Said Goodbye Today

Two months ago, my husband, one year old, and I were headed to the somernights cruise in Somerset, Ky. We were stopped at a redlight when a man in a jimmy rear-ended us and shoved us into the truck infront of us. No one was seriously hurt. The guy claimed he was running 35... Today the insurance guy called and said for us to go clean it out and decide if we want to keep it or not. It had been sitting in their lot full of water for two months... Everything was ruined. The $3000 storage bill was what decided the wagons fate for us. So I said goodbye to my dear Betty White, and search for her replacement.




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There is another white Fairmont wagon up here in Washington State, and all the guy wants for it is a running farm tractor! I'll see if I can find it. But that poor car is done for, and it did the one job that it had built into it--saving your family's life! So I also say goodbye to Betty White.

 

Very sad that your Fairmont wagon was hit, and we all here are most glad that you, your husband and youngun' were all OK.

What I want to know is why it took the insurance company TWO MONTHS to figure out the vehicle was a total loss? Your claim for the vehicle value should have been settled in 10 days, tops.

Most states have written a set of 'Fair Claims Settlement Practices' (like prompt settlement offers and payments) that insurance companies have to not violate. Sounds like there may be some problems there.

 

sorry about your wagon glad to see you walked away

 

Glad you explained what happened. The old wagon did a good job protecting your family.
Sad that it had to go but it's doubtful much was left even as a parts car. Waiting that long seems strange. As for a 35 MPH collision, I'm no expert. but that didn't happen at 35 MPH!

Hope your user name is just a coincidence and not a habit.

 

Glad all 3 of you are OK.... sad about the wagon BUT unlike the 3 of you, the wagon can be replaced.

I'm also on the fence with KK,, why did it take insurance so long?

 

Glad to know everyone is OK after that!
Looks like front bumper wasn't involved so flimsy sheetmetal took very little force to crumple in front like it was designed to do. The rear looks to have taken a lot of force to push the bumper down and out of the way for the sheetmetal to get crunched like that. 35mph actually does a lot of damage to just sheetmetal when the frame is not involved. My 67 Barracuda fastback got rearended at a stop light in left turn lane when a lady gunned her Honda CRV from a stop behind me while looking at her phone and seeing traffic in the regular lane start moving. She climbed the back bumper and caved in the trunklid and rear panel enough to start crumpling the quarter panel next to the big back window. My car was totaled from less than 15 mph impact, probably about 10mph! Her CRV bent/broke the front light and a little of the front bumper around it, frame rail wins against sheetmetal every time. I did notice the wiper knob had not stayed on its post in the dash, it was laying in the front between the bucket seats. I got to see the whole thing happening while looking in the rear view mirror and couldn't do a thing but hold on. The insurance company tried to say it was a suspicious accident because the damage was so different but the guy working in the gas station at that corner, where I had just filled up an air tank, was watching after having complimented me on the car.

 

Sorry to see you lost your wagon. I am very glad to hear no one was hurt. I think you should PM Marshall (Krash Kadillak) about possible further communications with your insurance company. He has a wealth of knowledge in this area and is a great asset to our community.

 

It must be a long fence as I also agree with KK and Tedy and we hope you find your new ride soon from Downunder

 

Thats beyond the crumple zone but held up well for an older car glad it did it's job and protected you did you get a rental car for that long?

 

Are you people looking at the same pictures I am??? This car didn't save this family's lives. They survived in spite of it. I take it no one was in the area behind the third seat because they would either have been killed or seriously injured the way the rear-end collapsed like that.

I think this whole episode points up the inherent lack of safety in a car 35 years old compared to one built today, and we don't know anything about this car's condition underneath. In her first post in another thread, the OP claimed the car had 480,000 miles on it. We debated whether that was really true or not, but whether it was 480,000 or 180,000, after that many miles, it could have been fairly rusty underneath with not much structural integrity left.

 

We don't know the condition of the chassis or other parts of the wagon before the accident. However I've seen many late model cars that were supposedly in similar low speed crashes where the front sideways mounted engine was in the front seat where the driver and passenger were.
In this case that did not happen so they were lucky as far as that goes. Also I agree that anyone in the far back seat would have suffered in this crash. This would be true in many of today's plastic bumpered vehicles also.
Each accident is different. A 15MPH crash can kill or disable someone. A 100 MPH crash may leave the passenters cut and bruised.
Most of us think that this wagon did help save the passengers from serious injury. The actual mileage on it has nothing to do with the accident. The wagon was well cared for and maintained. After all, they were headed to a car show.
I still tend to think it was hit much faster than 35MPH.
Yet I destroyed the plastic front bumper and supporting structure on my new 2004 Dodge truck hitting a small stump at just a few MPH.

 

I agree with most of what you said, but I disagree with this. In reality, we know very little about the car's condition. The fact that they were headed to a car show means nothing as cars of all condition levels attend them.

All we know for sure is that the OP bought the car, according to her first post in her introductory thread, in April 2014. So we know nothing about the car for the first 34 years of its 35 years of existence. As I pointed out earlier, she claimed in that first post that the car had 480,000 miles on it, which had most of us scratching our heads. But whether it was 480,000 or something else, it was likely a high-mileage car. That suggests all kinds of (mostly negative) possibilities with regard to its overall mechanical and structural condition regardless of how well it looked cosmetically.

I'm not saying it wasn't a perfectly good car and that another car would have survived any better. What I AM saying is that we should not be using what happened here to extol the safety virtues of a 35-year-old, multi-hundred thousand mile car.

What happens to plastic bumpers on today's cars is not the issue. What happens to the passengers INSIDE the car is what matters. If the bumper gets crumpled while the passengers are protected, that's what's supposed to happen. With front and side airbags and a host of additional safety features on today's cars, no car of 35 years ago can hold a candle to them.

We love these old station wagons and we drive them, but we should not pretend that 40 and 50 year old vehicles are as safe as today's cars. For the most part, they are safe enough, but they are not as safe.

 

When they totalled my wagon I got $1200 for it and they let me keep it for parts.
But it wasn't nearly as bad as this.

 

I suppose we should look at these photos and late model wrecks and realize everyone driving is at risk at all times.
No matter what we drive, how experienced, how careful, we can not prevent an accident from happening. How well we survive depends on many things. Seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, and all of the modern improvements no doubt help. Also well built old cars may or may not help.
Luck plays a big part and I hesitate to add what many say "someone was watching out for us."

I felt much safer in my 2004 Dodge truck with plastic front bumper than I do in my Impala with much the same bumper and more air bags. And it may be wishful thinking, I feel safer in my 1955 Chevy station wagon than either.
Hopefully I will never find out.