'07 Chevy Silverado vs. '04 VW Jetta GLS TDI

[Brian.Burress]

The Jetta was in an accident yesterday...

Fist off, my wife and son are fine. My daughter was in school at the time. My wife has some slight back pain, but at this point she isn't sure if it's from the accident or not.

Secondly, everything I know about this is kind of one-sided. I wasn't there to witness anything because I am still in Iraq and unfortunately it will still be a couple months before my tour is up over here.

My wife was sitting at a red light and there was one car in front of her. When the light turned green, my wife waited until the person in front of her started moving and then took her foot off the brake pedal. (Automatic) My wife says she never saw the truck coming up behind her. According to the driver of the truck her foot slipped off the brake pedal when she was waiting for my wife to move. My wife said she had to slam on the brakes after she got hit to keep from hitting the person that had just taken off in front of her.

It appears there is a little bit of confusion. My wife got rear-ended so hard, she almost hit a vehicle that had already moved from in front of her. Read following post, and I attempted to explain it a little better. Sorry.

To me, it sounds like the driver of the truck just wasn't paying attention coming to the light. I think the truck would have to be moving beforehand to cause the Jetta to almost hit someone that had already moved from in front of her.

I will attempt to load pictures, but I don't remember my password for photobucket.

EDIT: I reset my password on photobucket, but my internet is horrible here, and I can't upload anything.

 

[vw4life]

If your wifes foot slipped off the pedal why is the truck even involved? Sounds like a simple rear ender. If the car in front had taken off who cares if her foot slipped off the brake or she took it off, she would start creeping forward.

OK, so she accidentally mashes the accelerator- she never hit the person in front anyway and was still hit from behind.

Sounds like he is grasping at straws to create doubt to cover up his inattention and rear ender accident w/ your wife.

How would the guy behind know if her foot slipped or was taken off anyway...suspicious.

Good luck

 

[Brian.Burress]

If your wifes foot slipped off the pedal why is the truck even involved? Sounds like a simple rear ender. If the car in front had taken off who cares if her foot slipped off the brake or she took it off, she would start creeping forward.

OK, so she accidentally mashes the accelerator- she never hit the person in front anyway and was still hit from behind.

Sounds like he is grasping at straws to create doubt to cover up his inattention and rear ender accident w/ your wife.

How would the guy behind know if her foot slipped or was taken off anyway...suspicious.

Good luck

I'm horrible at explaining things i guess. The person in the Silverado's foot slipped off the brake. Not my wife's. When my wife got rear-ended my wife had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of her that had already taken off from the light. Meaning the person that hit my wife, had to have been going much faster than just rolling from a stop.

The person that rear-ended the Jetta had their foot slip off the brake, or so they say.

I can't get photobucket to upload any of the pictures I have of the car, but from what I've seen of them and from what my wife says I'm pretty sure the uni-body is toast. I'm afraid that means the Jetta might be totaled, but I'm still waiting on an estimate from the body shop.

My wife says the rear doors are very difficult to open, which she had to do to get our son out of the car, and she said they make a loud binding and popping noise when they are finally opened.

The trunk is smashed in about 2 to 4 inches and pushed up also. Both tail light assemblies, the bumper cover, the bumper, the trim pieces, and the trunk lid will need replaced. All of this is just from what I've seen in pictures, but I kind of hope that I am wrong.

-Brian

 

[Honeydew]

You explained it clearly the first time, I understood the story when I read it earlier.

Sorry to hear about the crash, hope it gets resolved without too much hassle.

 

[vw4life]

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. In that case its still a rear-ender. Isn't the other guy at fault with only a very few exceptions. A foot slipped is still an accident you can be liable for no?

Sorry I assumed you were looking for an at fault analysis or opinion but I guess you are just getting the story off your chest. Sorry about the accident. We hope your fine and child continue to be fine.

 

[Brian.Burress]

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. In that case its still a rear-ender. Isn't the other guy at fault with only a very few exceptions. A foot slipped is still an accident you can be liable for no?

Sorry I assumed you were looking for an at fault analysis or opinion but I guess you are just getting the story off your chest. Sorry about the accident. We hope your fine and child continue to be fine.

Sorry. I should have been a little more specific. I was just getting it off my chest. The other driver is totally at fault.

-Brian

 

[Brian.Burress]

The insurance company worked very quickly yesterday, though. Within a few hours of the accident they arranged a flat bed tow truck to take the vehicle to an auto-body shop that I already found. They also arranged the rental vehicle. It all happened in about 4 or 5 hours.

My wife didn't want to drive the car to the auto-body shop. She said the rear suspension was making funny clunking noises for the 3 to 4 blocks from where the accident happened to our house.

The suspension noises along with the rear doors popping and binding makes me think that the unibody is bent, and it will probably be totaled by the insurance company. I really hope not, but we'll see how this thing plays out.

It's somewhat frustrating not being able to deal with this personally. It couldn't have waited just a couple more months for me to be home.

-Brian

 

[Brian.Burress]

Update:

I talked to the body shop today and so far we are at $3000 in just parts. They haven't even torn into the car yet, and they haven't put it on a frame rail to see how straight the unibody is either.

That $3000 is just what they can see from looking over they car. He said he expects to find quite a bit more when they "dig into it".

I explained to him that my wife says the rear suspension was making a funny popping noise and the rear doors seem like they are binding. Hopefully everything works out, but if not, I really want BenCarr23's car.

-Brian

 

[roundout]

If you buy it back to part out I may be interested in the skidplate.

 

[Brian.Burress]

Are the MKIV trunks unusually hard to open? Are they supposed to pop open when you unlatch them? I will do a search as well, but I'm just wanting to make sure mine aren't broken now. Thanks.

-Brian

EDIT: From what I've read so far, it appears that there was a known issue with the trunk hinges that resulted in a TSB. If your car is still under warranty, then they get replaced for free at the VW stealership, if it is not under warranty you can either put oil on the hinge pins, or pay out of pocket to get the new hinges.

Here is that TSB. Thank you to TDI2some for posting this on September 8, 2006.

 

[Brian.Burress]

It's a little late, but here are some pics of the wreck...

Rear of car with trunk closed:

Rear of car with trunk opened:

Right taillight assembly:

Left side of bumper cover:

Bumper, absorber, and rear panel:

 

[Brian.Burress]

Here's some pictures of the "repairs"

Excuse the dirty garage. I've been in Iraq the last 10 months and haven't had a chance to clean it yet. But here you go...

I'm not too happy with the way it turned out, but here are some pictures to show you the after results.
Gap between trunk and bumper cover on left side:

Gap between trunk and bumper cover on right side:

Gap between trunk and left rear quarter panel:

Gap between trunk and right rear quarter panel:

Gap between left taillight assembly and trunk:

Gap between right taillight assembly and trunk:

Damage done to left rear quarter panel when trunk wasn't aligned:

I'm taking it back to the body shop so hopefully some of these body lines can be adjusted. As you can see from the pictures, the trunk and rear quarter panels aren't lining up the way they used to, the trunk and bumper cover don't line up the same, and the trunk sticks out farther than the taillights now.

-Brian

 

[rentstdi]

First off, Welcome Home!!

From the looks of it, the body shop just threw on the parts and painted it. They could have used some shims to align it better. Did they even check out to see it the subframe was damaged? It might be tweeked a little bit.

 

[Brian.Burress]

Thanks for the welcome home. It's great to be home. Unfortunately it's only for about another week, then it's back to Iraq. On the good side, my tour is almost over there, so I should just be finishing up and then coming right back home.

I agree with the shimming. The body lines are horrible, and what's worse is the body shop tried playing it off. "Most cars come from the factory with mis-aligned body panels." That was the worst quote I've ever heard from someone in customer service.

Needless to say, it's definitely going back. I think I'm lucky that the insurance company I'm dealing with told me that the body shop is required to fix everything that I find for as long as I own the vehicle.

-Brian

 

[Bob_Fout]

USAA, Brian?

 

[Tarbe]

Brian

Hope it all works out quickly, with minimal hassle.

Thanks for your service to our country!


Tim

 

[Brian.Burress]

Bob: Yes, USAA. They are an excellent insurance company. Both homeowner's and auto. I had great service with renter's also.

-Brian

 

[Brian.Burress]

Tarbe: Thank you for your support. It seems to be taking quite a while to get everything settled, but slowly and surely it is. Hopefully it's all done before I have to go back to Iraq.

-Brian

 

[Bob_Fout]

I have them for auto, IRA and a Mastercard, been pleased so far.

 

[Brian.Burress]

Just a note to everyone, if your vehicle is in an accident and you have children's carseats in it, you have to replace the carseats. If the accident is not your fault, the other person's insurance should reimburse you for them.

This can be checked both here and here.

Hope this helps anyone else out that might be in this situation.

-Brian