There are text messages that nobody wants to get. A car enthusiast never wants to read about an expensive repair, and if you love someone one of the last texts you want to receive is “Just got in an accident.” I received that text not once, but twice in less than 24 hours. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. But now we wait to see what’s wrong with my wife’s beloved 2012 Scion iQ. My 2008 Smart Fortwo also took a beating, too. Let’s see what happened to two of my city cars after they got crashed.
Before we start, I just want to reiterate that nobody was hurt here! In both cases, the little city cars got the short end of the stick. Sheryl was unharmed, as were the occupants in the other vehicles. My wife is still saddened about her bad, super-not-good span of 24 hours, but as I’ve told her, all that was damaged was some plastic and metal. So long as the meatbags in all of the vehicles are okay, I consider it a win! Cars can be replaced, but people cannot.
The bigger question hanging over our heads right now is the fate of the Scion iQ. It’s currently at a body shop getting assessed. This car isn’t worth much, and we fear that it’s going to get totaled even if the damage isn’t that bad. But wait, how do you get into two crashes in less than 24 hours in the first place?
That Sinking Feeling
I received one of the scariest texts of my life at 11:53 a.m. on Sunday. Sheryl’s been going through an unfortunate run of bad luck and wasn’t able to attend EAA AirVenture Oshkosh with me this year. Instead, she was working on the Sunday I was headed home.
At the time, I had Super Cruise on and running in my Chevrolet Silverado EV press loaner. I received a text from Sheryl, which read “Just got in an accident” on the truck’s infotainment display. I knew Sheryl was driving somewhere, so I began to fear the worst. Sheryl continued, telling me that she had looked away from the road for a moment and accidentally crashed into the back of a Hyundai Santa Fe. Or, more specifically, she said she hit one of the Hyundai Santa Fe generations that “doesn’t have a rear bumper.”
There is a sort of trend going on in auto design where rear bumpers are flush with the tailgate surface, almost guaranteeing a damage multiplier in a rear-end collision. Oddly, more than one generation of the Santa Fe has this sort of non-bumper rear bumper deal going on, so I had Sheryl tell me what the Santa Fe looked like. We landed on a third-generation model, which went on sale in the 2019 model year.
Sheryl did not get pictures of the other car, and honestly, I get it. She was too distraught and frazzled. But she did tell me that the Hyundai got a big knot on its bumper, and the flush tailgate was spared.
As for the Scion? Well, as I stated earlier, it took the brunt of the damage. Once Sheryl got home, I started examining the damage. The left side of the front end didn’t look bad. The bumper looks popped out of place, but the left fender looks okay. The same cannot be said for the right side.
More Than A Boop
Starting at about the middle of the front end, the front bumper begins to warp. Then there’s the hood, which is crumpled and bent inward at the middle. Moving right from there, the crumple gets worse, with the hood losing a good couple of inches. The bumper and the headlight appear pushed in a few inches. The right fender also got bent and pushed back. At least you can technically get into the engine bay, but that’s facilitated by reaching your hand into the new side hood scoop.
Things are worse under the skin. The hood release no longer functions, and neither does the air-conditioner. There’s also a concerning tapping noise under the hood when the vehicle is running. Finally, the steering is now a bit goofy as the steering wheel is nowhere near straight while the steering itself is sloppy.
Understandably, Sheryl is broken up about the whole ordeal. Not only did she crash her car into someone just trying to go about their day, but the Hyundai had a kid in it, too. What if she were driving a bigger vehicle? She thought. What if she were driving faster? She could have hurt someone, she continued. Her conclusion was that she cannot let herself get distracted again.
[Ed Note: I also once got distracted and didn’t hit the brakes hard enough as a car ahead of me came to a stop. I bumped it with my old junky Honda Accord; it happens! -DT].
Then she thought about her car. She’s tried her best to do right with this car, and she feared she had killed her poor little vehicle. This crash happened only two weeks after she had ditched the car’s rusty and bent steel wheels for a set of nice alloy wheels from a Scion iA. Her car looked pretty sharp! Here’s a before photo:
After:
She was also taking care of some items she had put off for a while, including hatch struts and a fresh set of pads and rotors for the front axle. She had recently taken care of the drums in the rear, as well as a CVT flush. As I’ve noted in previous stories about this Scion, Sheryl drives her cars 40,000 miles a year, so she likes being on top of maintenance. The owner’s manual recommends oil changes every 10,000 miles, but she gets hers changed every 5,000 miles.
Depending on who you ask, light trucks and passenger vehicles get into over 8 million crashes in the United States each year. That’s over 21,917 crashes every single day, 913 crashes every hour, or 15 crashes every minute. We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. Crashing your car doesn’t automatically make you a failure, and a minor crash is not worth destroying yourself over.
Besides, one of the upshots of owning over a dozen cars is that Sheryl didn’t need to get a rental car when she could just drive one of the cars in my vast fleet while her Scion gets fixed. She chose the next best thing to her Scion, one of my Smarts. In this case, she chose my 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe. I bought this car in 2020 for $1,400. Since then, I’ve used the car as a Gambler 500 rig, a pickup truck, and a daily driver. It would handle Sheryl’s driving without a problem.
The Smart’s Unlucky Day
So, on Monday morning, Sheryl needed to drive a bit downstate for court and left at 5 a.m. behind the wheel of my Smartie. Later that morning, I woke up and got ready for my day when I got a call and a text from Sheryl. When I answered, she told me, “You won’t believe what just happened.” Now, I sometimes dabble in dark humor, so I jokingly said “the Smart got crashed,” and was legitimately shocked when she said yes.
This time, she didn’t rear-end a car, but a car rear-ended her. She said she was hit by a 2019 or newer Nissan Sentra while sitting at a red light. The Nissan hit her hard enough that it pushed my Smart into the intersection. Thankfully, the traffic that had the green did dodge the Smart.
Thankfully, Sheryl said, the Nissan got no more than a scratch. Its driver wasn’t concerned about exchanging insurance or calling the cops, but demanded that Sheryl apologize for getting into his way. Sheryl, who did nothing wrong by sitting at a solid red, did not apologize. Instead, she tried to diffuse the situation, but the Nissan driver’s behavior became even more erratic. Eventually, the Nissan guy took off, and that was the end of that weird situation. Take a look at the Smart:
Enhance! If you look closely, you’ll see that the Nissan put a bunch of small dents, dings, and one tiny hole in the bumper:
Enhance again! Here’s the worst of the damage, which is basically nothing:
Thankfully, my Smart was seemingly a bit of a sponge. I’ve found a dent in the rear bumper, and that’s it. I’m sure the crash bar under the plastic took some damage, but that is something I can easily replace by myself. Besides, this car is worth only $1,000 or so.
Sheryl felt like the universe was trying to tell her something. It’s bad enough to get in one crash, let alone two in the span of a single day. I consoled her and let her know that I’m not mad or even disappointed. Crashes happen! Besides, the Smart is a cheap and rusty pile of junk with hidden zip ties holding its bumpers on. Adding a dent to its already very imperfect body is a huge nothingburger to me.
What hurt was falling down a full flight of stairs on that day, which hurt so bad that I couldn’t even use my right foot for walking until this morning.
What Will Happen To The Scion?
The big question was what was going to happen to the Scion. The body shop painted a negative picture, saying that if parts are no longer in production and they cannot find any used, that alone would likely result in the vehicle being totaled. The other item that was likely to total the car was core support damage. It wasn’t that these parts are impossible to repair, but the car has such a low value that any real big repairs would cross the total threshold.
Sadly, Sheryl already allegedly had the last brand-new Scion iQ bumper in America on her car. Last year, a truck shredded a tire and Sheryl hit the debris, putting a giant hole in the car’s original bumper. The body shop that replaced the bumper claimed to have found just one new bumper in the whole country. So, I wasn’t surprised when the body shop handling the crash damage said that there were no new bumpers in America. I give it a 50/50 chance that the car will be totaled.
Update: As I was writing this piece, the body shop called and said it was able to find all of the parts needed to fix the Scion, and the repair will take about a week. Insurance already approved the repair, too. Ike the Scion iQ will ride again!
Now, I have the estimate on hand, but I want our lovely readers to guess. How much do you think it’ll cost to fix this little car? Take a guess and leave that guess down below, then click here to see if you were right. We do not know what parts need to be replaced yet, but at least we have a dollar figure. As for the Smart, I probably won’t bother to fix the bumper at all, and I’ll get a crash bar online.
The most important part about all of this is that everyone is okay. Crashes are bound to happen. Maybe you make a mistake, or maybe someone else does. Not even autonomous driving systems are perfect. At the end of the day, nobody got hurt here. Your car can be replaced, but you cannot be. So, if you get into a minor fender bender, don’t beat yourself up so much. If you get into two fender benders in the span of a day, well, that’s terrible luck, but again, so long as everyone is okay, who cares about the plastic, metal, glass, and rubber that got damaged.
No! Not the Scion iQ! I love the little dudes. I always get sad when I see one get damaged. Thankfully this one can be repaired, but that’s going to cost a good chunk. My best bet’s about $2,500 considering that it looks like the hood, bumper, front brackets, crossbar, fender, fender liner, headlight, and the cowl cover all got damaged. That’s a lot of hard to find plastic parts where even replacements will be brittle from age.
You should buy her a new pair of headlights (not code) to go with the car once it’s hopefully fixed…throw in some good-quality higher-output bulbs to match!
What a creep in the Nissan! That makes me want a dashcam.
I’m so glad everyone is ok! And I’m also relieved to see that Sheryl’s Scion can be repaired…that’s really not a bad quote.
And it’s great to see the nerd decals are still on the Smart! I remember your article about trying to remove the decals for the previous owner’s website and other contact info.
Nothing at all to do with this particular saga, but wanted to say that this site loads like a sloth.
Turned on dev tools and it took 51 seconds for this article to load. I thought all the infrastructure stuff had been fixed like a year ago?
I had a similar day a little over a year ago. One car had a bunch of stuff thrown at it by a tornado in one location, and many miles and 1k’ in altitude away on the same day, another was pelted by hail. The worst damage was to my then 4yo who was in the car with me during the tornado. She still gets anxious during storms, and any time there’s any mention of the town where the tornado was (which we go to and through frequently), she immediately says something about tornadoes…
If someone hit me while sitting at a red light and berated me for “getting in their way” it could very well be the last words they’d speak before their jaw needed to be wired back together.
Never mind the damage. That guy’s response was enough to call the police all by itself.
Yup. “Oh, this is minor, we don’t need to get a police report for—excuse me? On second thought, I want to get an officer here. Oh, you’re leaving? This is a hit-and-run now and I already dictated your license plate number to my dashcam.”
I got back yesterday from a trip to deal with my mom’s accelerating dementia and my house mate, who I had drop me off at the airport to fly down to deal with some of that stuff, and have free use of the car while I was gone, lost the key fob. It sat parked out front (ordinarily garaged) unlocked and the moonroof open for four days.
No physical damage. Nothing stolen out of the car. It didn’t rain.
The house mate texts me, “don’t be too upset.” Probably best she didn’t, dealing with my mom’s confusion. What is the threshold of TOO upset? She is definitely on the hook for the replacement of the key fob.
I was with you on dealing with my mother’s Alzheimer’s for several years. It’s brutal. Good luck… wishing her and you the best.
Thank you. That’s very kind.
I’m fortunate that I have a totally aligned brother who lives 20 minutes away from her. I live 700 miles away. We’ve been taking turns and found a nice retirement community that we’ll be moving her to in the weeks ahead. She’s been living by herself on a 20-acre farm since my dad passed away in 2003.
Not that we really get a choice, but I’d rather my body fail before my mind.
Falling down a set of stairs is probably far worse than anything vehicular has hurt me.
I broke a couple of ribs when the front wheel of my VStrom 1000 washed out over sand that local agencies use instead of salt after a “snow event.”
About six weeks of careful choreography getting out of bed and holding my side before a sneeze, and then one day, it just didn’t hurt anymore. The pain had been such a constant companion, I almost missed it when it was gone. Almost.
This comment crossed the line. – Ed
Consider deleting your comment… what are you going on about regarding gender identity and marriage? Pretty offensive neanderthal comments FFS.
Everyone here would be better off if you deleted this comment. EVERYONE.
“Not trying to be a controversial ass hat here” yet you succeeded! Good job, slow clap.
You are a bad person, do better!!!!!!!
Well, nearly 11 years of transition would say yes. Spend some time in the country, you’d be surprised how “macho man” the ladies out there sound. Language doesn’t actually have a gender, but parts of society seem to imply that women are supposed to speak in only a certain kind of way. I’ve never been one to follow convention. 🙂
As far as my marriage goes, I love my wife, no matter what path she chooses to take in life. If she were to detransition, which doesn’t happen nearly as often as Jesse Singal and Jordan Peterson would like the world to think, I would still love her the same. But I reckon that will never happen since she’s lived life as a woman for about 30 years now.
Thank you for the support! Genuinely, I mean it! But, for future reference, it’s a bit rude, to say the least, to ask a trans person if they’re genuine. Maybe you were joking, but it didn’t really land. Unfortunately, I’ve spent the past 11 years answering that question to various people, so whatever amusement value it might have had has long worn off.
Thank you for your courteous and respectful answer to this question that was incredibly invasive and inappropriate for this forum. Sorry you have to deal with people thinking they have a right to ask questions like this.
When I was in 1st grade, I (cis-male) wanted to be a girl. The girls were smart, funny and pretty. The boys were largely jerks. As time moved on, I made friends with guys who weren’t. And I don’t have issues with either gender or non-gender or adopted gender. I’m fine with whatever works for whomever.
It’s sad that we have to think people are courageous to come out.
We love you. We’re glad your wife is ok. I’m sorry you have to deal with bullshit everywhere…the world should be a nicer place.
PS: I think of you every time I see a Smart car.
Your vehicles are working much too hard to provide you with writing ideas. I hope life normalizes for you two for a while.
Not to lecture, I wonder if switching often between so many vehicles might lead to accidents? Sheryl was looking at the infotainment screen too long. Was that because it worked differently from the last car she’d driven, and the one before that? Habits get ingrained, and without them, we need to stop and think about every step. Our family cars are a GLK and a C-Max. Wonder if anybody else anywhere has that oddball pair? The Ford transmission has a stick, but the Merc selects P, D and R “on the tree.” Each time I switch, I get it reach for the wrong control. The Ford silences the audio when you select R and activate the backup camera. The Merc won’t even show you the camera view unless the audio system is on. That’s crossed me up, too.
I enjoy variety and choice. I own nine acoustic guitars! But frequent changes don’t make life easier.
I feel you, I’ve tried to shift with the wiper stalk a few times, and also found myself grabbing thin air while trying to set the parking brake in Mazda B2200. I had a fleet situation where all the automatics were column shift, and while the Mazda had a normal 5 speed floor shift the parking brake handle was under the dash.
With the Mercedes, it gets worse. You set the parking brake with your left foot, like an old Studebaker.
One of the reasons I’ve been driving VW Golfs for the last 47 years- From Golf 1 through Golf 7 the same 3 knobs ran the HVAC. But they screwed it up with a touchscreen for Golf 8 and probably lost me…
Relationship tip: start the conversation with, “before I tell you what happened, I am fine and not injured.”
Can’t say for sure, of course, but you sound like someone who might be speaking from experience.
That’s solid advice, especially via text.
I did that in person with my wife once after sending a 1/2″ long staple into my outer wrist while cat-proofing part of the basement…my dumbass had the pneumatic stapler on full auto. Oops.