Not for the faint of heart: http://www.neons.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=146066

Won't let you read w/o registering.

Care to cut and paste the juicy stuff?

I registered but it looks like the thread was deleted

Weird, I didn't have to register when I first read it, but it's asking me to now. Guess they had a flood of traffic and wanted to cut down. Anyway, going from memory...

Guy goes to local Dodge dealer to take an SRT-4 for a test drive. His request is granted, but a salesman must accompany him. At some point, while said salesman is driving, salesman loses control of the car and rolls it several times. Our hero receives serious facial injuries when some piece of highway hardware enters the cabin via the windshield and peels off the right side of his face, down to the bone.

After several days in hospital and lengthy plastic surgery, he's hoping for a full recovery, but as he puts it "I look like the Elephant Man right now."

EDIT: facial injuries, not facial images

I saw it earlier and I guess they killed the thread per the pending lawsuit. Guy was on an SRT-4 test-drive with the salesman, who rolled the car 4 times. Pics were demolished black car, bloody headliner, and a pic of the guy with a fluid tube draining his swollen brain.

*edit* Eccles has it down.

Holy sh!t.

I hope the guy winds up ok after all of the surgeries he's going to need.

But thanks for posting. It makes me realize this:

If I want to take a car for a test drive, I WILL DRIVE. Not the drone. If they don't want to comply, I will go elsewhere.

I don't need some sh!thead whose driving experience I know nothing about try to "show me what the car can do," and pull something like that.

No thanks.

But on the other hand, how would you like to be a car salesman and let people, you have no clue about, drive? Would be scary from both points of view.

Yeah, but I'm ok with scaring them. :)

Plus, I usually try not to drive hard with them in the car.

I see your point, but I also don't want someone trying to "prove" something in the car when I'm in it.

Here's the original post. Ain't browser caches wonderful? ;)
thursday around 2pm, I was test driving my soon to be new 04 srt-4 from a local dealership.I switched places with the salesmen to return to the lot. The salesmen was behind the wheel driving down Earliesville Rd. He was going way too fast and lost control, going through a fence then rolling the car 4 times. The result..A few stiches in his face and some cut and brusies. Me on the other hand wasnt so lucky. The fence rail went though the front windshield, hit me in the face, pealing my face from the nose to my ear away from my scull. I lost so much blood in the car before I was pulled out, I almost died on the scene. After 3 days in the hospital, 2 plastic surguries, and masive nerve grafting I am home tonight. I look like the freekin eliphant man.My family and I ask to pray for us, as My recovery is FAR from over. Here are the pics.. some are graffic.

http://www.vadsm.com/uploads/rhoades/rhoades3.jpg

http://www.vadsm.com/uploads/rhoades/rhoades2.jpg

http://www.vadsm.com/uploads/rhoades/rhoades1.jpg

That is uhmm.. very interesting post. I wonder how long from recovery did he wait until he posted that. Seems pretty relaxed about the whole thing to post it on a forum.

Hmmm, those links for the Pics are not working for me

Yeah, they really do seem to be pulling the evidence from everywhere. I have them (again, from my browser cache) but I won't link to them publicly. PM me if you want the URL's.

EDIT: Typo

That's why they should let people take their own test drives without the sales. The customer don't want to push it if the sales there and the sales don't want the customer to miss out on the real performance by not pushing it. And whoever screws up pays for it, not another stranger who's doing his job or trying to buy a car....
We had something like that happen here in vancouver before, except the sales person who drove the car lived and the customer died in the crash

I'll bet that salesman is looking for a new job. He'll probably becaome a valet parking attendant.

I respect what the SRT-4 is capable of as an automobile but I never want to crash in one... The seem to like to crumple :(

http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48063&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48013

I have no clue why smolten feels the need to make compilations of SRT-4 crashes, but the guy is odd and trolls a lot of car boards, and even this one at one point IIRC.

i feel bad for the people that have suffered injuries and losses with teh SRT but I realyl can not blame the car alone. Personally I feel the car is too resonably priced. This allows for inexperienced drivers to get their hands on a powerful car.
in this case the salesman was acting irresponsible

Originally posted by Shocka
i feel bad for the people that have suffered injuries and losses with teh SRT but I realyl can not blame the car alone. Personally I feel the car is too resonably priced. This allows for inexperienced drivers to get their hands on a powerful car.
in this case the salesman was acting irresponsible

So people who can't afford more expensive cars have less ability to drive a high powered car???

Originally posted by IkeWRX
So people who can't afford more expensive cars have less ability to drive a high powered car???

i think what he is trying to say is that with the price being so low you have opened up such a huge demographic that you are going to be getting a lot more very young inexperienced kids driving something that powerfull..

Think about it.. when I was in high school if someone got a new car (lucky bastards!) it most likely something like a civic or a celica. I definately wouldn't want all these kids driving STi's! yikes!

Originally posted by IkeWRX
I respect what the SRT-4 is capable of as an automobile but I never want to crash in one... The seem to like to crumple :(

http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48063&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

http://www.clubwrx.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48013

wow, that first one is just from hitting a bus stop sign...well, in the end you get what you pay for, a suped up Neon...i don't think the original Neons were designed to withstand much damage let alone giving it an extremely powerful engine and pricing it low enough for young, irresponsible drivers that just got done watching 2 Fast 2 Furious...

Originally posted by Kaliken
i think what he is trying to say is that with the price being so low you have opened up such a huge demographic that you are going to be getting a lot more very young inexperienced kids driving something that powerfull..

Think about it.. when I was in high school if someone got a new car (lucky bastards!) it most likely something like a civic or a celica. I definately wouldn't want all these kids driving STi's! yikes!

thanks thats exactly what i meant.. aslo from a parental POV.. parents feel a new car is safer. (i dont know if i agree or disagree with this) but their child finds this car and convinces the parent to get it for them since its in their price range.