How tough are these cars?

[GJPinAU]

(For the Sydney siders) While driving around the roundabout at the northern end of the F3 I got "T" boned by a bloody Commodore wagon.
This is probably one of the busiest roundabouts in NSW and the hit had spun me so I was facing the middle.

(It was amazing, all the other cars stopped and no traffic entered when this happened)

This guy had come through on the inside lane and was going straight through, while I was doing the right turn from the outer lane.
I composed myself and basically did a "U" turn and went onto the northern exit road where luckily he had stopped.
When I got out of my car I was expecting to see the rear end caved in and to my amazement there was a bit of white paint on the bumper.
When we looked at his car he had black rubber marks on his front bumper and a couple of trim pieces missing.
He had obviously only hit my wheel/tyre and scraped the bumper (Lucky!)

Took the car to Bee Ems to get checked out yesterday and there is no damage to the suspension or the wheel.

I'll get the wheel alignment checked this week just to be sure.

[mattyb]

thats a prick of a roundabout, time for some lights there i believe. good to hear ur OK mate! If u need anything remember Paul has a spare car these days unfortunately.

[Zeuk in Oz]

Lucky it wasn't worse, Greg.

Son # 3 had a little bump at a toll booth a month ago in my ix - slight dent to front number plate on our car - $2,400 worth to the Lancer he just barely bumped into. :(

[GJPinAU]

Has anyone heard from Paul or Tony?

I haven't seen any posting from either for a while.

[Nick.Hay]

Glad to hear there is no nasty damage to the 540i ;)

I'd imagine that the suspension in these wouldn't be that resilient to a bump on the wheel... All those arms and linkages.

[LunatiC]

Last accident I had, some P-plater in a Hyundai ran into the back of me because, get this, she got distracted by the electrical spark that trams sometimes emitt on the tram lines next to my lane.

Damage on my car: scuff marks and a small 1 inch scratch on my bootlid.
Damage on her car: front lights smashed in, bumper's gone, hood crumpled.

Us E34 owners drive tanks.

[BigKriss]

Some pictures please Greg.

[GJPinAU]

Some pictures please Greg.
Nothing to see Kristian.
The paint marks polished out of the bumper and the wheel.

Besides the car is filthy at the moment.:p

[GJPinAU]

The guy that hit me said he didn't realise you could turn right from the outer lane (but he was in the inner) and that he had just flew in from Hawaii and was on his way home to Ballina (Eeek!) so he should have been turning right as well.

[repenttokyo]

well, i had someone back into me with a toyota avalon and while it only left a small scratch on his car, it mangled my front fender pretty bad. So your mileage may vary when it comes to toughness.

[GJPinAU]

Oops!
How wrong can you be - something has failed on that side and the wheel is scraping the inside of the guard.

DAMN!

[Morgenster]

Yeah, I got cut off by a ford focus last thursday and hit him straight on in the side. At first glance there's hardly any damage (scuffs on bumper and dent in right front fender) but upon more severe inspection it turns out my windshield cracked in the lower right corner as well and I'm getting slight clunks in the left side front suspension upon braking. insurance inspection is tomorrow.

The damage on the ford was considerably worse though and with the loud bang the cars made and the fact that he spun 180 from the hit I'd have expected worse on my side.

So all in all our cars are pretty sturdy, but not invincible. Too bad I was planning on selling it soon since I'm getting a company car. Hope insurance pays out OK

[Ross]

I recently bought a wrecked E34 to part out. The PO claims to have been doing 50ish(mph) when an ice patch spun him(blaming rear wheel drive not the bald rear tires) head on into a concrete dividing wall.
Everything was pushed back to a plane barely ahead the leading edge of the front tires. The car took a big enough hit to break the water pump off the engine and put a crack into the timing case cover. Everything forward of the engine was completely obliterated, the forward foot or so of the hood had a 90* kink in it and was absolutely flattened perpendicular to the road from the barrier.
On disassembly I discovered evidence of a previous front crash and subsequent shoddy repair with many loose or entirely missing fasteners.
In spite of all this the driver walked away unharmed.