Market Value - 2003 Miata

How on earth did you survive!!!!!!!! I take it you're in the US and that you were on the left-hand side of the car? By the looks of the picture that's where the truck ploughed into you.

I don't have any info for you I'm afraid since I'm in the UK, but thank goodness you're alive. Full marks for the design of the car, I'd say.

Eric

Carol,

Sorry to hear. Glad you are alright. Anyway, just run an advanced search on '03 Miatas at Cars.com, search all areas. I found 93 listings. Also check autotrader.com.

Good luck!

You might want to check both Kelley Blue Book

I second Craigs post script, wish we could effectively do it!

"Don't ban high-performance vehicles, ban low-performance drivers!"

Carol, you must be a strong woman, hang in there and God bless you. Is there any way we can help you? Fund raiseing for medical costs?

Chris

That's what I thought! This little car did everything it could to protect me - air bags went off - front of car crumpled into a mess and absorbed so much energy!! BUT my husband keeps talking about when I get ready to buy a car that I'll be buying a Hummer. Curses!!! How to explain to someone who loves you that the Miata did a great job of keeping my alive?

Thanks Dave I'll try them both - I appreciate the suggestions!

Craig & Chris - thanks for the suggestions - ESPECIALLY the Ban Low Performance drivers part! Ha ha!! I am very lucky not only that I lived but that I have medical insurance and that the rat bastard had car insurance - strangely enough money is not my problem - it's just all about broken bones healing. Talk to everyone you know about how important it is to STOP at red lights!

Extremely glad you survived to tell us about it. I drive my Miata like I rode my motorcycles--assuming no one else is competent or paying attention.

Kelly Blue Book.

JJ

Hi Carol --

Saw your pictures. I also got hit in the door on Sunday (but not with the jaw dropping intensity of yours) yet when the EMTs arrived and saw the car, they all assumed I had a broken neck, etc. All I have is a very sore shoulder and a bruised leg so tell your husband that when our Miatas give their all to save us, they give their lives.

Mine was a black top Emerald 2000, built on the first day of the new Millennium and I am going to miss her like hell. I haven't seen her yet

-- what was left was towed and I'm still not quite up to renting a car and seeing her totaled like that -- but to watch someone's front grill come at you and plunge into the driver's side and then to have the window and air bags explode at the same time...that's a sad club.

I'm still shedding bits of the safety glass.

Also tell hubby that SUVs hit in the side tend to roll, and you might have been messed up even more. ===First Nora, then Carol, and now me -- maybe people don't want Miatas to be chick cars...:(

theresa

PS to the group: Thanks aga>

Hi Carol:

I started reading this NG as I have been thinking about a different car now that my '90 Honda has started having so many mechanical issues all in less than a year. I am giving the Miata a thought and saw your story (and pix). Glad you're OK, what a mess to the car! The thing I can't understand is how it has become so commonplace to blatantly and dangerously run red lights these days, so many people are jumping on that bandwagon. It used to be rare to see it, and even then it was usually close to legal, now I see cars 2 or more car lengths behind the line when the light is full red go speeding through the intersections, often when cross traffic has actually started moving. What the F are these people thinking???? I try to drive with that in mind; of course last year I had kind of the opposite happen. It was pouring rain, much water on the road, a small intersection with only one lane of traffic moving from west to east, I'm in a north to south lane when the car in front of me suddenly stops when the light went yellow. They easily could have made it without being a fraction beyond the law. Instead I have to slam on my brakes and I end up hydroplaning into their left rear. Fortunately for me I was in my truck which sustained no damage, but the left rear of the small Toyota sedan was crushed. Naturally I'm deemed at fault no matter what and my insurance ain't getting any cheaper on account of that! If that car had run even a full red light I would have been better off! Well, best of luck to you, do recover, and if you go shopping for another car I hope you find one you like just as much....

Interesting that this is considered lucky (the insurance part). Isn't it obligatory in the US to have car insurance, in particular third-party damage and medical insurance? Here in the UK it's illegal to drive a car without insurance that covers at least damage to any other vehicles you might cause plus medical cover/death cover etc. Isn't it the same in the US?

Eric

Hear hear - me too. One thing my driving instructor told me when I was 17 was to assume that someone out there is going to make a mistake. While you can't stop them from making one, you have influence over the outcome of their mistake - i.e. by the way you react you can stop an accident from happening, even if it would have been someone else's fault. That piece of advice has stood me in good stead.

Then a year ago I trained to ride a motorbike and that really helped re-sharpen my road awareness. Because you're particularly vulnerable on a bike it really isn't a matter of "it was their fault", but of "I'm NOT going to have an accident despite the many morons on the road, because any accident is likely to rip my head off". I'm sure that's made me a better car-driver again as well.

Eric

On the other hand, in Tallahassee people nowadays seem to be more conservative with red lights. I do not know why; if the police is enforcing it, I have not seen them do it.

Anyway, I am glad Carol is alive and still wants a Miata. :)

Leon

Now what was I thinking? They announce daily red-light patrol locations on radio...

Leon

Laws vary among states. Here in California, liability insurance is required by law, but it's estimated that 1 in 4 drivers don't have any auto insurance. In the past 5 years, I've been in one accident and my wife in another. Both rear ended by someone without insurance. Both accidents were paid by our "uninsured" motorist coverage insurance--and odd insurance to have in a place where it's illegal to drive without auto insurance.

Theresa - sympathies for your Miata and your pains - I've lost Honda's to accidents but I've never MISSED a car the way I miss my Miata. You made me laugh though - they were still picking glass out of me 5 days after the wreck! I'm so glad I have no memory of the impact - horrible thing to see coming at you.

The way you describe traffic it sounds like you're in Houston. I see 2-6 people run reds EVERY DAY here. I never heard about when it became optional.

In Texas it is illegal to drive without liability insurance but then, it's illegal to run red lights, too. Lots of people here do both!!

"Carol" wrote in news:Fl00d.5453$ snipped-for-privacy@fe1.texas.rr.com:

I'll second the "glad to have no memory" bit! I got broadsided some years ago while driving an old Escort. The car was totalled. Impact was pretty much right on the drivers side door. I was in the hospital for a week.

I was actually coherant immediately afterward, giving my name and other info to an off-duty paramedic who arrived on the scene almost immediately. He was able to get ahold of my dad (also a paramedic at the time) who then came and rode w/ me in the ambulance to the hospital & was talking to me on the way. But I have no recollection of any of it.. I have a gap of a day or two in my memory from that that I hope I NEVER get back. I don't know if I saw the car that hit me or not.. all I remember is driving into the intersection.

-Scott