Horrible Way To End The Night

[SQuattro08]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this thread and unfortunately its not the first post I imagined myself posting. Last night while driving home on the highway I got into an accident and I am so upset to see my car like this. Car in front of me slammed on their brakes on the highway and I was able to react and pull the car to the right in an effort to avoid hitting the car but, I ran out of room. Thankfully no one was injured which is what matters most.

2010 Ibis White S4 with 46K on the clock. Car wont make it to the shop until Monday so, I wanted to get some input of how much damage you think the car might have (sorry for the crappy picture its from my phone). Since I pulled the car to the right all of the damage is on the front left side of the car .


[IMG][/IMG]

[CaptSlow]

I'm sorry to hear that, good luck with the repairs.

Always remember to leave plenty of room in front of you when driving. There are dunces on the road, and we have to deal with them :(

[Eldog_85]

Sorry to hear about the accident man. I always leave a ton of room in front of me cuz of incidents like this. Tons of idiots on the road plus Deuces as well. The damage does look bad but hopefully its mostly exterior. Looks like maybe some steering and suspension damage as well. Let us know what they quote you for the damage. Who's your insurance provider?

[SQuattro08]

Taking the car to a very good shop who is certified in Audi collision repairs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there nothing major and everything will be good once they are done with the repairs.

[Mops@Nemesis]

Sorry to see that, but NBD. Just make sure they blend onto the passenger fender too. I'd look at this as a free front end finish refresh

[SQuattro08]

Thanks for the condolences guys. I have AAA full coverage. There is definitely a ton of idiots out there and it seems like the accident happened in an accident hot spot (280S right before the 87 split and 2b exit in San Jose). While I was waiting for the flat bed to show up I was surprised of how many screeching tires I keep hearing and near accidents almost occurred. Sure enough before the tow arrived there was a bad 3 vehicle crash approximately 60 feet behind me (two ambulances and about 5 CHP showed up to assist the injured).

It was so frustrating to hear from the lady that slammed on her brakes in front of the car I clipped say I slammed on my brakes because I panicked that the cars were coming to a stop ahead .

[will13k7]

that sucks, doesn't look too bad, it will be as good as new after the repair and you'll forget all about it.

[SQuattro08]

Hope so but for the moment I cant help but beat myself up a bit about it happening. Its only been a day but I already miss driving my car. Its going to be an interesting few weeks ahead without the S4 to drive. Will be rolling in my gf's 12' Toyota Corolla while the car is getting fixed .

[mcoomer]

Two words...Audi Certified. Get in touch with your dealer and ask them to refer you to a certified repair shop. Good luck.

Mike

[Gusman1]

Dude that sucks man:(. People can't drive for sh*t here in the South Bay. Everyday is a constant battle to survive without someone crashing into you.
Hope your car gets fixed quickly.

[superswiss]

Sorry this happened to you. While the lady is an idiot for slamming on the brakes, it takes two to tango. The 3-second following distance rule is there for a reason. Next time the car ahead of you could have a legitimate reason to slam on the brakes.

[SQuattro08]

Superswiss- You are definitely correct I take some blame since I was not able to stop in time and was the car that hit from behind. I felt like I was driving with enough space (IMO) but it was so sudden and at highway speed that I had what seemed like an split second at that moment to react and got the shorter end of the stick. The car I hit (Hyundai) got a small dent in the right corner of the bumper (will only need the bumper replaced) since I was close to completely avoid hitting her by pulling the car to the right but, I made enough contact to cause that damage to my car. I felt terrible for hitting her and she was very understanding about the situation since she also had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting the car in front of her. She seemed to genuinely feel bad that my car had that much damage when she looked at her car. At the end of the day the car is repairable and what truly matters most is that everyone was OK.

[Saud]

you should do a facelift conversion if insurance going to cover fender, hood, bumper and headlight

[chaos2984]

Sorry to hear that man but looks like its going to be costly. Your probably looking at around 5k insurance cost. You need atleast a hood, fender, fender badge, bumper, headlight, and maybe a rim can't see if that got damaged. But your probably looking at around 5K.

[FrozenCommunist]

My wife had a BMW with that kind of damage. Ended up being about $6000 in damage. Obviously we went through insurance to cover it.

[Moto One]

Superswiss, you live in the Bay Area, and should know that if you try to leave 3 second gap in traffic you have 15 cars 2 semi's pile in the gap and one of them will be like the Driver that (has no depth perception) and slams on their brakes when ever they see brake lights 1/2 mile a head. (Causing the dreaded YOYO effect) And it happens so often that you can also understand their panic reaction too. To be honest, driving in the Bay Area takes all the same concentration that it take in a SCCA national runoff race not to tag someone. If I have the choice when I drive in the Bay Area, I take our ML because it has Distronic Cruse that I set at one car gap... Lazy i know. And to be sure the that option will be on our next S4. And it's sad to say, then we'll be the one rear ended when the automated system panics.

Mark

[S is for Slow]

I'm sorry this happened. I am glad everyone was ok and it wasn't a direct front end hit. I Hope it's just a fend bumper and light repair and nothing even more serious. Keep us posted on it though. Hope you get it repaired quick and it's back on the road.

[superswiss]

Superswiss, you live in the Bay Area, and should know that if you try to leave 3 second gap in traffic you have 15 cars 2 semi's pile in the gap and one of them will be like the Driver that (has no depth perception) and slams on their brakes when ever they see brake lights 1/2 mile a head. (Causing the dreaded YOYO effect) And it happens so often that you can also understand their panic reaction too. To be honest, driving in the Bay Area takes all the same concentration that it take in a SCCA national runoff race not to tag someone. If I have the choice when I drive in the Bay Area, I take our ML because it has Distronic Cruse that I set at one car gap... Lazy i know. And to be sure the that option will be on our next S4. And it's sad to say, then we'll be the one rear ended when the automated system panics.

Mark

You are certainly correct about that, but it doesn't negate the need for proper following distance. This is why I opted for ACC which includes Brake Guard (Audi PreSense), so I do get that extra split second if I ever need it.

[Talor]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this thread and unfortunately its not the first post I imagined myself posting. Last night while driving home on the highway I got into an accident and I am so upset to see my car like this. Car in front of me slammed on their brakes on the highway and I was able to react and pull the car to the right in an effort to avoid hitting the car but, I ran out of room. Thankfully no one was injured which is what matters most.

2010 Ibis White S4 with 46K on the clock. Car wont make it to the shop until Monday so, I wanted to get some input of how much damage you think the car might have (sorry for the crappy picture its from my phone). Since I pulled the car to the right all of the damage is on the front left side of the car .


[IMG][/IMG]

probably around $5k, assuming you have great insurance and they dont try to stiff you with aftermarket or used parts.

[rsrwnab]

Sucks about accident, glad you're OK . But if you were following a hyundai (at safe distance) and slammed on your brakes right away you would have stopped just due to the braking capabilities of the S4 vs any hyundai and 60-0 stopping distance were talking get over 50 feet for an average hyundai.. Hopefully if you were distracted beforehand (texting or looking at Facebook) , you learned from it. I'm sure many of us sure can learn from it

[SQuattro08]

I made the insurance claim (AAA full coverage) and have set up the car to go to a body shop here in San Jose on Monday. They are certified for Audi body repair and after looking at all of their reviews on YP I'm feeling very confident that they will do an awesome job.

[visualguy]

Superswiss, you live in the Bay Area, and should know that if you try to leave 3 second gap in traffic you have 15 cars 2 semi's pile in the gap and one of them will be like the Driver that (has no depth perception) and slams on their brakes when ever they see brake lights 1/2 mile a head. (Causing the dreaded YOYO effect) And it happens so often that you can also understand their panic reaction too. To be honest, driving in the Bay Area takes all the same concentration that it take in a SCCA national runoff race not to tag someone.

That's my experience too in the Bay Area, and it has gotten a lot worse over the last couple of years as the roads have become more and more crowded.

[Stereodude]

Car in front of me slammed on their brakes on the highway and I was able to react and pull the car to the right in an effort to avoid hitting the car but, I ran out of room.

Exactly what kind of Hyundai managed to out brake you? The S4 should be able to stop in a shorter distance from a given speed than most cars you'll find on the road.

[superswiss]

Exactly what kind of Hyundai managed to out brake you? The S4 should be able to stop in a shorter distance from a given speed than most cars you'll find on the road.

It's all about reaction time. Shorter braking distance means nothing if you don't react in time. It all goes back to proper following distance. I don't think many people realize just how far a car travels at highway speed in the time it takes for the driver to react. I have Braking Guard in my car and there have been several occasions on the highway where my car applied the brakes before my brain even registered that the car ahead of me was slowing down. It's been quite an eye opener and made me realize just how slow the human reaction is. Just keep in mind that there is even a delay for the brake lights to light up, especially with non LED brake lights.

[MrFunk]

That is going to be more than 5k if you take it to a good shop. All said and done that will be more like 10k... easily... let us know what the damage comes in at...

I tell my wife all the time not to tail gate... she doesn't even realize she's doing it and will argue back to me that she's not... I see people do it all the time, especially those people on their phones... and it's not that they are in a hurry and trying to bully the car ahead of them, they are just so used to driving up that close to the car ahead of them that they just do it out of habit.

[SQuattro08]

Car goes to the shop tomorrow. I will keep you guys posted on the damage and quote for repair.

[SQuattro08]

Hey guys sorry for the delay with the update, got caught up with work. I just got quoted $5,290.36 (some of you guys were dead on calling it 5k worth of damage). They will be replacing the front bumper, hood, left headlamp, left fender. There were 2 other S4 in the shop being worked on that were almost completed and their work looks great! definitely made me breathe a bit easier about the whole situation.