After five years of virtually incident free driving, my number finally came up last Thursday. I was in the process of making a U-turn and the the guy behind me managed to hit the left rear wheel well at about 30MPH. I got a little bump on my head from hitting the B-pillar when the car got spun around but that was better by the next day. And I don't think anything at all happened to the other driver.

The damage to the car is pretty localized. The left rear wheel well is crushed fairly thoroughly and the door doesn't open. I took it for a short drive today and it still rolls, but I won't drive it any more because the wheel scuffs on the bent fender if the suspension compresses more than a couple inches. I don't want the tire to shred and cause a much larger problem. I'll include a link to a picture so you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about. (The picture is worth more than anything I can say about the damage.)

The car is a 1985 740 wagon, about 95K mi on the odometer. She's treated me very well since I've been driving her but I'm a little worried that the insurance company is going to try to screw me. (The car's only worth about 3K retail.) It wouldn't be a big deal if it were something I could fix myself but I think this one is beyond me. What do you guys think? Has anyone ever seen something similar in a 18 year old brick? Any creative opinions on what I should do?

Thanks for reading

Tim


Accident Pictures

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Tim Smith '85 745GLE M46 w/90k. Also in the family: 94 854T w/120K.