second gen legacy did fine being rear ended

My 98 legacy (non outback model) got rear ended this morning. I'm fine. The car is more fine than I thought it would be before I looked at it. The other driver was fine, His car is not fine. Fluids leaking out all over the place, front bumper, frame support, both fenders, both headlights, very crumpled hood. It had been an 05 or so Chrysler Sebring.

The subaru on the other hand suffered much less visible damage. I'm sure the crash structure under the bumper cover is mangled, and the cover itself is pretty crumpled and cut up. The rear hatch is bent a little at the bottom, but it still opens and closes. So I'm thinking it didn't do too much to the unibody. The muffler was bent downward and sitting at a 30=B0 or so angle. I had to bend it back up with a strong heave in order to avoid dragging it, so now the exhaust leaks. But it still drives! I'm impressed by how much abuse it took without damaging the passenger compartment. Watching him skid at me in the rear view mirro, I'd guesstimate he was doing about 30 when he hit me. Maybe slower, but had to be over 20. It was enough to knock my cell phone charger out of the outlet, and pop the ashtray all the way open and leave coins strewn about the front seats.

Go subaru!

Reply to
weelliott
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Glad to hear everyone is OK.

Hope your car can be repaired satisfactorily.

I had a one car accident on ice and had to take the car back 6 times before things (fingers crossed) got squared away.

Reply to
1 Lucky Texan

That is a weird feeling watching that in the mirror. I had the same thing happen in my older Accord. Guy in a pickup saw me stopped and slammed on his brakes. Luckily because he hit the brakes so hard the pick up nose dived so the bumpers met when he hit. Otherwise I'd guess that his license plate would have been my backseat headrest.

Glad no one was hurt

Reply to
John

Good to hear. I did some damage to the front-left of my 2008 Outback last winter in the hinterlands of West Virginia after an ice storm. I hit a roadside post after a skid and bashed in the bulgy plastic parts, destroyed a tire and ever-so-slightly bent a wheel rim. Of course I had to replace all four tires and obtaining them in that area was an epic quest involving driving 100 miles on a donut spare. The expense was painful (I didn't report this to my insurance, stupid me) but I was going to need to do it anyway this summer so that it was probably a wash.

That left me with the plastic bits which were bashed in so badly that the formerly very convex parts were now very concave. It was so bad that the (unbroken and working!) fog light was now pointed straight down at the pavement. I eventually fixed the majority of the problem by myself with, of all things, a heat gun which I had around for stripping paint. Gentle applications of heat to the outside along with gentle pushing from the inside with a gloved hand did the job leaving me with just scuffed clearcoat which I'm going to try to rub out. The body repair cost me $20 for replacement snap connectors, a lot of lying on the concrete trying to figure out how the fender liner and pan parts needed to go back in, and a week-long stiff neck brought on by the lying. Oh, and months of angst about my stupidity in allowing it to happen, failure to report it to my insurance, and constant thought about how the repair might be completed by an inept mechanic (me).

Reply to
John McGaw

Imho the donuts must be banished on awd cars. Doesn't 100 miles exceed the 50miles per donut max subaru specifies the owners manual?

Am I correct in my assumption that you skid on "all seasons" and have replaced them with another set of all seasons?

Reply to
AD

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I don't have the information right here but I believe that the limit on the donuts is speed, not distance. In any case, given the boondocks location I was in there was no way I could obtain the proper size tires any closer. As for the replacements, the original tires were the OEMs and I can't even recall what they were. The replacements are all-season but have more aggressive tread than the others. In any case there is no way that I will be switching to winter and summer sets given my location. What I will do is be careful no to do stupid things like driving on untended back roads in the mountains. If that ever becomes a necessity then I'll reconsider winter tires (and a full-sized spare even if it takes up a lot of cargo space).

Reply to
John McGaw

My step-daughter was rear ended while stopped at a traffic signal in her 97 Legacy sedan by an 18 wheeler about 3 years ago. It pushed her car into a step van stopped in front of her. The rear of her car was crumpled by about

60% and the front end about half that. The cabin was untouched and she was unhurt (except for some minor whiplash). It certainly saved her life. Tough little cars.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

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