck to loose a aurora friend It can be fixed, unlike when i hit a utility pole in my Chrysler 300m and it was totalled Im sure it will be back to normal in no time let the drs *FIXER PEOPLE * take care of ur rora Show pics when u get it all fixed

[Custom88]

Thanks for the words guys, but, just have to make one thing clear. heh. It's my friend's Aurora, not mine. He doesn't post over here, he's not really into message forums I guess. He registered a few months ago to post pictures of his Aurora when he got it, but that was the only post he made.