Well, it's been a very frustrating few weeks....my insurance company deemed my HCH a Total Loss a little over two weeks ago.
I haven't seen any posts here about how other HCHs and their owners have held up through accidents, so I thought I'd share the story...please keep in mind, tho, that I haven't done much research on the standard crash test results for the HCH, so this may or may not be an exceptional crash tale.
Quite simply, I was in a T-Bone accident in the middle of a downtown intersection on a weekend night. Moving forward through the intersection, another car ran their red light and slammed right into my drivers' side door with enough force to throw my HCH into a full 360, then slamming my poor car's passenger side into a traffic light pole and the curb. Two windows on the passenger side were completely shattered, both rear tires had been dragged off the rims; I was unable to close my drivers' side door when I finally climbed out of my car. There was literally glass
everywhere, not only from my own windows and tail lights, but also from the other TWO cars that were involved (the Red Light Runner and another driver who was forced to swerve to avoid hitting us). After a head-spinning 30 seconds, there were three cars that were absolutely
trashed and three drivers in various states of shock.
Now here's the really interesting part....
NONE of my airbags were deployed, there was no damage to the front end of my HCH (the engine was still able to run...and there WAS damage to the rear end), no gas leaks, no electrical problems and the only thing that was moved inside my car was my rearview mirror (which had been knocked completely off of it's mounting). The rear axle was bent, as was the A-Frame and something like 4 different panels would have to be replaced. Even more amazing than all of these things is the fact that I suffered only a mild case of whip lash and a couple of small bruises (my passenger sustained a couple of small cuts from the broken window, a couple small bruises and a sprained ankle). Neither of the other two drivers were injured, despite
extensive damage to their cars.
A week and a half after this accident, my insurance agent informed me that my HCH was being deemed a Total Loss (it had sustained damages that would cost approximately 89.95% of the car's MSRP value). I'll readily admit, I cried like a baby when my agent told me to start looking for a new car (especially with how difficult it is to find ANY Hybrids in Indianapolis). :unsure:
I'm hoping that each of you has as good of an insurance policy as I have, because I received my new HCH last week. I've already named the new HCH (Jaime) and am still working on my driving technique (replete with Super-Defensive Driving).
Has anyone else had an accident, of any kind, in their HCH? I'd love to see how other HCHs have fared in the real world, as well as their owners.
