Sigh. Should I be worried?
 

hey guys, just got my 8 no more than a week ago. Today I had a side impact from a honda civic.

The damage wasn't toooooo bad, the passenger side door was, well, totaled, and the front right quarter panel was smashed in pretty well.

I guess you could say..the wheel base got f'd up too, I tried driving it home and at times I would have to keep the steering wheel in a 90 degree turn to keep it going straight...So besides that I'm hoping there isn't any other damage.

I just wanted to know if I should be worried about anything else becoming broken due to the sudden impact, the guy was going ~40. Think everything should be okay and all I'll have to worry about is the minor cosmetic damage? :scared:

I think the car is strong structurally, but the interior is a rattling nightmare. That might worsen due to the crash.

congrads and too bad, you shouldnt be worried about your car but about a good repair shop

you won't know if anything else is wrong with the car until you get to a bodyshop and have them look at it.

Yeah. Kinda sucks.

I noticed some rattling when I first got it, but I think it's just the huge amount of change I had in the little compartment next to the steering wheel.

My altima was hit from the passenger side by a mazda6 goin 40-50 and my car was deemed totalled, so have it get checked out, you never know. sometimes it doesnt look serious, but maybe the frame is messed up or suspension or who knows what else.

40mph, I think your control arm will bent, also your tie rod will bent too, because your steering is off.

I dont think so. I mean. I was in a real bad wreck. $20K in total. After all was fixed. Runs like it was new. Only issue I have had was the shop that fixed my car did not replace 2 mortor mounts. So I had this rattle issue. Aside from that cars great.

My car was hit on the drivers side and it took broke my suspension, totaled the driver side door, right front fender and rear door. I was surprised to see the the window did not break being inside the door at the time of impact. my body shop also missed the Motor Mounts too. I was told at the dealership that missing the motor mounts is a common problem even at the dealerships body shop. I was also told that these cars are known for breaking the motor mounts in side impacts, as the exhaust pipes get pushed under the engine and raise the engine enough to break the motor mounts.

These cars are very strong. I looked at my car and the first thing that came to my mind was bent frame. luckily it didn't happen. I got my car back from the body shop and it was like brand new. I was hesitant at first to take her on a nice mountain road but I was able to find a nice empty road to do some testing . All is well. the car was like new.

So get a good body shop and you have nothing to worry about

*sigh* Not fair so early in your ownership experience. I had similar luck:

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/hit-deer-5-week-anniversary-76587/

Did your side airbags deploy? We've discussed the front airbags a few times on this forum, but few people have had first-hand accounts of the side airbags.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/airbag-stories-76596/

For what it's worth - I'm perfectly happy with my repairs *except* for the airbag replacement. The airbag module keeps throwing errors and the dealership hasn't been perfectly helpful about resolving that. There are some alignment holes under the hood which can be measured to check for bending or twisting. Mine checked out okay with no corrections necessary.

What color 8 do you have?

Man I'm sorry to hear about your RX8 and only having been a week old, ouch. I bought my 8 last Saturday and on Sunday as I was driving down I-5 and an old beat up metal hub cap that was being run over by a zillion cars was kicked up in the air by the car in front of me and came at the car like a spinning saw blade. I couldn't change lanes due to traffic so I drove towards this flying object and it hit my front bumper and sliced a 3 inch gap through the bumper and tore a hole in the plactic grill and cracked the lower bumper facia.

I didn't even get to buy my own first tank of gas and I'm already heading to the body shop. I hope this ain't a bad omen. Good luck on your repairs.

man that sucks... after just a week???

i got reamed from behind while sitting at a stoplight... a car changed lanes quickly & a suburban was too close behind it to see me, so it might have decreased 5 mph from its 45-50. the car took the hit like a champ, & all the major stuff that had to be replaced was the rear bumper & exhaust, & we had the trunk bent out about an inch & a half. good luck; just be happy you are ok. everything will work out, but you do need to get the car checked out by a body shop like everyone has indicated. each accident is different.

shini, sorry to hear about the accident. Getting hit at 40mph by anything but a balloon is going to cause some structural damage. Part of the 8's design is to distribute side impacts through the roof, side rails and floor of the car. The door frame is obviously going to need a bunch of work. Make sure that the shop you go to has a state of the art unibody rig and knows how to use it.

Now, when you are back on the road, please pay a lot of attention to the 8's blind spots. The civic might have been unavoidable but as a rule, you have to be really careful about the right side of the car. Between the low seating, small windows and wide pillars visibility isn't great.

Good luck.

:eek: thats scary.