Sideswiped

[JoeS]

I had let a houseguest drive my original Mitsi, and unfortunately he got sideswiped by a new MBZ SUV while driving in his own lane. Door still works fine (I haven't tried the window) and there's just a small ding on the front door. Note the tire marks. (sigh) .

 

[Don]

Fortunately that looks to be repairable

Don

 

[mdbuilder]

oops! Might be able to push most of that back out if you pull the door card?

 

[PV1]

Sorry it happened, but it looks almost completely fixable. The door can be popped back out, and most of the marks buffed out. The SUV didn't hit the C pillar, so there's no permanent damage to Mitsi. May need to replace the door to be completely rid of dents, but a door can easily be bolted on (if one can be found).

 

[jray3]

Don't ya hate it when ostentatious vehicles throw their weight around? Is this going to insurance, or is there 'other valuable consideration' from the bumper-car driver?

 

[ed5000]

A new MBZ SUV? What happened to their active braking control? :shock:

 

[PV1]

A new MBZ SUV? What happened to their active braking control? :shock:

Yeah. I thought they were supposed to have auto braking and lane keep assist. Did the houseguest get the SUV's insurance info?

 

[Benjamin Nead]

OUCH! . . . so sorry to see this. But, yeah, it could have been worse.

Autonomous driving on the SUV? Ha! That didn't prevent the Tesla with Autopilot from not being able to distinguish a white-painted 18-wheeler from the clear blue sky behind it, before the fatal accident that killed the Tesla driver.

We're not going to have self-driving cars that are truly ready for the prime time for another decade or so . . . maybe never, if all possible driving circumstance are accounted for. Computers will catch mistakes that humans will miss. But all computers are still built and programmed by humans.

 

[JoeS]

Thanks for all your responses. The accident took place on a city street.

Both insurance companies are still factfinding (there were no witnesses) and I won't worry about fixing it until after the dust has settled. siai47 already provided me with a lead for a replacement door. For now, I'm not too concerned as the door is fully sealed and the car is otherwise unscathed.

Regarding autonomous cars: I'd be willing to bet the present Google car would pass a driving test with flying colors! With Tesla saying they have over 130,000,000 miles already racked up using AutoPilot and Google having many years of everyday driving data on 30 cars (that I see daily), between the two of them there's a wealth or real-world data to digest. Wish they would band together.

Every Tesla owner with AP that I know would not part with it for the world and they all credit AP with helping avoid fender-benders. I've put on about 500 miles on others' Teslas with AP, and would have loved it on mine but I wasn't willing to shell out the $$$. Just have to understand AP's present limitations and, judging by some of the stupid YouTube AP videos, maybe an IQ test for the driver should be a prerequisite.

Hmmm, I wonder if Tesla's AP had been implemented in the i-MiEV, if this accident might have been mitigated? Basically, it was a very shallow left-hand curve in the road that the lady failed to negotiate and simply drifted into the right lane and sideswiped him. The SUV came from the left rear of the i-MiEV, so I don't know if Autopilot could do anything about that, and the sideswipe caught my guy completely by surprise even though he was well aware of the SUV's presence in that quadrant.

 

[JoeS]

A couple of months later and my disdain for insurance companies is reinforced. No witnesses and not even an attempt at compromise between 'he-said' 'she-said' - my own insurance company has no motivation as I now have liability-only coverage. The repair estimate is >$2000. Some body shops won't touch it because 'it's an electric car'. A new empty (stripped) door from Mitsu is $650. I'm still weighing my options for pursuing this.

In the meantime I decided to fix it myself and made a quick trip down to Southern California to visit friends and managed to obtain a complete replacement door (reduced to $400 as I was personally picking it up).

If anyone is interested in spare parts, there's a white SE being parted out at http://www.ritewayautoparts.com/ (ask for Norm) - they do ship small pieces. They were so busy that I didn't even get an opportunity to chat to find out their price for such things as battery pack or major components or to even see the car (dunno if they would even have let me into the yard). Now that I think of it, I didn't even have the presence of mind to ask about an EVSE or Remote.

Here's a picture of the door lying on an old bedspread in the back of the Tesla:

 

[mdbuilder]

Great find with the right color! I did the same thing about 30 years ago on the drivers side door of a Renault Encore. Not a hard swap

 

[JoeS]

To close out this thread I thought I'd post a photo of the replacement door. Fits perfectly and since it was off a SE the speakers didn't even need replacement. The blue decal for that one door costs $125 so we allowed as we could live without it.

To further close the book on this, the friend who was crunched by the MBZ SUV liked this i-MiEV so much that he begged me to sell it to him, which I did, recognizing that it didn't have CHAdeMO.

 

[johnr]

I'm glad the story has a happy ending