Totaled 2004 - JH4NA21644T000023

[JBLACK]

Back on 4/5/07 I had arrived from being out of town for almost a month solid and was planning a road trip. I went to have the oil changed at the dealer and less than 2 blocks later a Mitsubishi Spyder turned right in front of me as I was going through the intersection. Both airbags deployed myself escaping injury with the drivers airbag and seatbelt, the laptop in the passenger seat was saved by the second airbag as it launched into the dash. We're all okay, except for the car.

The initial estimate was 32K, that was before the frame was checked out.

I had the body shop put it on a frame machine before they even started ordering parts or doing any real work on it so we could see just how bad it was. It was much much worse than it looked. The insurance adjuster came back out a second time today, and I was called this evening by the insurance company letting me know that they were going to total it out because of the extensive amount of frame damage. (the shop estimated no less than 60hrs of frame time alone for the car after getting the measurements)

So I'll probably wait for a couple of months and start the hunt again, as it was my dream car for over 10 years. It's kind of sad in a sense, but it gives me a chance to regroup and find another one now.

Below are some pics of the car.
If you know how to read a frame report, you can see the frame damage and how badly the numbers are off.

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[sojusoulja]

dam that sucks. glad to hear your ok

 

[djdrock]

Wow, I am glad you are okay. Good luck on the search for a new one.

 

[95EagleAWD]

That's terrible.

Good to know that everyone is okay, but still, since everyone is, it sucks about what looked like a beatiful car.

 

[LJSB]

What is strange about your readings is that according to this report the rear of the car was bent down around 15MM.

How did the rear of the car not get any sway,crush and I'm assuming impact but is sagged down?
Overzealous tie down/winching on the flatbed?

I'm curious, what percentage of the pre-accident value of the car is the threshold for a total loss in your state? In NY it is 75%.

These cars fare well in accidents. They are expensive to fix but the occupants are pretty well protected and usually emerge unscathed. Thank God you're OK.

Glad you didn't get there 1 second sooner or you'd be hit hard in the door.

I hope the other car has enough liability coverage to pay for your car.

Damn fool could have killed you.

 

[comtec]

What is strange about your readings is that according to this report the rear of the car was bent down around 15MM.

Could the frame behind the front wheels have been bent up? I would think that would cause the rear to be lower. Just a guess, you are the expert :biggrin: .



JBLACK:

Sorry to hear but i am glad you (and your laptop :smile: ) are ok.

 

[LJSB]

Could the frame behind the front wheels have been bent up?

The measurements on the sheet appears to show that area to be within tolerance. No, it's just the height of the rear control points. The length and center reference on these points look acceptable.

It's not important anymore since it is not being repaired. Just a observation. It seemed curious.

I may be doing a tech session at NSXPO 2007 and perhaps covering how to read such a sheet might be of interest.

 

[ACCD]

Very sorry to hear the news.. I've seen you on the road before...McDavid does good work, but probably not "that" good....I'll be taking mine down for some work and will take a peak if yours is still there... Man i know you must be sick, but it's good news that you're ok....

Was it a woman driver on a cell phone in the sypder?
I've gotten into the habbit of driving with my lights on:

Be good, good luck

ACD

 

[comtec]

I may be doing a tech session at NSXPO 2007 and perhaps covering how to read such a sheet might be of interest.

I will be very interested in being at your tech session.

 

[JBLACK]

What is strange about your readings is that according to this report the rear of the car was bent down around 15MM.

How did the rear of the car not get any sway,crush and I'm assuming impact but is sagged down?
Overzealous tie down/winching on the flatbed?

I'm curious, what percentage of the pre-accident value of the car is the threshold for a total loss in your state? In NY it is 75%.

These cars fare well in accidents. They are expensive to fix but the occupants are pretty well protected and usually emerge unscathed. Thank God you're OK.

Glad you didn't get there 1 second sooner or you'd be hit hard in the door.

I hope the other car has enough liability coverage to pay for your car.

Damn fool could have killed you.

We were all a little confused about the rear of the car being bent down as much as it was. My first clue that something was not right was that none of the panels on the rear of the car aligned at all.

As for the total value it's 70%.
I'm not sure what the second estimate came in at when they took a second look, but the bend in the frame around the drivers door was not a good sign.

As for the second sooner, yeah I'm very well blessed as far as that goes.
I saw a guy ahead of me jetting in and out of traffic so I was already primed for that guy to pull out in front of me like an idiot, little did I know some other person would run the light. Go figure.

-j

 

[JBLACK]

Could the frame behind the front wheels have been bent up? I would think that would cause the rear to be lower. Just a guess, you are the expert :biggrin: .

The front of the car is bent up a bit, the dealer believes there is probably some serious pan damage on the car which may be leading to the back being as off as it is. But without really tearing it all apart it's hard to tell.

 

[JBLACK]

Was it a woman driver on a cell phone in the sypder?
I've gotten into the habbit of driving with my lights on:

Be good, good luck

ACD

It wasn't a woman on a cell phone oddly enough, as that's very much the norm in Plano.. imagine that.

The other gentleman was okay, his car was pretty brutalized as I caught him with the NSX drivers side right into the passengers side axle of his car.
The spyder was dead as could be, wouldn't start, nothing, dead, dead, dead.

I was all smiles as the cop said, but as I told him, I was just glad I was able to walk away from it with no injuries, and working laptop.

When I called my wife, she was like, "real funny, now seriously where are you"

-j

 

[zahntech]

Dang that sucks!!...they only sold like 300 cars in 04, It really sucks when even just one gets whacked:frown:


Glad to hear you're OK..:smile:

 

[Modernceo]

To the original poster, Im glad to hear your ok.

Somehow.. I know this car will be rebuilt and will show up on Ebay later.

Can we have someone bump this thread in say.. 6 months, and lets track where this car goes.. :biggrin:

 

[KSXNSX]

glad you are ok and sorry about your loss.

Can you describe how fast you were going and more details about the crash? It seems the like the NSX held up relatively well, but I would like to know how bad it actually was just for comparison.

 

[my1stnsx]

Definitely great news that you're alright:smile: ...sorry for the loss of your car:frown: and hopefully everything will turn out better in the end!!

 

[LJSB]

We were all a little confused about the rear of the car being bent down as much as it was. My first clue that something was not right was that none of the panels on the rear of the car aligned at all.
-j

The rear didn't go left or right but straight down. Getting hit by a car crossing your path doesn't do that.

It was probably bent when being winched down on the flatbed. That would pull the rear side members straight down. Even a direct, rear hit wouldn't isolate that one dimension. Flatbed towing can be extremely damaging if the operator is heavy handed. Drivers get too excited at accidents and stop thinking "recovery". I have seen thousands of dollars of damage on a single vehicle from flatbed over winching or incorrect tie down locations.

In your case, I'm pretty sure it had no impact on the final decision to total the car. Just an observation.

Car-O-Liner Vision, and most other measuring systems have limited provided specs for the NSX chassis and many measurements are "comparative" and derived by the operator.

 

[JBLACK]

The rear didn't go left or right but straight down. Getting hit by a car crossing your path doesn't do that.

It was probably bent when being winched down on the flatbed. That would pull the rear side members straight down. Even a direct, rear hit wouldn't isolate that one dimension. Flatbed towing can be extremely damaging if the operator is heavy handed. Drivers get too excited at accidents and stop thinking "recovery".

That's probably it then because I have no clue why it was sitting that low on the backend.

Here's another part I really wanted to get a picture of but didn't have a camera at the time. When the car was put on the frame machine, only 3 of the 4 mounting points could be attached. The front passengers side plate was about an inch higher than all the other 3 mounting points. When led us to believe serious pan damage/buckling etc.

-j

 

[JBLACK]

Somehow.. I know this car will be rebuilt and will show up on Ebay later.

Can we have someone bump this thread in say.. 6 months, and lets track where this car goes.. :biggrin:

You know I thought the same thing when the car was in the body shop.
I was thinking if they fix this, I'll feel bad selling it to someone knowing the shape the car is in. So I'm glad for the total, but I feel sorry for whoever gets it after this if it's salvaged and restored. Hence the post of the VIN in the title of the post so people are aware of the cars history.

 

[JBLACK]

glad you are ok and sorry about your loss.

Can you describe how fast you were going and more details about the crash? It seems the like the NSX held up relatively well, but I would like to know how bad it actually was just for comparison.

3 lanes each direction. I was headed north bound the other person was headed south bound making a left turn.
I was in the far right lane doing approx 40mph because of a little heavier than normal traffic.
The gentleman in the other car pulled out right in front of me, we were literally making impact as I was hitting the brakes.

I'd say I hit him going as close to 40 as you can be going, it was a very solid hit straight to his axle and spun him north bound with both cars ending up in the far right lane and partially in the west bound lane of the intersection as well. So luckily we only blocked one lane of traffic on that Friday afternoon at 4pm.

Had I hit him more in the passenger section, or further in front of the wheel of the car the damage to the NSX probably would not have been as bad.
But hitting the axle is like hitting a brick wall.

Both airbags deployed, and I must have blacked out for a bit because when I realized what had happened, the airbag smoke was everywhere, and there was a guy about 10 ft from the car asking if I was okay.

It was all very instant and surreal.

 

[LJSB]

When the car was put on the frame machine, only 3 of the 4 mounting points could be attached. The front passengers side plate was about an inch higher than all the other 3 mounting points. When led us to believe serious pan damage/buckling etc.-j

To measure the car with that system you don't need to mount the car on the clamps. It is unnecessary and a waste of time to mount the car unless you are actually ready to pull/correct the chassis.
That system is designed to quickly measure the car with out tying it down.

After reading the report and being very familiar with that system, I can not account for the inability to mount it properly if you really wanted to do.
None of this really matters in the scheme of things considering the decision of the insurer.

 

[enkrypt3d]

Wow sorry to hear about your loss bro... I totaled my Lexus in November so I know how it feels.

 

[SFMarine0311]

Sorry about your loss. It was a beautiful berlina. Best of luck on your search for a new one! I hurts to see another off the road but give it a little while, this car will be restored and selling on ebay. Probably stating the title is clear.

 

[MichaelD]

So sorry to to hear about your loss! Looks like it was a beautiful car! Glad you are ok though!

I had the samething happen to me a few years ago. 16 year old kid just got his license and was on the way home from the DMV. I was going north bound and had the green light and he turned left in front of me, just like what happened to you! When I hit him at about 40, it spun him into another car that was sitting at the red light, and I kept going and hit the light pole. I know that surreal feeling you are talking about!

 

[amgnsx]

sorry to hear what happnd.

glad your taking things well.

hope to see u in another nsx soon :smile: