I've never owned a truly "new" car until we bought our 05 HCH last april. I was a little paranoid the first couple of weeks we had it, thinking that someone was going to slam into us. Well, unfortunately, it happend to my wife.

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image530.html

The damage isn't too bad, about $990 to replace the back bumper, and the left tailight that has a hole in it.

This was a low impact collision. My wife was backing out with "2 monster suv's on each side of me", she said. As she slowly pulled out, unbeknown to her, a 75 year old woman was driving behind her, saw my wife pulling out, and in her own words later said, "Oh I wasn't sure if I could get by you or not. I didn't know whether to stop or keep going. Guess I didn't make it! I am so sorry."

How about trying this, STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP!!! Ack, I couldn't believe it when my wife told me that's what happened. Well, old people get flustered, and my wife was technically at fault. (There goes our insurance rates.) And the most important thing, no one was hurt.

Anyway, it will have a happy ending next week when it gets put back together, and I will have totally gotten over the "new" car syndrome.

Anyone else wreck their hybrid yet? Hope not.

Kansas, not as flat as you think...

doesnt look too bad. atleast no real horrible body damage. yeah i'd b real pissed too.

I have had four - the other guy alway got the blame. :

1. Sleepy neighbor pulls out in front of me on my street as I "pulse & glide" to 30. (defensive driving could have avoided it)
2. At the mall during sundown, country driver pulls into the boulvard median without checking traffic. (should have been going slower)
3. At dawn, senior citizen does not stop in time on the freeway. (probably could not have avoided this)
4. Driver rear-ends me stopped at an intersection. (only way to have avoided this one was to have stayed at home in bed. )

I could have avoided the first two for sure. Fortunately no chassis damage was done and my Insight checked out fine on it's 90,000 mile service warranty maintence.

Having a small silver car seemed to be a factor, as it is harder to catch (does not excuse my agressive driving in #1 & #2).

60.3mpg lifetime - 71mpg in winter months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Had a kid in an old Audi hit me from behind as I was STOPPED for traffic. They replaced the bumper. Everything is ok.Kevin

2004 silverblue 5 sp.

You will like this story, as this is typical of what you get here in Miami.

My daughter had her car (HCH) only 3 days when a jerk, with no insurance or license hits her from behind while she was waiting to make a left turn. Guy gets out and cusses her out, get vvery biligerent and scares her. She calls the cops, then calls me. Cops get there and the passenger (a woman) claims she was driving. Cops check the tag on her car (the person that hit my daughter), tags do not match the car, has no proof of insurance etc. Cops write them every ticket in the book. Court date is set.

Daughter goes to court, woman driver is there along with another person my daughter has never seen, along with the cops that handled the tickets. Judge asks my daughter if she can identifiy the driver of the other vehicle. My daughter replies that she cannot lie in a court of law and that no, she cannot identify the driver of the other vehicle. Judge hears some additional testimony then lets into the driver of the other car, remands the case to criminal court, and tells this woman that she hopes she goes to jail!!!

I will let y'all know what happens next.

At least I hope that justice gets served here, because of idiots like this that we pay outragous insurnace rates down here. The insurance for my 2005 HCH (1 month old last saturday) is only $14/year less than what I was paying on my 97 Corvette!

Mike V.

Wow! I don't feel so bad Mike. Hope all works out for you. I had a daughter hit from behind, fortunately driver of her car saw it coming and blasted through a red light before the impact. Could have been much worse if they hadn't moved.

Kansas, not as flat as you think...

It sucks but you're thought was right about nobody being hurt. These are only material things and can be replaced.

Support the Troops - Drive a Hybrid!

2 for me.
1) A ditz driving home on school break rear ends me (I'm stopped).
2) I ran into one of nature's chicanes (a white tailed deer that are prevalent in NJ)

Neither impacted the insurance rate. Hitting a live deer is considered an "act of god". Now if the deer was already dead, and I had hit it, that would have been my fault. Go figure.

I think the logic here is since the deer is alive and jumps in front of your car, it would be an "act of god". With a dead deer in the road and you hit it, then you were not driving safely or defensively, hence not an act of god. God already killed the deer.

Now I would argue on the second part that if you are driving around a blind corner and you hit a dead deer that you did not have time to see (this assumes you are at the speed limit) then you should not be penalized, but that would be a tough argument depending on what your insurance company rules are.

Mike V.

Sorry man! No fun! At least you've already got plans in the works to clean it up.

Not-so-prepared I keyed my own back driver's side door today putting an amp and guitar in the seats. So much for driving with load, or at least loading serious load. GD humongous keychain; HCH key - love that - scraped across the exterior as I set the hardware down inside. Nice little 4 inch gash, oh well.