My wife was driving home from work Monday night and got rear ended, BAD! She stopped on I-70 for a backup (at one of the usual spots) and the person behind her didn't see her stopped and hit her, at what the other driver said was probably the posted speed (65mph !) Good news is that Shannon (wife) has no serious injuries, nor does anyone else involved. Bad news is that Shannon is really sore, bruised, and upset. Link to pics of car:

http://picasaweb.google.com/BrianXL/BMW_Wreck

It's also sad because we both really loved that car and had planned to keep it for a long time. So far their insurance company (USAA) has talked the talk, we'll see if they walk the walk. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a long drawn out exercise in stupidity.

Seems to be the season for rear end collisions, eerily similar to AndyJ's situation.

Wow. Glad she's okay Brian.

The main thing is that she was not seriously injured. Glad to hear that. The car can always be replaced. Gotta keep it in perspective.
--Ron

Oh yeah, one of the things to notice in the pics was the damage on the front. You can clearly see where the hitch receiver hit her car when she rear-ended the truck in front of her.

USAA has a good reputation. You shouldn't have much of a problem.

Good to hear she's OK. I guess those crumple zones really work!!

Glad she is OK. Seems like there are a bunch of wrecks going around now. I've heard of 4 people at work who were in wrecks totaling their cars.

You married superwoman too! I'm glad she is ok!

My wife just did an end over end a few months back, she says she is still sore a little. I tell her she is just old as I get

Wow, definitely glad to hear she's OK. (I was rear ended on 495 once. Don't miss 495/70 during rush hour at all ).

I recall a guy locally who rolled a car on MA 495. His wife went to look at the car. Her reaction kind of took him by surprise. She told him to get another just like it. She reasoned that the car did its job protecting the occupant. Looks like the same sort of endorsement for your wifes car.

Shannon wants an SUV now. We both acknowledge that the car did a good job, but we want to start a family and maybe it's the right time to get something bigger. She's spooked now and might not ever feel "right" in a car again. Hope so, but...

Glad she's ok, at least the car did it's job protecting her.

I test drove a BMW X3 and X5 a couple of years ago (when they do their annual "drive for cancer" or whatever it is). Anyway, both were very nice, especially the X3. Felt much more sporty than you would expect from a typical SUV, and was a lot of fun on to drive. If she has to have an SUV, try to get her into one of those.

Wow, that was a hard wreck, I'm glad to hear she's okay. Make sure to keep an eye on her for a while, neck, back, and other injuries can sometimes take a little while to really become obvious.

That's the best endorsement I've seen yet for a BMW 3-series!

Howdy,



From my own experience in the last year or so, if you're going to get a vehicle because you're gonna have newborn/infant/toddlers around, just get a minivan.

Better mileage and lower maintenance costs, can be configured to carry more stuff (in terms of bulk, probably not in terms of weight), and easier to deal with getting the kid in and out.

We have an '06 4 door Civic, '04 quad-cab 2500 Ram, and an '02 Venture minivan. Order of vehicles, in terms of dealing with our son Dominic, is the reverse of that.

You particularly want relatively low height & a large rear door opening... Remember, you're going to be trying to get you plus the infant (and maybe something else) you're carrying through that opening during a rainstorm. You also will probably want/need to carry along more crap than you'd really expect. Minimum is a pack 'n play (or porta-crib, or play-pen, depending on how you think of if) and umbrella stroller, plus the clothes, diapers, food, etc. But if you value your sanity and are doing an overnight, plan on room for a swing or exer-saucer plus a 'real' stroller as well.

Mark

YIKES!!!
That was a serious hit.

To reiterate what others have said, as long as your wife is ok, everything else can be replaced. I've had USAA forever and they are wonderful. I think you'll be just fine.

Good luck!


Costas
cars and such...

I completely agree on all points, but for her a minivan is a non-starter. I think they are fine, and some of them I think are kinda cool (lots of gadgets, etc). She's shorter than me by quite a bit and it'll be harder on her with an SUV, but it's her thing. Our backup kid-hauler would be my tow vehicle as well. *hopefully* the extra cab can fit a child seat when the time comes.

Howdy,



That's pretty funny. Laura and I went through almost _exactly_ the same thing, in terms of her not wanting a minivan at all.

We ended up getting one anyway because my parents had a high mileage '02 Venture that they were going to get essentially nothing for on trade. So we bought it because it was cheap and I'd drive the thing.

Laura still doesn't like driving a minivan, but I notice that whenever she's dealing with Dominic, she wants it anyway. :-) We also always use it for family stuff.

One thing that is annoying is that all the marketing speak is totally wrong for me. One of the things we did on the Venture was to replace the struts/shocks. What was on there was horribly underdamped/worn out and rode badly enough that it'd make you a bit seasick. So I go off looking for struts/shocks... And everything is all "comfort ride", "select ride", etc. I was looking for "heavy duty" or "sport" or whatever and there's nothing at all marketed like that.

We ended up with Monroe stuff, which is better than what was on there, but which could still be stiffer. If I had more time (AHAHAHAHA!), I'd look into what it would take to put stiffer springs, bars, struts/shocks on the van. You can't buy any of it off the shelf, but I'd be amazed if it wouldn't be pretty straight forward to adapt at least springs & rear shocks from other stuff. It'll never be a sportscar of course, but it could at least transmit some road feel to you.

I think there are other minivan options that have better suspensions though, so don't take this as condemnation of the entire market segment!

Anyway, Laura has gone from a person who absolutely would not own a minivan, to someone who has to own one, but isn't particularly happy about driving it. And that's with only one child... For more than one I think you'd want one even more. I'd be interested to see what she thought if we could buy a different minivan that actually had a little suspension.

Mark

Howdy,

And, I keep forgetting to say... I'm glad your wife and everyone else is ok!

Mark

I agree with Jeff97. Get another BMW. It must be a well built car to take that hit. Glad everyone's okay.

Damn, Brian. Glad to know she's okay after that kind of hit. Justin and I came horribly close to a similar situation in his WRX when we were driving down to the Subaru Challenge back in November. There was a backup in a construction zone on I77 just north of Charlotte, and the three vehicles in front of me hit each other, with a Montero almost ending up being rolled by a Cadillac. I heard the Montero's wheels locked up, and was threshold braking the WRX and eyeballing the pickup behind me.... fortunately, he was paying attention too, and we both got stopped in plenty of time, but we were actually shaking worse than those who were in collisions, strangely enough.

USAA was exceptional when my boy's car got totaled 2 years ago.

Glad everyone is OK!

Glad the wife is ok. That looks like quite a hit.

My experience with minivans is similar to Mark's. We were specifically not looking for them when we went car shopping but ended up getting a '98 Venture after driving it. Six years later, we have 155k miles on it and have replaced the transmission and head gaskets so we will probably have it quite a while longer. The only thing I don't like about it, other than the mushy suspension, is they do not crash well. They crumple up badly in the front. Toyota seems to have one of the best minivans on the market for crash structure from what I have seen and read.

Glad the Family is ok................that BMW took the hit for your wife!

They are definately made to absorb the impact!

Hope she feels better in the next couple of days.

Gary

Glad your wife is ok. Man, I am getting afraid to drive with all these FFRAXers getting rearended! Seriously though, she will get more sore before she gets better. A trip to your general practitioner is wise as a precautionary measure. Do keep a very close eye on her for the next few days.

And folks ask us if racing is scary!

We just switched medical plans and didn't have a PCP yet, but Shannon called a local doc and she saw her the same day. She was great and has since called just to see how Shannon was doing and she'll be going back next Wednesday for a follow-up. In the meantime she prescribed some great stuff to make Shannon feel better.

Holy Crap, Brian! Very glad to hear Shannon's OK. That was a serious set of smashes. Wow.

Glad to hear your wife is okay. I see that the BMW cage did its job. After being in a similar incident (at lower speed) in my Montana, I'd definitely steer away from a standard FWD mini van for safety's sake. I know that my Astro would have fared much better in my incident. There is something to be said for the higher entry points/bumper heights of a SUV/van. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to put my family in an x3/x5.

btw once you buy the first mini van, the mommy van stigma doesn't bother you any more

Like I said, it doesn't bother me much (just take Peyton's advice and paint some flames on it), but for her it's a no-go. We're leaning toward a Tahoe. Already have the tag picked out:

HO4MYHO

Brian,

I'm glad to hear that your wife is ok, that's a serious hit. Wow.



I missed one last night. I had my parents in the car with me and I suddenly dumped the clutch and cut the wheel. Dad said "what the heck was that?". I said "Neon avoidance". I was sitting stopped and realized this guy either wasn't looking or wasn't stopping in time. I moved the Mazdaspeed just in time to avoid getting crunched from behind and shoved into a truck. It was dark and raining at the time.

Brian, I'll sell you a nice Mazdaspeed 6. It's AWD, 4 doors, you should have one.

VERY glad your wife is OK. This time of year it seems people REALLY begin to suck at driving.....or maybe they sucked all year long, and the rain just "helps" them over the line....

The good news is that the totalling of the BigMoneyWaste SAVED you from the constant mental and financial ANGUISH of owning a BigMoneyWaste after the newness has worn off--you mentioned that you wanted to keep it long term. In the case of my BigMoneyWaste, there was NEVER any newness in it to wear off......

It was an '01 that we bought used. After ~ 30K miles in our possession it hadn't needed anything but routine maintenance.

Like I said...good thing you dodged that bullet...

You were about to experience you first real pain in terms of owning one.......never again......never again......

A Tahoe is a great choice! I see too many minivans completely wadded up, not Tahoes usually!

Glad you guys have the medical aspect of this so well covered. Hope she feels better very soon!

Of course, if you really want safety, get a Volvo. Plus, you could get something like our 04 V70R. It'll seat up to 7 with the rear jump seat, you can fit a ton of stuff in it, you can get integrated child seats, and there's nothing safer on the road. To top it all off, the V70R is actually a pretty good sports car too (active suspension, Brembos, 300HP turbo 5 cyl), and it gets a lot better mileage than an SUV.

Ah hell, I knew Randy would show up in here eventually....

Jason

First, I am glad your wife is OK. That looks like a serious hit.



My wife loves her Tahoe. In our house, a minivan was a no-go for both of us. In fact, I discussed this while were dating and would not have taken things further if we were gonna be a minivan household (true story).

Me? Unless I already had multiple kids, I'd get another Bimmer. Our old 5-series was fine with one child/one dog but when the second came along (8 years after the first), it was impossible to get both kids comfortable and bringing the dog wasn't even a possibility.

Hey, I am nothing if not consistent....

Wanted to post an update. Wife is in the process of obtaining legal counsel. USAA was cool at first, but as soon as we began sending them items for reimbursement (ring repair estimate) they stopped being nice and began balking. Much of her bruising has faded, but she is getting lower back pain. She'll be seeing a specialist soon. There's some other issues as well, but overall she's on the mend.

Today we went and picked up a new Tahoe for her. It's a new 2008 Z71 3LT. It was pricey, but is a very sweet truck. USAA was fair and timely with the BMW payoff, though, and we have already received that check. We also got PIP reimbursement from my insurance company which has covered her lost wages. My company (Nationwide) has been awesome and very helpful throughout the process.

Thanks for the update. I am thinking about USAA, right now have State Farm. Tell your wife I hope she feels better. Do not give up on seeing Dr.s unti she is right! The new Tahoe sounds really good.

BigE - Good to hear things are looking better. Make sure your wife's back is good. Stretching, chiro, yoga, whatever it takes...

I've got USAA as well, and they've always been great to work with. <knock on wood>. Don't spend too much of their money, though - it's a mutual, so we get the profits back at the year ends as a check for a hundred or two!

A.

Cool.....the new Tahoes are SWEET!

ouch !!! glad to hear that your wife is well. thank god for crumple zones
congrats on the tahoe