Reviews:
 ·Charter
| The end of an era; or how I was separated from my beloved Final stats for my car:
11 yrs, 10 months of ownership
23.02 avg mpg
11.17 avg days between fill-ups
$2.37 avg fuel cost
143,567 miles driven
cost per mile = $.24
Heading home from Portland on Sunday night, we took Hwy 14 eastbound (cause we always do). It was about 7pm, well past sunset. Dry pavement, speed limit 65, traveling a bit above that. High beams on (I did the headlight lens reconditioning and replaced both bulbs about 15k miles ago), just cooking along in almost zero traffic. I love this road because of the low traffic. I've driven this stretch many times and observed as few as twenty cars in the 96 mile trip. It's lightly traveled, just how I like it.
All of a sudden, there's a deer, making it's way across our lane of travel, heading north. Crap. Full panic brake application. Slowing, slowing, slowing, strike. Full contact in the middle/driver's side of the front. No airbag deploy, car is still running, can't see the animal, no deer shit on the window. No scraping noises from underneath, so I limp along to a wide spot. Right here, just west of the intersection:
»maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=45···t=h&z=18
Call after hours service for State Farm, they try and help us get a tow truck. By using google. o.0 I just start doing the same, as it was difficult to gauge exactly where we were and explain that to a non-local person. I guessed our location using the trip meter, but I was way off. Found a company who had a truck only about fifteen miles away. He arrived, loaded the car on the deck, and took us to the closest city (Goldendale) with a collision shop. He unloaded the car, charged us $140 (a bargain, I thought), and promptly got stuck in the ruts left in an unplowed gravel lot from last week's snow fall. Tee hee.
A friend from the next town west of our location had already started heading our way, and had agreed to take us home. That's another 125 miles. She was so nice, even if I had to fold myself into her Jeep Wrangler for over two hours. We grabbed our already arranged borrowed vehicle, and headed right back to Goldendale. Had to get my subwoofer box out of the trunk. A bunch of miscellaneous stuff, two amps, two 12" 8 ohm subs, custom box. State Farm would have given me like $150 for that. No fucking way would that fly. It was worth the five more hours in the car to get that stuff. The collision center ended up pulling the deck out the dash, and then mailed it to me for a total of $31. A bargain.
Collision center calls and wakes me up at 9 am. "So sorry sir, but the damages sustained are more expensive to repair than the vehicle is likely worth." I thought that would be the case, but it was very difficult to hear, nonetheless. Very difficult to hear. I called State Farm and let them know the details. They said I would likely hear from the total loss department by the end of the week. I did.
Molly called Friday with an offer. They had to search up to 925 miles away to get an idea of my car's value. They offered me $4090 after a $100 deductible. I accepted. Check will arrive Monday at my agent's office. I get some money, they get the title.
And that's the last I'll see of my car. The title anyway. I've got another year+ of school, and we wanted the car to last until then. Oh well.
Replacement will be another Avalon. I like the 2011 version. Limited for sure, nav or not, no preference. I found a few local, all below NADA value, which is how my CU will determine how much loan we can get. Not sure why the asking price is 10% below NADA value, but that's of no concern. I think the $29k + tax is a fair price for a ten month old luxury sedan with ~22k miles, and and intact manufacturer's warranty. Plus, Toyota reliability. See above. There's another car in the Seattle are with two tone (burgundy and black) seats, with only 2300 miles. OMFG, it's awesome. $32k is still under NADA value. Fine by me.
Not sure when I'll buy the replacement, but I do know this Ford Ranger allows the doors to be locked with the key in the ignition. WTF? Plus, 16 mpg is shite. Ick. |
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 DeltaEliteWe Dont Dial 911
join:2002-03-29
Tucker, GA
kudos:1 | Who says theres no loyalty to machinery....
Sorry about the loss...
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Protect your right to keep and arm bears! |
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Reviews:
 ·Frontier Communi..
| reply to nocannothave
Yeah, we can have deers on the road. I see quite a few around SR26, but so far I escaped without any significant damage, although one deer wasn't so lucky. I drove a slightly lifted Bronco and the bumper was exactly at the right height. The deer jumped of the shadow in the last split second before the impact, so I had no time to react. But another time, I was able to swerve around one on I-90.
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Wacky Races 2012! |
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matt5
join:2001-10-06
Lagrangeville, NY | reply to nocannothave
Maybe it is the light but the headlights look very fogged up to me...
Deer suck, don't overdrive the headlights =p
Good high beams are something like 350 feet you can see and I think 55mph on a dry road is like 230 250 feet to stop (not counting reaction time) at 70 your likely over driving your headlights. (numbers are from memory)
At least it looks like you got good cash for it and not lowballed... |
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 BonezXBasement DwellerPremium
join:2004-04-13
Canada | reply to aurgathor
said by aurgathor:Yeah, we can have deers on the road. I see quite a few around SR26, but so far I escaped without any significant damage, although one deer wasn't so lucky. I drove a slightly lifted Bronco and the bumper was exactly at the right height. The deer jumped of the shadow in the last split second before the impact, so I had no time to react. But another time, I was able to swerve around one on I-90.
i passed one in a back twisty one night mid corner, i was close enough that i could have headbutted it if my window was down.
friend of mine sent one cartwheeling into a rather deep wide ditch. |
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| reply to nocannothave
I've done three deer and ALL were in broad daylight. Headlights have NOTHING to do with it. I've been driving over 50 years and two of the deer were exactly a year apart (to the day), 20+ years ago. |
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| reply to matt5
said by matt5:Maybe it is the light but the headlights look very fogged up to me...
Deer suck, don't overdrive the headlights =p
Good high beams are something like 350 feet you can see and I think 55mph on a dry road is like 230 250 feet to stop (not counting reaction time) at 70 your likely over driving your headlights. (numbers are from memory)
At least it looks like you got good cash for it and not lowballed...
The accident didn't have anything to do with the headlights as Waterbug says. At best it was bad breaks. Anyone who's been in a deer acident knows there's not a $%#^ thing you could have done differently to avoid it. |
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 nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:5
·Charter
 ·voip.ms
| reply to nocannothave
I hate deer. They aren't the smartest animal to begin with, but when it comes to roads, it seems like they have no sense whatsoever. For such a skittish and fleet animal with good hearing, you'd think roadstrikes would be minimal.
Did you ever find the stupid SOB or did it run off to die?
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...because I care. |
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Reviews:
·Charter
| said by nunya:Did you ever find the stupid SOB or did it run off to die?
I saw it on the way to Goldendale, from the passenger seat of the flatbed tow truck. All bloody and messy across the two travel lanes from where it ran into me. |
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 sapoCruising Down Memory LanePremium
join:2002-09-16
Sacramento, CA
kudos:1 | reply to nocannothave
More than 4 grand to repair that? Talk about a rip off body shop. Some Russian will buy that from auction and fix it with a couple hundred worth of parts. |
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matt5
join:2001-10-06
Lagrangeville, NY | reply to 05451874
Ya I know, cause stopping does not = seeing the object 
From the speed and description it sounds like overdriving headlights.
Anyone who has MISSED a deer knows that you CAN do something about it.
While not something the OP could do, I know common areas here deer cross, I'll be doing 20mph at night in those bottlenecks...
Not to mention people look for the deer, you do not look for the deer, you look for the reflection of the eyes... if you see the whole deer at even 55mph your boned. I been in way too many cars when people BLOW past deer on the side of the road and I say something to the tune of "way to slow down for that deer" and I get back "what deer?" like hello...
As for repair costs... From what I see we need a new hood (+ paint) rad support, condenser, rad, like headlights, repair of AC system after replacing the condenser... maybe headlights... maybe a marker light...
+ labor.
Good amount, then if the car is worth 4000 your talking totaled at 80% or what... 3200 or so... I can see 3200 of damage... |
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| reply to nocannothave
»news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/te···122.html
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Wacky Races 2012! |
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| reply to matt5
said by matt5:Anyone who has MISSED a deer knows that you CAN do something about it.
While not something the OP could do, I know common areas here deer cross, I'll be doing 20mph at night in those bottlenecks... You can't really do much about it. It's at least 75-80% luck on how stuff plays out. You could slow down and do a few other things to decrease your chances but the decrease is minimal. The damage caused would be the on only real difference. At 60 mph you might die while 20 mph you have minimal damage. I'm sure we all wish there was a way to see a deer laying down in the bush on the side of the road that gets spooked when you get close and jumps out suddenly. No matter what speed or how good your lights are you're going you hit it.
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"Anyway I am going to need to go with, never argue with an idiot as they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." - matt5 |
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| I forget where I got these pics from. Possibly from this site.
In an adjacent town, a car hit a deer and propelled it into oncoming traffic and through another car's windshield, killing the driver. So you can be killed by a deer even if you're not the one who hit it. |
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| reply to nocannothave
Around here, a lot of roads have reflectors along the side of the road that scatters light off to the side and helps keep the deer away. They seem to be effective.
I was going to work on I-78 recently, when I saw a dead deer in the middle of the road. It looked fresh and wasn't chewed up like you'd expect for a deer in the middle of the travel lanes. A half mile down the road, there was a Cadillac with the front bashed in, limping along the shoulder of the highway. |
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