In a moment's inattention driving home from work, I rear-ended a Toyota Starlet which hit a 325 in front, which nudged the next vehicle. They had all come to a sudden stop for a pedestrian crossing, and I wasn't looking. It took about 2 seconds. I was going about 40 km/h in a stream of slow, tailgating traffic. My fault.
The Starlet went to the wreckers' on a tow truck . I drove the Jag 2 miles home, with one headlight.
Luckily no-one was hurt.
I thought they would write the jag off, but I have a good insurer and I have explained the nature of my car to the assessor who 'get's it', so it will be repaired.
Luckily I have my Daimler as a back-up, Plan B.
Hmmm..

 

I feel your pain, good result with the insurer though.

 

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

 

Gah ! Sorry to see this.

Well, as the saying goes, "it coulda been worse".

Glad nobody was hurt. At the end of the day that what matters most.

Cheers
DD

 

Thankful no one was hurt, but sure hate to see such a nice Jag banged up.

Glad to hear it will be repaired. Please keep us updated with photos!

Cheers,

Don

 

Looks like quite a hit even though it was a slow impact at 40 km/h: front bumper and chrome pieces, bonnet, front grill, right headlight set, and possibly air-con drier and condenser (hopefully the radiator ).... But is is good that no one got hurt. No doubt, she will be repaired in no time, treasured more, and you will be more alert when driving.

A moment of in-attention is very common. A few years ago when I took Rose to a workshop for the gear-box conversion, I stopped at a toll booth to pay toll and suddenly a following small truck ran into my back pushing Rose forward for a few feet.


Fortunately the damage was limited - the boot lid still opened fine, just the vertical panel of the boot lid that was dented, and the rear bumper scratched.






The truck driver said he could not stop in time, and was very sorry for hitting my car. He later agreed to pay for my repair and we didn't trouble the Police or insurance.

 

Hi Al,
sorry to hear if your accident, but pleased that nobody was hurt and the car is to be repaired. Difficult to tell from the photos, but did your airbag deploy?

 

Bugga, Al.

 

Really sorry to hear about your accident

Sometimes I think it is more upsetting for damage to happen to older things where a lot of effort or luck has been invested to be kept in good order or restored, versus brand new things. So I can certainly understand your disappointment.

But good news is that it sounds like the damage is relatively minimal and will be repaired

.

 

No airbag deployment, which is a bit of a worry. I had probably just touched the brakes without really losing any speed, so I don't know it that influences the airbags. I would have expected them to go off.
Begs the question whether they work or are even there any more..

 

The air bag sensor unit is usually positioned behind the front bumper. It looks like most of your damage was above the bumper line. The bumper may not have been moved enough to set it off. Actually, unless you were injured it was best that it didn't deploy. That would have added the cost of a steering wheel, dash panel and two air bag units, probably another grand at least.

 

I was completely fine so as you say, good the airbag stayed in the wheel.
I think the Starlet I hit absorbed most of the impact, and I was probably just a starting to brake.

 

Al,
As far as I know, the sensor itself doesnt need to be struck, as it can sense the impact through the "jolt", regardless of whether it is physically hit. There seems to be a degree of science involved in the sensor determining whether to fire, and it isnt just a case of being related to speed at the time of impact. Rate of retardation seems to come into it, eg Hit a wall at 30 and it will fire, hit a hedge at 60 and it wont. It could well be that yours is functioning correctly, and toyota starlets are so mushy it didnt need to go off!
The systems are pretty tamper proof, and if the electronics dont like anything, the warning light will come on, and be virtually impossible to extinguish without fixing the fault; even removing the bulb causes an audible warning!
I take it when you were driving the car after the bump the airbag warning light wasnt on? If it had triggered a deployment, the light would be on, even if the bag had not actually fired due to a fault.

 

Al, I would definitely look into the airbag sensors to see if they are working properly. They are life-saving installations for yourself and your passengers.

 

Too bad about the accident, they would have totaled mine here, no love from insurers unless you register as an antique and use a specialty insurer

 

Sorry to read about the accident. At least nobody was hurt and the car will be repaired. A sobering lesson on the importance of good insurance. It is one of those products where you don't know how good it is till you really need it.

 

Good to hear you're okay. That's the most important part.
Same here. I was just rear ended with very minimal damage. There is a scratch on the rear bumper, and the gap between the rear left fender and door closed up a little but not enough that it damaged the door. The adjuster offered $1600 for the rear bumper cover, didn't offer anything for pulling the rear fender away from the door.

Adjuster claims they total when repair cost will be approximately 60% of the value of the car. So assuming the go with blue book in excellent condition, I want to say I have about $1100 to play around with before they "consider" it totaled. Adjuster also said they usually don't bother with older cars.

Body shop has to pull off the bumper and see if there is any more damage under the bumper cover, call the adjuster to inspect and reevaluate the cost of repair for any damage under the bumper cover and the cost to pull the fender away from the door. There may be more damage, if you look at the side where the bumper lines up with the fender, the bumper is about an inch pushed forward leaving it out of line with the fender. So I'm not really optimistic about the outcome. Never had to deal with insurance company before so not sure how it all works.

Paid blue book value ($4500)for the car and had it painted for $3200. About 60,000 miles on it now and everything is mint. Going to have to fight the the insurance company if they talk about total.

 

Yikes, glad you're okay! Back when I had my X308 I had a similar experience rear-ending a compact car with a higher bumper at low speed: hood and fenders damaged, no airbag deployment. Wonder how common such a crash result is.

 

So the plot has thickened. Almost 3 weeks since my crash, and now the repair quotes are coming in.
The car is insured for NZD $12000. The panels (all new) are nearly 10,000. Plus labor and paint, 16000. So I am expecting them to write it off.
I said I am happy with secondhand panels but the insurers may not allow that - health and safety rubbish. Never mind that all the other parts of the car are now 20 years old..
I guess my options are

1. Take the money and let a good manual XJR go to the knackers
2. Offer to pay the difference $4000 - a philosophical acceptance of a large excess.
3. Convince the insurers to let me have it repaired with secondhand panels
.....

4. Crazy option which may lead to divorce - buy the really nice 1995 4.0 XJS and convert it to Manuel XJR 320 bhp spec - the XJS-R. Jaguar XJS 1994 | Trade Me

I don't know how hard option 4 would be, but I would imagine all the ECU boxes for an XJS AJ16 would be similar to an AJ16 X300... perhaps not the case

 

Since you already have the tamed version of another X300 (the Daimler), perhaps an XJS with Manual XJR specs would address the family's as well as your own needs. However, do you think you can manage the NZ authorities on the XJS modifications, given your earlier unpleasant encounters with them about the foot pedal and the propeller yoke? Would the future value of an XJS manual be a consideration factor? Somehow I believe Jaguars are much higher valued in the South, and a manual XJS would be every man's dream.