Offroad - Whoops!

[Steve@Aberdeen]

Took my new (Sept 06) Rav4 XT4 off-road on Sunday evening (Christmas Eve) - hit ice on a bend

Only going slowly but slid gracefully off the road, through a barbed wire fence and into a field. Ended up with the Rav parallel to and just a couple feet off the tarmac but tilted sideways down the bank at around 30 deg. Recovery (via Toyota/RAC) pulled it out about an hour later. All lights working, no airbags, etc were activated, no dashboard warnings and it drove fine - so got it the few miles home very carefully.

The front valence is ripped, the N/S headlamp, wing, door, wheel and bonnet scored, and the front valence ripped open, by the barbed wire. A couple plastic panels have come off underneath and the front N/S wheelarch torn. Can't see any other damage underneath so far but that's up to the garage to inspect.

My poor car

Still, she did what she was built to do - protect the occupants - and no injuries.

You know the most annoying thing? I'd just washed it the day before!!!

[pips]

[sywy]

Sorry about your car Steve.

Hope you (and your family?) are all OK.

[anchorman]

Same from me - hope you are OK.

[Uncle Bob]

As long as you have protected no claims, its not going to hurt your wallet to much....only your pride ;) .

[Steve@Aberdeen]

Thanks for the responses - no injuries at all. Protected NCD so should just cost me the excess (£200) so no great deal. The repair centre has just collected it - left me with a Micra to run about in .

Yes, pride a little hurt - but there's not much you can do on ice - four wheel drive is better at helping you go but nothing makes the slightest difference in stopping under those conditions.

I've slid a couple of times in the past on ice: once (about 30 years ago) in a Renault 16 - turned 90 deg, hit nothing but had to shuffle back and forth a few times to straighten up as the road was only a little wider than the car was long No damage.

The second time, a few years later, was on the M6 - in the slow lane on a freezing day, a faster vehicle shot past me in the middle lane and I spun out towards the central barrier facing back the way I'd come, carried on with a full 360 deg spin and ended up sitting on the hard shoulder facing the right way - just as the next bunch of traffic shot past THAT was scary - but, again, nothing hit and no damage.

I suppose, with the mileage I do, and the weather I drive in, three skids on ice in 30 years isn't bad.

[chatman]

Thanks for the responses - no injuries at all. Protected NCD so should just cost me the excess (£200) so no great deal. The repair centre has just collected it - left me with a Micra to run about in .

Yes, pride a little hurt - but there's not much you can do on ice - four wheel drive is better at helping you go but nothing makes the slightest difference in stopping under those conditions.

I've slid a couple of times in the past on ice: once (about 30 years ago) in a Renault 16 - turned 90 deg, hit nothing but had to shuffle back and forth a few times to straighten up as the road was only a little wider than the car was long No damage.

The second time, a few years later, was on the M6 - in the slow lane on a freezing day, a faster vehicle shot past me in the middle lane and I spun out towards the central barrier facing back the way I'd come, carried on with a full 360 deg spin and ended up sitting on the hard shoulder facing the right way - just as the next bunch of traffic shot past THAT was scary - but, again, nothing hit and no damage.

I suppose, with the mileage I do, and the weather I drive in, three skids on ice in 30 years isn't bad.

Going to work about a week ago when we had the bout of freezing fog.. took normal lane to work and taking bend on slight down hill in 4th gear should have been 3rd but... started 4 wheel skid but luckily corrected it in time and then past car in hedge on side and wheels in the air.... stopped to help driver but had already called tow truck...I could not have pulled him out.....OUCH.....

Glad you all ok and RAV off to be fixed......

[redlew]

No such thing as the slow lane -always use the inside lane unless overtaking.

[alanbradley]

As folks have said - at least you're okay

A Micra? eeeugh...

A

[Steve@Aberdeen]

A Micra? eeeugh...

A

Roughly my reaction - but at least it doesn't have "accident repair courtesy car" written on it in foot-high letters

Also, it's petrol, which always gets me as I've owned diesels for the past 20 years - have to remember to keep the engine revving ;)

[alanbradley]

This is true!

Yeah, I recently drove a petrol for the first time in a few months. Kept almost stalling at roundabouts Made worse by the fact I was in "chauffeuring mode" and driving one of our clients!

A

[Old Bexley]

Glad you're OK Steve @ Aberdeen

Some b*gger scraped my 6 month old RAV in Waitrose car park. The scrape affects one wing and a door and, where the car was rocked back, a slight dent to a small rear bumper. No witnesses, despite it being broad daylight and it probably set the alarm off.

Norwich Union took it away on Tuesday. Quote £1500. Glad I have protected No Claims. They have left me a 2 year old 1.0 VW Polo - base model.. It's so basic, it has windy down windows (as my wife describes them....ahem). It is very slow and the worst thing is it stinks of stale tobacco. It's like driving around in an ashtray.

Can't wait to get the RAV back - hopefully early next week.

[Steve@Aberdeen]

Glad you're OK Steve @ Aberdeen

Some b*gger scraped my 6 month old RAV in Waitrose car park. The scrape affects one wing and a door and, where the car was rocked back, a slight dent to a small rear bumper. No witnesses, despite it being broad daylight and it probably set the alarm off.

Norwich Union took it away on Tuesday. Quote £1500. Glad I have protected No Claims. They have left me a 2 year old 1.0 VW Polo - base model.. It's so basic, it has windy down windows (as my wife describes them....ahem). It is very slow and the worst thing is it stinks of stale tobacco. It's like driving around in an ashtray.

Can't wait to get the RAV back - hopefully early next week.

I'm still waiting for a quote on mine. The repair shop have told me the parts are on order and will be posting me a quote (the girl on the phone said it was too complicated to read out ). With barbed wire scrapes to the bonnet, NS wing, FNS door, two allow wheels and a headlight, a dent to the RNS door and a broken front panel, plus the underside damage caused when it was yanked back onto the road, I'm certainly glad I'm insured (with a protected NCD)!

I suspect most of the damage is cosmetic but, being a new car, will cost ££ to restore; had it been an older LandRover Defender, I'd probably have driven out without help and just needed some spray work to a couple of panels.

Strange, my loan Micra, too, stinks of stale tobacco - I've had an air freshener block in it for a week and I could still smell it (I got one of the aerosol freshener sprays from Halfords on Saturday and a good dose of that has worked wonders).

I certainly long to get my Rav back - the Micra, although basic cf my Rav, is a good city car. The trouble is, my trip to work is 12 miles of rural 70mph dual carriageway followed by 20 or so miles across country on normal A and B roads, with plenty of bends and hills. That's not Micra territory. The shop hope to have my Rav back to me towards the end of next week (taking the New Year holiday into account, they'll have had it three weeks).

[Steve@Aberdeen]

It's back

Dealer returned it to me at home last night. Final bill around £3500.

It was nice and clean when it arrived - a 30+ mile drive to work this morning and it's all manky again!

But it's luvverly to get back into it

[anchorman]

Glad your back in business :)

Washing them is a waste of time at the moment but I keep doing it for some reason

Regards

[Steve@Aberdeen]

Washing them is a waste of time at the moment but I keep doing it for some reason

Regards

That's what I try to tell the missus :!Removed!:

[druand]

Glad to hear you are back with yor RAV. I have a Fiesta runabout , find it OK then when I go back to RAV for serious journeys wonder why I ever use Fiesta. Answer, too lazy to swap round in driveway.Steve, I will be in your part of country again in April for Granite City Rally and Rav will have some fun running through the stages. I am one of the MSA scrutineers for event. Inverness for Snowman in 3 weeks.

[Steve@Aberdeen]

Glad to hear you are back with yor RAV. I have a Fiesta runabout , find it OK then when I go back to RAV for serious journeys wonder why I ever use Fiesta. Answer, too lazy to swap round in driveway.Steve, I will be in your part of country again in April for Granite City Rally and Rav will have some fun running through the stages. I am one of the MSA scrutineers for event. Inverness for Snowman in 3 weeks.

The first new car I ever bought was a Fiesta - a 1.6D bought in 1987. A great car - once managed to fit in wife, two kids and a dog (border collie) and luggage for a long weekend trip down to England - a sqeeze, addmittedly, but managed.

My wife runs a Yaris T3 D4D - smaller than the Rav4 but far from feeling so. It felt luxurious compared to the loan Micra :) It was partly her liking the Yaris that got me looking seriously at the Rav4: we'd decided to replace both our cars last year and the CRV was at the top of my list - buying both from the same dealer made financial sense.