Driving to work on a bright, sunny, clear November morning. (Also a Friday). As the line of cars I am with go past a little intersection, the car in front of me brakes HARD. Guess somebody wasn't paying attention and forgot which way they needed to go that morning.

Due to the way the street is setup, there is no left turning lane, so they were just sitting in the middle of the street. Which is fine if they slow down to a stop, but a different story entirely if they quick skid to a halt to make a turn. So me, being lucky enough to be directly behind them, with nowhere to go, quick jump on the brakes, and all I hear are my new Michelin tires bringing me from 45 to 0 in a matter of feet. Stopped with about a foot of space from my nose to the cars rear bumper.

The Hyundai behind me wasn't so lucky, and proceeds to bump into the back of my car. The driver in front of me, realizing what has occurred, quickly goes through the intersection, tires squealing.

Turning my attention back to what I assumed would be a little fender bender (going off of the impact felt by me), I proceed to pull over, get out of my car and see this:





Quickly looking at my own bumper reveals this:






Double checking to make sure I'm still looking at the same accident, I go over and make sure the Hyundai driver is okay and all that. The airbags didn't deploy, which seemed odd to me, considering the extent of damage to the Hyundai. The dude behind us was a fire chief, so the police were there fast. I drove away no problem; the Hyundai had to be towed. And just for that added measure of starting the day off in a world of crap, when I hopped in the passenger side to get my papers for the police, I noticed that I was right next to a decomposing dead deer.

Car goes in after Xmas, new bumper + parts and license plate. That list will probably grow, as the tail lights are fine but have 10x the moisture buildup inside than usual. Also the passenger door no longer locks under its own power, and the lights don't always flash when locking the car.

The only other things worth mentioning is that I routinely pass another black 8 on my way to work, and as he went by and stared at the Hyundai's damage, I could only shrug. That, and as I calmly drove away, I proceeded to invented about five new swear words.

Still, it's a tough little car!

 

Did you check for frame damage? Because that Hyundai had to hit you pretty hard to get that messed up... Either your car absorbed most the damage like it's supposed to or that Hyundai is made of cardboard.

 

That's all the damage you got?! That Hyundai front end collision is pretty severe. I am surprised that the damage is so little on the rx8, compare to that Hyundai.

 

You've probably got some damage that's not immediately apparent. My wife's Camry got rear ended, with the car that hit her looking like that Hyundai and hers not even looking as bad as yours. But the sheet metal under the bumper was bent, the trunk floor was buckled, and everything else was just a bit out of line. It spent time on the frame machine.

The rear ender usually comes off way worse looking than the rear endee...but "looking" can be deceptive.

Make sure you go to a good body shop of your own choosing, and not someplace the Hyundai's insurance company sends you to.

Ken

 

usually when you get rear ended, the car dives under yours. you better check your under car damage.

 

the hyundai looks normal to me...

hah. Did it have damage BEFORE it hit you? (obviously not to that extent, but if it had damage already, the bump would have made it much worse).

Anyway, yes, have your insurance pay for a full checkout of your car

 

That's what happens when you brake hard. Rear of your car goes up, car behind you brakes hard, their nose goes under your car. Lucky for both of you, looks like the Tiburon's hood took a majority of the impact. +1 to having them make sure everything is OK under your rear end as well. The hood basically acted as a shock absorber in this case. Good luck getting everything fixed up as it definitely looks like it could have been worse.

 

+1

One time going to class i saw an MX-5 pull up to the lights, then as i was thinking in my head "nice car", i see something like a Yaris rear end it... I witnessed the entire collision, seeing the bumper of the MX-5 bend in pretty far, then the yaris just bounced back, it was pretty funny :P. I went around to look at the damage, and i couldn't even see a scratch on the Mazda, even though i swear i was watching that bumper bending in...

Don't know how much of the frame is there, but i am assuming there is something that could have been damaged internally...

 

Something similar happened to me the other day. The truck behind me thought I let off the brakes so she started accelerating and it seemed like a large impact from inside my 8. But when we pulled over, all I had was a little ding the size of half a penny in the black plastic below the body color part of the bumper.

And I was hit by a large pickup, the 8 does have a hard *** haha

 

This

 

Surprised nobody said this

It will buff right out

Earlier Hyundai is made of cardboard.

but you really need to take the rear bumper off to inspect further damage. most likely your Rear Brace will bent "into" the frame or some other **** will bent. you just don't see it with the cover on.

my bro's FX35 got rear ended couple months ago. it wasn't a hard hard hit. he was at red light, the idiot behind "was looking at his windows mounted GPS didn't look at the front" and slam into the rear. probably 15 mph or so ? his car was totally fucked. my bro's FX35 actually looks "ok" just the plastic bumper kinda bent-in. but at the shop they found exhaust was bent,the rear brace was bent, bumper has to be replaced, etc. was close to 3.5K worth of damage. that moron's insurance(progressive) took care of it no questions asked. Bro said he didn't feel too much inside the car, thumbs up to Nissan. cuz this isn't his first "nissan" car.

 

Front ends of cars are designed to crumple like that, for obvious safety reasons. The crumple zones absorb the impact instead of the passengers. So, while one might knock the car for being "made of cardboard", another would say that such a feature could save lives.

And with all of the energy absorbed by the front end, it's not surprising that the airbags did not deploy. It requires a particularly violent collision for the airbags to react... One that is potentially life threatening.

I was a mechanic at a shop that had an neighboring relationship with a body shop. I remember several customers at that body shop who were very concerned that their airbags did not deploy in an average collision, and I was tasked to troubleshoot the system. I would always tell the customer that, no matter what the car looked like, if they are ok, be glad the airbags didn't go off. As I'm sure some people on this board can attest to, getting hit with an airbag is not a pleasant experience. Better than a life changing (or death causing) injury, of course... But airbags themselves can cause injury.

 

Airbags have killed.

Ken

 

Too much impact with the air bags could be damaging and deadly. Air bags usually save lives, but a few did not help.

 

True... But since then, airbags have been revised with a less violent (slower) deployment. And all things considered, I'd much rather take my chances with an airbag in a severe collision.

 

Considering you now have moisture buildup in your tail lights, your locking system issues, and the fact that the lights aren't flashing, there's a latch somewhere that thinks a door isn't closed...so I think you've got a bit more damage than meets the eye.

 

This made me laugh. Sorry to hear about your car though.

 

Don't worry, the Hyundai owner is paying for everything. I am taking it a few days after Xmas to an auto body place with a good rep.

Yeah, I was hoping it would all be cosmetic and such, but I suppose that's just wishful thinking. Though I've driven it pretty thoroughly, and I have not been able to notice anything different. Fingers crossed!

And yes, the dead deer was just the icing on the "F You!" cake.