Let me start by saying I am fortunate to have an 03 STR that has never seen a winter. Always stored winters and kept for nice weather. The only water it has seen is a car wash. Every winter I rub it and feed it fine synthetic fluids. The bitch really likes the attention.

So last friday I went down to my Insurance Agent, canceled my storage policy and loaded her up with all the motoring insurance coverage money could buy. My rates are excellent cause I don't get caught very often acting like a pinhead behind the wheel and manage to not hit things or for that matter get hit.

Yesterday I finally had a break and the weather was terrific for my first drive since last October/09. Lots of rich pageantry and a little happy to take the bitch out and spank her. Load up the CD and Nav. The STR never looked or ran better.

I go on my favorite drive thru vineyards, past beautiful lakes and on up to my favorite golf course for a wag with the boys and an espresso. Behaving like a 62 year old should. Not hit the loud pedal once.

Now I'm feelin' pretty good as I approach the stop sign to merge out onto the highway to head back home. The lake is sparkling down below the vineyard and the highway. Life is friggin' good. While I'm waitin' to merge one of them Dodge 4x4 macho thingies pulls in behind me and then an RCMP marked unit (a mountie aka copper) pulls in behind the thingie.

So I poke my nose out a little and spot some dip**** pounding down the left lane where I would have to merge. A couple of nano seconds to judge his speed and I coulda made him wet his pants if I had pulled out and hit the loud pedal but I thought nah this day is going to well.

Too bad sparky behind me in the thingie didn't think the same thing as he thought I had departed while he was looking over his left shoulder and he hit the loud pedal. Long story short - the STR now has a thingie for a trunk and I'm pushed out into the middle of the highway wondered that age old "what the f*ck just happened".

Phone just rang I gotta go meet with the adjuster who sounds like a **** on the phone. This is gonna get real f*ckin' interesting. I will have more to ad this potential epic later...

 

That's a shame, searanch. I know exactly how you feel. I got plowed in our S-Type last August. While you were crunched from the rear, I took it in the front....

Sometimes I wonder if these Jaguars have invisible targets painted all over them. Even my wife has questioned this. Whenever she drives her Lexus SUV to Tampa and back to visit her parents, there are never any issues or close calls while cruising down I-95. But when she takes the S-Type on that trip (which is one of the primary reasons why we bought it), multitudes of morons always want to cut her off, pull up along beside her just inches away from her door and challenge her, or come barrelling up behind her and ride her bumper even in the far right lane....

Best of luck with your repairs. Keep us posted on how everything proceeds. And consider a lawsuit against the other guy's insurance company for the diminished value that your car will unfortunately suffer from just because it's been hit. I sued, won, and stashed that money away in my S-Type maintenance fund for when it is needed....

 

ahhh that sucks......

 

So the macho Dodge 4x4 "thingie" thought you were going to pull out, and floored it, slamming into you from behind, directly in front of the cop who was behind him?

That sucks that such a pampered car would be met with such a fate...

Hope it all works out with the insurance company.

George

 

...the last I saw of Sparky as we drove away in the flatbed was him hopping around on one foot after the copper wrote him no less than 3 moving violations. I would have prefered a well placed baseball bat but the copper wouldn't accommodate me even tho' he smiled when I asked him to perform the act if I couldn't. The copper was almost as upset as I was.

Here is the good side and bad side of the bitch...

 

searanch, damn shame. I feel really bad for you and your STR. I wish all the best luck with the upcoming battles.

 

Jon, they're probably just wondering how gorgeous the babe is driving the beautiful car

 

Wow, so sorry searanch.... Man that sucks. A great fear of mine when ever I take the Dodge out.. Worse thing is if someone hits the rag top their insurance co will just total it and give me peanuts for it....

Look on the bright side, if there is one........

It was rear damage that probably did not do any type of electrical or mechanical damage. Also, a good shop should have no problem matching your white paint... But I know it still hurts a lot when it's something you watch over so carefully....

 

damn that picture is painful....how fast did the idiot get up to to hit it that hard from a stop?!

 

Ever since I beat a 4x4 at a stoplight in the snow, I've come to the conclusion that most macho truck drivers are just envious of how much freaking torque the STR's have. They can have the loudest, meanest sounding machine around, yet can't touch the relatively quiet STR in terms of shear off the line power.

 

searanch - ohhhhhh, that's soooo bad
Such a shame. I hope you're OK, not got whiplash?

 

I hate to say it but that car's totaled. The entire rear unibody has been compromised. Look at the waves in the quarter above the wheel well.

That thing needs both rear quarters, trunk, tail lights, bumper skin, all the supporting understructure (trunk floor pan etc), plus all the damage to the rear suspension, possibly a driveshaft, exhaust etc.

Thank god the car took it well and you are ok, that's all that matters. The car was beautiful, but it can be replaced. You can't.

Insist on NOTHING but 100% OEM parts sourced by the dealer. How many miles are on this car?

George

 

my sincere condolences... hard to look at.

keep us in the loop, we'll suffer with you thru this

 

What's going on here? Seems to be some contradiction in your tales?

 

...good catch Sherlock were it not for the fact you are quoting two different people or did ya just miss that important distinction?

 

Both pics were taken at the same time. You will notice that the drivers side has absolutely no damage. The drivers side quarter panel is not impacted at all. All the damage is in the passenger side quarter. Their is no frame damage and/or exhaust damage. I tried to get them to write it off but they ain't goin' for it.

You can bet that only the best parts are going on the car as the owner of the body shop is my neighbor and they only deal in high-end cars. The car has 34K miles on the odometer.

Oh, I can be replaced. My wife reminds of that quite often...

 

yours too huh........

 

Keep us posted on your saga, searanch. Our damage repair last August wound up right at $12,900. The threshold for totalling the car at that time was $13,450. So our car was repaired. Like you, I selected an extremely high-end body shop, insisted on new OEM parts throughout, and dropped in unannounced four different times during the 28 days that the car was in the shop undergoing repairs. At this point, I couldn't be happier. They did a fantastic job and the S-Type is now purring along more than 10,000 miles after repairs were finished....

My wife is taking off bright and early tomorrow morning headed to Tampa to spend a week with her parents. This will be the second time she's made that solo trip in her S-Type since repairs were completed....

 

Oh ok. I'd be curious to see the estimate... I didn't realize your car was that low mileage. See these cars being unibody don't have a "frame" in the traditional sense. The body structure makes up the frame. And I'm sure that rear quarter will have to go on a "frame machine" to be pulled out before it's reskinned. Does the rear passenger door open and close properly? That will give a good indication of how far things have twisted...

Have they pulled up the trunk carpet to see how the trunk floor looks?

You'd be surprised how much damage is revealed after things start coming apart. It's good to have the body guy on your side, especially if you have a good relationship with him.

Best of luck with the repairs. Keep us updated.

George

 

Wow Jon, between the hidden damage, and the dimished value claim and all that saga, I bet they would have been much better off totaling your car... Glad to hear it's running right and your wife has confidence in it again

George