Very sorry to learn of your accident. What an amazingly lucid account of it though. I hope all turns out well with the repairs and that this is the only crash you ever have to experience.

Sorry to hear about your accident! Having been in 2 accidents myself (minor ones), I know the process of 'healing'. One thing that I cannot understand is, with so much damage to Audrey - why aren't they replacing her? I know a bond develops between a man and his car - a strong one, but wouldn't it be better to remember her as she was and move on?

Locally, in S.A., if a car had so much damage (value wise), it would be replaced. I just wouldn't want my car back if it was in an accident - things just wouldn't feel the same :( and there would always be this doubt in the back of my mind that not everything was fixed.

If however the bond is so strong, that you want her back...and only her - then best wishes, may she be returned to you in all her glory! MINI's forever...

My insurance states that if the damage is over 60% of the value of the car as new, then it'll be written off. To buy my car new would cost just a bit over £13000. Repairs are set to cost around £6000, so that's only around 45%. Therefore, it's repairs, not replacement.

I echo your worries about things never being the same again, especially as they're doing things like the airbags (which come in quite handy in accidents) as well as the front crumple zones (ditto). I just hope that I'm not driving along one day and the front of the car falls off......... :)

This afternoon, I finally got a chance to visit Audrey at the car hospital. I was a bit of a nervous wreck on the way over and didn't drive that fast, though I did overtake another car, which felt like a minor triumph.

After a little searching, I managed to find the body shop, on an industrial park. I parked up by the reception and wandered across the car park in search of Audrey. On spotting her, I headed in that direction. Suddenly three people emerged from inside the building and hurried over to me. They hadn't got a clue who I was and thought I was up to no good. I pointed to Audrey: "That's my car!" Two of the people wandered off but the third stayed and introduced himself as Andrew, who, it transpired, was the owner of the place. I told him I wanted to take some photos and he led me over to the front of the car and opened the bonnet (didn't need to use the release lever inside the car).

The front of Audrey's chassis is a complete mess. It's fairly warped. Andrew pointed out where the chassis legs were and where they should be.

Here's the right (damage is plumb in the middle):

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29686_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29686.jpg)

And here's the left (damage is in the centre at the bottom, where the round hole is above the black hoses):

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29687_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29687.jpg)

I asked him whether the engineer from my insurers had been out to inspect Audrey. He said that he was there this morning. Unfortunately he wasn't able to complete a full evaluation. To do this, the garage will need to strip down the front of the MINI to see what sort of damage there is to the chassis - i.e. the engine needs to come out. The damage to the chassis legs goes quite a way back (about half the engine bay).

Due to the nature of the damage, Andrew is unsure as to whether they'll be able to repair it. It might need a whole new body shell. Essentially, they take Audrey to bits and put everything back inside a new MINI, then bolt on the existing doors, the boot hatch (trunk), bumpers, bonnet (a new one) and so on.

Here's a photo of a BMW 7 series (I think) bodyshell that was on the lot for comparison purposes:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29678_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29678.jpg)

The garage will need to strip Audrey down further (they've not removed anything yet) and the engineer will be out some time next week. Andrew said he'd contact me by the end of the week to let me know whether they can repair Audrey or whether it's time for a new bodyshell. He said that they'd recently done a re-body on a BMW 3 series, which cost around £10000 ($18000 USD approx.). If they repair the car, it'll take them three weeks. I think he said it would take an extra month for them to rebuild in a new bodyshell.

He managed to assuage my fears about the quality of the repairs. The shop itself is very smart and modern. He said that they'd spent around £1 million on it ($1.8 million USD). They get 80% of the repairs from my BMW dealer (no other MINIs on the lot, but a few BMWs). There was a big BMW logo prominently displayed in the reception area. He said that I was welcome to go round as often as I wanted and he said that he would give me a tour of the place if I wanted. I probably won't visit next week until I've heard about the repair/re-body issue but I'll visit every week after that to see how they're getting on.

Andrew was most sympathetic when I showed him my crappy Astra. I didn't feel too bad on the way back home - I felt a lot more confident behind the wheel.

There are a load of photos in my personal gallery, which you're all welcome to have a look at. I kept turning the camera off and then forget to put the flash back on, so some of the lighting's a bit out. Anyway, here are the highlights:

Front end damage (doesn't look that bad, but up close, it's a mess and as mentioned above, the front of the chassis is toast):

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29649_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29649.jpg)

Damage from the left:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29651_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29651.jpg)

Centre front end damage:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29661_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29661.jpg)

Driver's airbag:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29667_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29667.jpg)

Close-up of damage on the front right:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29681_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29681.jpg)


I took some souvenirs with me: the front number plate (which is now stuck to my wall at home) and the coin holder from the front cupholders:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29675_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/29675.jpg)

Ho hum. The wait continues...

Wow thats quite a bit of damage... I'm sorry. hope everything goes well. GOOD LUCK! :(

Its quite a bit of damage, but it is nice to see that the car held up good and kept you safe.

You have to becarefull with the insurance companies...They want you to take it to whats cheap for them, but not always whats best for the Car. I took my Toyota Camry to get a repair one time and the bumper came back a different shade than the rest of the car. But it was with in the "standard" according to the insurance company. A load of crap you ask me.

Check the paint job very carefully. I had a lot of problems when i crashed mine getting the colour matched - it was a problem with the lacquer rather than the paint itself. Make sure they spray all the adjoining panels and over spray the bit between the window and the bonnet, as it becomes very obvious that its been resprayed if they dont. I had mine checked at the bmw garage after to make sure everything was ok.

One more thing. If they replace any of the front suspension, make sure they replace all the bushes and links, as my repairers did not and there was some terrible creaking where old parts met new.

Oh and ask for a complete parts list too, then next time you get Audrey serviced, they can check those bits.

Good luck, hope this helps a bit.

Quick update time... (yes, there's been nothing since the 25th of March). The hire car is still crap but I'm having fun revving it nice and high and giving it some abuse (it's terribly crude compared to a MINI)

Rang the insurers again for an update. Guess what? Nothing! Great! This is getting on my nerves. I'm going to call again on Wednesday and if there's been no change at their end, I'm going to ask to speak to a manager and make a fuss. My patience is not infinite...

However, there has been a little movement on the repairs side. I called the body shop during the middle of last week to see how they were going with getting the car stripped down further and having the engineer round to decide what needs to be done. They said they were so busy that they hadn't had time to do all the stripping down. Yippee. They were edging towards the "new body shell" option - it depends on what they find when they strip the car down further and take a look at the bulkhead (betwixt passenger cabin and engine compartment, IIRC), which involves taking the carpets out and so on. Poor Audrey...

I spoke to the repair coordination department (or some such) at my insurers as well and asked when the engineer would be going out. The person I spoke to had absolutely no idea at all (surprise!) but said she'd leave a message on the engineer's mobile phone and get him to contact me. Just my luck, I'd gone out for a walk (in the rain!) and he called when I was out. My dad took a message. The engineer hadn't been back yet but he said he'd phoned the body shop and given them a load of abuse for not getting their collective arses into gear and sorting it out. The net result is that he'll be going out tomorrow afternoon/evening to take a look at Audrey and call me later on and give me the lowdown.

Ho hum. The saga continues... 21 days MINI-less now.

What a story.....it brought tears to my eyes as I thought of Audrey....but I agree with the others...cars are replaceable and thank god Audrey was a brave little MINI. Keep us posted and I hope you and Audrey are better soon.

sounds like your not having a good time. I'm sure it will all be sorted soon and you and Audrey will be reunited.

Just one point about your most recent post but I was always under the impression that you are not meant to be in contact with the other party - the insurance company should be. You shouldnt have to be asking her questions about who she is insured with - thats theyre job. Yours is simply to recover and look forward to getting Audrey back.

And from the few bumps I have had in the past I know its not good to replay the incident in your head. Best thing is to get back behind the wheel asap.

continued good luck getting everything sorted

Paul


Not sure that I agree - if you block the images out you are more likely to be traumatised in the long run...you need to process and make sense of traumatic events, try to make sense of what happened and then the memory will be laid to rest.....guess what I do for a profession...... :p

Oh my god. I'm going to have a seizure. I don't believe it. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. It's amazing. It's miraculous. Someone slap me across the face with a kipper. Plenty of news to report today!

Item: The other side has admitted liability! Hooray. There was no question (to my mind, nor that of the solicitor who's acting for my car hire company) that it was my fault. And so it proved. That's one hell of a weight off my shoulders. Hopefully it'll all be sorted out by the time my insurance renewal comes through in September so I can switch insurers to someone half decent.

Item: Audrey was indeed inspected yesterday by the engineer. It's going to be repair job - no need for a new body shell, so evidently there was no damage to the bulkhead or anything. We're looking at a whole new front end, new suspension, new wings and so on. Parts should be ordered by Tuesday next week, so hopefully they'll be able to start work at some point during the week after that. We're looking at between three and four weeks to complete the job. Once it's done, they'll stick Audrey on a ramp and use lasers and such to make sure the alignment's spot on and the steering is perfect.

Item: Apparently I'm more than welcome to pop down to the bodyshop and be given a tour. Due to the fact that Easter's this weekend, it'll be next Saturday (fortunately no Grand Prix that weekend, phew). I'll be reunited with Audrey - however briefly - and with any luck they'll be able to tell me more about the repairs and timescales.

What a momentous day! We're still looking at five more weeks, though... (sigh)

Glad there's light in the tunnel. Will be glad to here when your back in your pride and joy again!

Good to hear that things are finaly progressing!

I have to take my Nissan Sentra back in to get the drivers door redone again! This repair busniess sucks, but at least the company thats doing the work usualy does a great job. They said its probably just due to the alignment a little out from temp changes shoulden't take but an hour or so to reset. Then after that its off to drop the car at the dealership for 2 days of rebuilding, turns out my car was selected to have several key components replaced due to a faulty cam shaft gear. This means stripping down the motor and rebuilding it.

Oh well guess I will just drive the MINI......What a shame!

V.V. - Hopefully when you get to go out to the shop you will see that she is in good hands and that Audry is looking well, give her some words of encouragement to accept the transplant parts! It never hurts!

Quick update #347550397:

Called the body shop today. They've got all the parts in bar two (didn't say which) and they've taken the engine out! I now own the world's most expensive four-wheeled push bike (the Flintstones comes to mind for some reason). They will be putting Audrey in a jig to make sure everything is straight. The arrangements for my visit on Saturday morning are sorted out, I'll take my digital camera for some pics. Hopefully I'll be able to get a shot of a semi-naked MINI without the engine in (oooh, MINI porn).

I also heard from Mini Accident Management (first time since the day of the accident). They basically told me everything that the body shop said, and said it would only be two weeks worth of repairs! :) They will call the garage every week to get updates on progress and relay the news on to me. I'm quite looking forward to Saturday now :). (Well, it'll make a change from job hunting: writing countless emails to IT recruitment agencies (I'm an out-of-work programmer) is very tiring.)

I also now have written confirmation from my insurers that the other side has admitted full liability. The hire car is still dire, but it's quite fun to drive it at 5000rpm in second gear (I don't think it likes it, though).

:)

good to hear everything is finally moving!:D

Paul

Hey Vince

Glad to hear things are progressing for you, hope Audrey is back up motoring soon.

I went past your dreaded junction on Good Friday on the way to Shrewsbury to collect my JCW S from Godfrey Hall and it prompted me to dig out your thread and get an update on what was happening.

Keep your chin up old man - she'll soon be back with you :)

Hey Vince

Glad to hear things are progressing for you, hope Audrey is back up motoring soon.

I went past your dreaded junction on Good Friday on the way to Shrewsbury to collect my JCW S from Godfrey Hall and it prompted me to dig out your thread and get an update on what was happening.

Keep your chin up old man - she'll soon be back with you :)

Did you see any nutcases driving Peugeots dangerously? :) I went up to the junction to take photos of the scene for my insurers/solicitors about 10 days after the accident. It all looked very innocent and serene. However, like an iceberg, its deadly force is hidden from view...

Slightly OT, what did you think of Godfrey Hall? I've always been pretty impressed with them. They've always been willing to help fix annoying faults (e.g. rattles) under warranty and so on. I dealt with a chap called Paul Turner (?) initially and then with Ashley Sutton. Not sure whether either of those two is still there, though... I'll probably wind up getting my next car (Cooper S, in October next year) from them as well, despite the fact I'll probably not be living in lovely Shropshire any more (I'm looking to relocate - not too fussed as to where).

So...

Today was the day of my tour of the garage and another chance to say hello to Audrey. I spent around 40 minutes at the garage and got to see the paint booth (obviously, I wasn't allowed in) and got to talk to the owner of the body shop further.

Audrey now has very little left of her front end. The engine's gone, as have the front wheels, the front suspension and the front bumper and all that stuff. The damaged chassis legs are still attached to the car, but they will start working on cutting off the old ones and attaching the new ones next week. The chassis legs get spot-welded on at the back where they meet the bulkhead. I got to see one of the new legs close up: it weighs quite a bit and has a fairly elaborate structure to help dissipate energy in an accident. This is a major part of the job and is set to take 15 hours in total, or around a week's work. Once the new chassis legs are in place, they will start rebuilding the rest of the body work - the new bonnet, front bumper, lights, etc, etc. Once this is done, they'll bung the engine in.

An interesting thing I was told was that once the car is rebuilt and everything's back together again, the car won't actually do anything. The engine won't start, nothing will work. This is due to all the computers in it. The MINI will need transporting back to the dealer, who will raise it, Lazarus-style from the dead by re-activating the computers. The dealer will carry out loads of diagnostic checks on the car to make sure it all works and ensure that the work done to the car is perfect.

Apparently the body shop spent some time arguing with my insurers about timescales and what needs repairing. The insurance company's opinion of things was that it wouldn't take too long and could be hurried up nicely and would take about 50 hours to complete. The body shop argued they need around 70 hours. Fortunately, the body shop won!

Once the new panels are in place, they can be painted in the paint booth. Then the whole car is baked at 84C or so for an hour (?). I was reassured that it wouldn't melt (that takes place at 120C). They will use exactly the same paint as BMW/Mini, i.e. several coats of primer, two coats of Pure Silver and a couple of coats of the top clearcoat.

Audrey also requires a new steering wheel, a new dashboard top and a new passenger section of dashboard. The dash top has damage on it from where the housing from the passenger airbag struck it. The steering wheel will be replaced in its entirety, as will the area around the passenger airbag. Both of these come pre-built from the factory - only MINI will construct the airbag housing and pack the airbag. That's fairly reassuring...

Time to fix is now back at its original figure of three weeks. I was told to expect MINI back no earlier than the first week of May. Can't come soon enough...

Anyway, I took some photos of a semi-clad Audrey:

Here's a shot showing the first view I got. It was a bit of a shock. Andrew (body shop owner) told me that I'd come at the worst time, as the car had been stripped down a lot and they hadn't started rebuilding yet. The two prong things you can see sticking out of the front are the chassis legs.

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31323_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31323.jpg)

Here's a look at the right-hand front chassis leg. This needs to be taken out in its entirety. It ends right at the back of the photo, under the black stuff. There is a large ripple in the metal, going from top to bottom. This is supposed to be slightly rippled for the crash structures, but due to the accident has been rippled rather a lot. The thingy beneath the area of black plastic is the end of the steering column. You can see the front-right brake thingy hanging beneath the chassis leg.

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31324_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31324.jpg)

Here's a shot of the middle of the engine compartment. There's tons of wires and pipes. I was told what each one was but promptly forgot most of them(!).

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31325_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31325.jpg)

Now we have a shot of the left-hand front chassis leg. You can see damage to it in the middle of the photo. It's supposed to be dead straight. T'ain't.

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31326_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31326.jpg)

Finally a shot of the passenger (left) side of the car, showing where the wheel and front suspension once lived. It's quite muddy beneath the front tyre arch (the black plastic bit is undamaged). The bloke in the background is one of the mechanics. Apparently I was quite lucky, most people don't get personal tours of the place with the owner! Then again, as he told me, most people aren't really that interested. They just want their car back. You can see a decent view of the trolley that Audrey's on. They sometimes push her outside, where it starts to rain... (I'd guess she lives inside during the night).

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31327_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31327.jpg)

Thats quite a fascinating set of pictures - shame there is such a sad story attached to it, but at least you nearly have her back. :D

Dude, I wish you luck in getting young Audrey back up and running - awesome thread.

Think you should call your S "Mrs Mia Wallace" when you get her!

S:yeblack:

I thought if the chassis frame is damaged they can't repair it?

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/31323.jpg

sorry to hear about your accident... had one myself a year or so ago. no fun..:(

just one thing, get 'em to remove that big blue bit. may affect the handling!:eek: :rolleyes:

I thought if the chassis frame is damaged they can't repair it?

Fortunately in my case, they can. The parts of the chassis that is damaged on Audrey are the front crumple zones. In an accident, they're supposed to deform, to dissipate all the energy (i.e. so it doesn't go into anyone in the car instead). They can be cut off the car and replacement ones spot-welded in place. The replacement parts themselves are spot-welded together, so it's not so worrying (in terms of structural integrity) as I previously thought - the old ones were fixed to the car in exactly the same way (all the replacement bits are genuine BMW parts - I held the new right-hand side section in my hand and it had a BMW/Mini sticker on it). Each replacement front chassis part is around two to three feet in length, basically from the front of the car to the bulkhead in front of the dashboard. If the bulkhead (separates the engine compartment from the passenger cabin) was damaged (the grey/silver coloured expanse of metal at the back of the engine compartment), the whole bodyshell would need replacing instead.


Think you should call your S "Mrs Mia Wallace" when you get her!


Hmmmm... "Mia" might be quite a good name for a Mini. Mia the Mini. Very alliterative (sp?). I'll make a note of that!


Thats quite a fascinating set of pictures - shame there is such a sad story attached to it, but at least you nearly have her back


My thinking is thus: the accident was 35 days ago. Let's say it takes 4 weeks at most to get Audrey back. I'm more than half-way through! Hooray! :)

Actually, come to think of it, that's not very comforting. Oh well.

I'll probably not go back to the body shop until the week after next. That'll give them time to put the new chassis bits on and do some rebuilding. Perhaps the next time I see her, Audrey will start looking a bit more "normal"...

Well, time for another update...

I called the body shop this morning, to see what progress there had been. To be honest, I was only expecting them to have rebuilt the chassis. But no, how wrong I was! I was told that not only was the chassis done, but the front suspension had been done, the engine was in place and the car now sported four wheels (+ tyres). I asked if I could pop over and have a look and got an answer in the affirmative.

Once at the body shop, armed with my trusty digital camera, I met up with Andrew the owner and we went on to the "shop floor" where all the cars were.

And this is what I saw:

Audrey looks a lot more like a MINI now. She now has no bonnet but in all other respects looks a lot better:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32011_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32011.jpg)

Here's a view from the front right. If you look through the front windscreen, you can see my new front number plate (it looks yellow because there's a thin plastic film on it).

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32012_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32012.jpg)

And, similarly, a view from the front left: (if you look to the right of the bloke in the background (that's Andrew, the owner), you can see the cylindrical throttle housing (where his left foot should be)):

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32014_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32014.jpg)

Et, finalemente, a shot of the middle of the car:

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32013_thumb.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32013.jpg)

I also saw a big pile of all the broken bits (bumper, radiator, etc). Didn't take a photo, though.

On the way out, I asked about when Audrey would be painted. Even more good news: all the painting has already taken place! All they basically need to do is to fit the front bumper, fix the new bonnet in place and sort out all the lights and the rest of the wiring loom. They then need to stick some laser thingies in the centre of the wheels (where the circular plastic inserts are) which they'll use to make sure that everything is straight. The body shop reckons they'll be finished by the end of this week, then Audrey will be taken over to my dealer for them to check everything over and do all the bits with the computers.

Bottom line, if I'm lucky, is that I'll have Audrey back by the end of next week if I'm lucky! Yippee!!! :)

Wow! Cool!

And once they fit that blue Nitrous Oxide tank in the background, it should be the fastest MINI on the planet!
http://www.mini2.com/gallery/personal/VincentVega/32014.jpg
nice to see it all coming along nicely!

Quick update time (yet again, zzzzzzzzzzzz):

Rang the garage to check how things were going. Audrey is now whole again but decided it would be fun to leak the contents of the air-con system overnight (all the gas has gone). The local air-con bloke is coming out this afternoon to fix everything (they think a seal has gone, or one of the pipes). Apparently he'll use x-rays to find the source of the leak. Hopefully they'll get this sorted this afternoon.

Either today or tomorrow, Audrey will be taken via tow truck to my BMW dealer. She'll have new airbag modules inserted (new left side of the dash and a new steering wheel) and a new dashboard top (it got damaged when the airbags went off). Once all that's done, they'll reprogram her and check all the alignment and everything. This will take a few days, so, by the end of next week, I'll be the proud owner of a lovely undamaged MINI again. Can't wait... (it'll be nearly eight weeks since the accident).

:) :) :) :) :) :)

Wow, absolutely fantastic story and documentation man. I can still remember reading this accident thread when I was a newbie here!

Congrats and good luck with the 'new' car :D :D :D :D

I'm really pleased things are almost back to normal.. as you say, the car'll be better than new soon.:cool:
Hope my lighthearted inserts have not been taken the wrong way... And thanks for sharing the pictures with us all, it really has been a fascinating insight into what we all hope will never happen to our pride and joys....

Great photos and essays. I'm enjoying seeing a peeled MINI, though sorry for the pain it took to get there.

2nd MINI

Fantastic thread, its amazing to see the emotion and support everyone has for this saga. Can't wait to see how it ends :D

well pleased for you mate. Cant wait to see the finished pictures.

Now she's back do you fancy showing her off at the motor show with 100+ other minis? :D:D

Paul