Tag Archives: wreck

Jeep

Built Like a Tank

Today was the day to start getting the repairs to my Jeep started. Once I picked a repair site — a Jeep dealer — I took it up there so they could evaluate it. The great news is that they saw nothing that will keep me from driving it until they get the parts in. That’s a big relief.

And what’s the damage gonna be? Well, the bumper, bumper cover (plastic), and the steering wheel all need replacing, which is gonna run less than a grand before insurance picks up their cut. Even with all that, the repair time is about four hours. Considering the nature of the wreck, that’s amazing to me. I didn’t think you could find someone to sneeze on a vehicle for under a grand, much less do repairs.

The small amount of damage is stunning to me. If I’d only looked at a photo of the other vehicle, I’da bet good money that the damage to the front end of the Jeep would’ve been significant. Not so.

Certainly is a great testament to the safety of this vehicle… and will probably keep me in one for a while!

Jeep

Adventures in Automotive Husbandry

So… What happens when someone elects to cross their Saturn with a Jeep Wrangler? Well, here’s how the Wrangler looks:

Here’s how the Saturn looks:

Basically, this is the result of a Saturn pulling across two lanes of traffic at the behest of someone stopped on the inside lane of two lanes going the same direction. (“The lady waved me across” is the quote that I will remember from this event.) I was in the outside of those two lanes, and wasn’t party to either the decision to wave across, nor the decision to pull across both lanes. I was, however, driving the unfortunate vehicle that was in a position to t-bone the passenger side of the Saturn.

Becky and I are ok, as was the other driver, apparently. I’ve got a couple of bruises, and some soreness, but that’s to be expected.

So how’s the Jeep? Well, the bumper damage is visible in the photo. The steering appears to be off by a bit, measured by the steering wheel not being aligned right when the Jeep’s driving straight down the road. The biggest weirdness is the steering wheel itself. It appears that at the time of impact, I had a death grip on the top of the wheel… and bent the steering wheel a fair amount. Near as I can figure, that probably was the culmination of my arms being stiff, preparing for impact, and holding on rigidly enough to push the top of the wheel forward.

So we’re ok. I’m really bummed about it though, along with all the uncertainty that comes along with something like this. Deep breaths….