Wrecked! - CEG Archives

So, I wrecked my Contour.

I was taking a stupid detour and got on the wrong freeway ramp. When I realized that, I still had time to get off the immediate exit (stupid combo ramps) well my brakes locked and I slid right into the first post of a guard rail. I was probably going 30 MPH or around that when I hit the post. The post did not budge, at all. I was not in pain so I shut off the engine and jumped out (later I realized this was a dumb move) and ran circles around the car looking at the damage. It doesn't look bad, but similar looking damage on my mom's van was totalled as far as the insurance company was concerned.

My brother picked me up and took me home. It occured to me that I probably had about 8 close calls with being nailed by traffic while checking out my car.

Rather than think about that, though, I was wondering why my airbags didn't go off. I was told I was lucky, though, because it costs mucho dinero to get airbags reset or something.

Anyways, now I am badly bruised and my neck hurts like a mofo, and the collision shop wants $7k to fix it. Less than $2k is labor, I find it hard to believe the parts really cost $5k. On the itemised list they show the bumper cover (plastic!) costing $685!

I only paid $3k for the car in the first place... (Note: I don't have collision coverage for my insurance, so it's all out of my pocket at this point)

So I am wondering, do any of you know any reputable collision shops in southern California, Orange County area, that won't charge me an arm and a leg? Or am I better off buying another car?

And now the car itself:
1999 Contour SE
2.5L V6
25k miles or so

Here are some lousy pictures:

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Buy another car. BTW, how did you manage to get one for $3K (99 V6 with 25k miles)?

Inspect for frame damage. If it is, buy a new car, if not the parts come by dirt cheap at a junk yard.

Originally posted by Tony2005:
Buy another car. BTW, how did you manage to get one for $3K (99 V6 with 25k miles)?

I got it at an auction. It was owned by a city and it had 16k miles when I got it. I spent 2 hours scraping the sticker residue off the back windows from the "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY" stickers and the city logos. It's cool, though, when the back windows fog up you can still see the for official use letters.

It could be decieving, but it does not look to bad to me...If your handy at doing the work yourself. The bumper cover will straighten out with some heat and maybe a new backing bar ect. Big question is the front end...the engine cradle and its alignment ect. Alot of parts can be had used pretty cheap from a bone yard...but yeh pricing it for new parts would easily run the bill up, and thats why its where its at. Being its low mileage, and if its been taken care of ...you do have the option of fixing it up yourself with used parts. I would have it looked at closely by a front end shop even if it cost you an inspection fee. If all else fails...you could part it out for parts and maybe make a few bucks. Im sure someone would take the motor and other parts..ect.

Man, I really liked that car. Only had it for 10 months!

A friend of mine knows the owner of an auto shop (not sure if its a body shop or what) and he owes my friend some favors, so supposedly I can get a better deal there. I will check that out. It looks like the place I got the estimate from tacked on a buttload of unnecessary crap. They want to replace just about anything body-related on the front half of the car. I am 99% positive that there is no damage beyond on the front fenders, though I could be wrong. At least the driver's side is fine, including the fender. $50 each for the door guard strips....WTF! They are in perfect condition... I want my old busted 1988 Ranger back.

maybe consider SVT plastics?

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
maybe consider SVT plastics?

But with that he would have to get them painted. Because they never made a white one right?

Just go get an SVT if you love the tour so much or go parts hunting and fix her up.

Sucks, low mileage for a 7 year old car, I'd fix it up, that is if the underbody isn't screwed up to hell. Good luck. Also that ain't no 7K to fix more like 4-5K maybe(?)
I'd say 3K without labor. Who ever you are goin for, for an estimate is ripping you off dude.

Originally posted by Mystique97:
Sucks, low mileage for a 7 year old car, I'd fix it up, that is if the underbody isn't screwed up to hell. Good luck. Also that ain't no 7K to fix more like 4-5K maybe(?)
I'd say 3K without labor. Who ever you are goin for, for an estimate is ripping you off dude.

Like I said I'm going to call up this guy that owes my friend some favors and see how much he will charge. This estimate has a lot of cosmetic stuff that doesn't need to be done as far as I can see. Mostly the door stuff, I didn't take a close look, but I can't see how they would need like $200 per door to be "fixed" (not replaced). And that's parts, not labor. Looks like a nice markup on parts at this place.

I was checking out Autotrader and it looks like if I could haggle the price down a tiny bit I could buy 2 SVT contours for the price of fixing my SE. My SE is not nearly as loaded as the 2 SVTs I looked at online. I could probably sell my car for parts and get an SVT. Although I don't know if I can fund that beyond what my car/parts sell for. I might just buy a '90 4runner from a friend for $500 (it's actually in great condition, he wants to be rid of it - probably really worth $2000).

Does the car still run? Take some pictures with the hood up if you can.

Did the body shop mention anything about frame damage?

I'm suprised the airbags didn't go off with that damage.

Sorry about your car, but at least you had it for 10 months before it got smashed.

My Dad caused 4000+ dollars of damage to my 4 month old 2005 Corolla LE last week. I custom ordered my car with almost every option, waited 87 days for it. When it came in, it had the wrong wheels, I then had to wait another 7 days to get the correct wheels. The car had less than 3k on it. Now it needs a new bumper, hood, hood hinges, hood latch, grille, headlamps, radiator, radiator support, radiator shroud, ac condenser, cooling fan, temperature sensors for the auto dimming mirror and interior temp display. All this needs to be painted of course. I might also need a new wheel on the driver's side. I'm thinking that it will need some suspension work as well.

I think the estimate the body shop gave is too low. If it needs any suspension work, a new wheel, and those new sensors, or if there is any frame damage, the car will easily cost 5k or more to fix, which is close to totaling the car.

I don't know what I'll get if the damage is more than they originally thought and they total the car. I'm really hoping if it isn't totaled that it will still work correctly. If it comes back as anything less than the rattle free, near perfect Toyota it was, it'll be gone. I didn't buy a brand new car with a warranty to put up with problems.

yikes, sound like u both have some major problems.
hope it never happens to me!

Originally posted by red99sesport:

My Dad caused 4000+ dollars of damage to my 4 month old 2005 Corolla LE last week.... Now it needs a new bumper, hood, hood hinges, hood latch, grille, headlamps, radiator, radiator support, radiator shroud, ac condenser, cooling fan, temperature sensors for the auto dimming mirror and interior temp display....

Whoa, your dad must be built pretty solid, to cause that much damage. That'll teach you to run over him.

lmao, ha ha ha!!!!

Originally posted by pangloss:

Originally posted by red99sesport:

My Dad caused 4000+ dollars of damage to my 4 month old 2005 Corolla LE last week.... Now it needs a new bumper, hood, hood hinges, hood latch, grille, headlamps, radiator, radiator support, radiator shroud, ac condenser, cooling fan, temperature sensors for the auto dimming mirror and interior temp display....

Whoa, your dad must be built pretty solid, to cause that much damage. That'll teach you to run over him.

That's pretty funny I'll have to admit.

It's not so funny when it's your car that is sitting on a lot somewhere waiting to be fixed or totaled. Especially when it's a brand new car that you took the time to custom order and then waited over 3 months for, and have only had for 4 months.

I'm not really mad or anything, I just want to know if the car is totaled so I can look for something else. If it's not totaled, I want to have the car fixed so I can see if I want to keep it.

Yikes, i was lucky, only broke the lower righthand radiator mounting bracket when i crashed my contour couple weeks ago... (taking a turn to fast + hitting the gas caused a bit of traction loss heh ending up fishtailing and running off the right side of the road onto an embankment... and under a fence...)

I replaced the radiator by following Ray's guide! (which was pretty cool) Though i did have to d/c the transmission coolant lines to teflon wrap them... forgot the first time... ah good times

Welcome.

Tomorrow during my lunch break I'm going to head to the shop and take some better pictures of my car and talk to some other shops. I also plan to call up Ford and see how badly these guys are overcharging for parts.

I am preparing to just part out my Contour, though. To be honest I am more interested in driving a 15 year old 4x4 than my 7 year old sedan. Not sure why, but I am drawn to older trucks/SUVs... Ahh I miss my '88 Ranger.

I'll likely keep the lights and other useful parts that I can put on my sister's Contour that is in need of some repairs. Is it difficult/costly to transfer my v6 to replace her v4? I believe my engine is not damaged anyway.

First hand good thing you werent hurt more than you were. Second, if you like the car I would keep it and replace the parts myself with junkyard parts. Then I would paint the car myself....flat black and drive it like that for a while until i saved some cash to get a real paint job. Or buy an SVT like stated above. The best contour you can get is an SVT. Imagin if you loved your car, how would an SVT sound!!!

Oh if you do get rid of it. PM about your head lights!

Alright I went over there and got some more pictures and talked to the guy a bit. The parts alone for minimum repair, according to him, is just under $5k, and he was able to get the labor down to $30/unit (unit=hour?) with something like 54 labor units. I've yet to take it to another shop, but I'm working on that. The tabs on the right headlight unit are snapped off, so it's pretty much useless. The left headlight looks fine, though. Nothing beyond the front fenders is damaged. Radiator is smashed to bits I assume, and something related to the A/C is done for according to the guy who wrote up my estimate. They have not even looked for frame damage, since as you can see they haven't torn into it to look deeper. There could be $1000+ more in repairs under all that.

Sorry for the picture quality, but I only had about 1 foot of room on any side of the car to stand with my camera. Here are the new pictures (or view here):

Click for bigger

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Still 5K for parts? No way. If this guy is trying to get new parts, do not let him, cuz that just racks up the cost. Plus is your insurance handling this? If so, they will not let him use new parts they will tell him to get junkyard parts, cheaper that way saves the insurance company money. I'd tell this guy to stick it and go else where. Good luck man.