I know I was thinking of changing cars but.....

Someone in front of me yesterday on the way to work decided to turn right at the last minute without looking to see if anything was coming the other way....

Everyone walked away and the only one that ended up in hospital was the bloke that caused it...just a gash to the head.


The Alfa:




The Pug that caused it:




The 2 week old Merc he collected:




Pug's engine ended up in the ditch:



And the Pug's 'box ended up in the road behind me....

Bloody hell - glad everyone is more-or-less OK. Bummer. Good luck getting everything sorted.

I was surprised quite how much that 206 disintegrated!

I bet - quite shocking to see how it's come to bits - especially compared to the other two cars.

Glad everyone walked away. But how did you t-bone the pug?

I didn't. The merc did, and one or other ploughed into me as they went past.

Frightening stuff

Pleased everyone walked away ok, the pug was destroyed!

Wow, glad to hear all were ok!

Glad all are ok.

What are you going to get as a replacement?

Not sure yet. I keep going through the trader and looking at the 1-2 grand range...

Bummer for you OS

The pug, in spite of its being blitzed, seems to have held at least some of its shape in the saloon, luckily for the driver.

Yeah go back to a car of even 20 years or so they would have been scraping at least one of us off the tarmac.

Bloody EU insisting on cars passing crash test standards.... ;-)

Glad you're ok Steve

My Coupe is 18 years old

Glad you and the others are OK, does show how well protected we are in cars now.

That's some serious bad luck. I hope you get a decent resolution from the insurer.

Just seen this, obviously it's good nobody was seriously hurt. The damage was very extensive, again I'm being obvious. Just out of curiousity what was the speed when this occurred? The Pug looks really bad! A wake up call in the morning or what?!

It's a NSL road, so the pug turning would have been sub 20 mph I guess, and the Merc could have been doing 60, but I think he was braking.

I know I should hate that Vauxhall that EDz put on the other cars for sale section....but somehow I can't.

A 240 bhp V6 Turbo in an overgrown hatch.....

I did say I needed something a bit of a lugger.

Glad you're ok Steve. Its got me thinking about the missus 206 though

Glad everyone walked away.
My mom was looking at a 206 as a winter runaround....
Maybe not!

If the approaching Merc was doing around 60 mph I get the impression that the right sort of things happened in order for the cabin to stay intact? I admit it looks dramatic to have large parts strewn across the road but in theory these are replaceable....

I think you are right, dissipate the energy in knocking bits off rather than sending it all through the mushy bit behind the wheel.

The 206 did what it was designed to do in a crash.

It dissipated a lot of energy by the crumple zones crumpling and the engine breaking loose.

This meant that the important reinforced part where humans are located stayed relatively intact and the driver survived with only minor injuries.

I kinda agree with the energy dissipation - but once it's dissipated that protection is gone. A second hit or a hit by a bigger object (articulated lorry) and it's not looking too clever.

The bigger and stronger the car, the better chance you have in a crash but it is good to see that all cars have got better over the years. However, some manufacturers do just enough to collect the points in the standard test and a non-standard crash causes more damage than one would hope and expect from the original test results. This is another case of where the tests need to be made more thorough and realistic.

Well they have given me a pretty new Volvo V70 estate. Far too bloody complicated by half!

Not pretty and new?

The archetypal safe car

Glad you were all OK.

Electric handbrake, stupid keyless entry, totally digital dash....

What's wrong with people!

My daily is a 206

It's rather impressive that nobody was seriously injured.
My youngest brother had a 206, it disintegrated spectacularly when he hit a traffic island whilst distracted by his passenger, but again, no injuries.

And tonight the hire car they've given me picked up a puncture..... Grrrrrrrr

Blimey - glad you are ok mate

And then today I drive 60 miles to look at a car that I am assured is in really great condition, only to get there and discover it's a baggy old shed, with a dent in the door....clearly has more than the miles quoted and a tyre so cracked and bald I'd want to change it before venturing on the motorway with it....

Fed up with it all now.....

How much more can a petrol head take?!
What car did you go, see and leave?
I've just bought a Seat Altea tdi, my first diesel. Lots of issues to sort I.e. worn out rear brakes, air bag light on, graunchy gearbox (lack of oil cured that one).
I like the gruffness of the engine and the low down thrust.
Now I understand the attraction of a turbo......

It can be satisfying buying a nail, at the right price, and sorting it.

What's next on your list to see?
Keep us posted, it HAS to get better for you soon

It was a Vauxhall Signum 3.2 V6. Looked great in the pictures.

Out and about today looking for a few others....found what appears to be a lovely facelifted 156 2.0 JTS Veloce in black with oxblood leather. Parked up in front of omeones house....but there was no contact number on it, and there was no answer from the house....ffs!

Did manage to find another local-ish dealer with a pretty big stocklist, so I went over only to discover they are not open on a sunday... they have an Altea there are it goes, red 1.6 petrol, and an on the surface tasty 147....but its a selespeed.....

The jts engine is problematic. It's been discussed on here when someone was looking at an Alfa gt. Best steer clear. Pity cos the interior sounds lush.

The 1.6 Altea engine is the Fsi I think - again, a bit of a faff.

Silly speed gives trouble, but doesn't cost as much sort as it used to.

Mondeo V6? Vectra V6? Old, big engines Lexus like Nissan Steve's?
Pug 406 Coupe. Nice looking car. V6 available too.

Given they are taking my hire car back on Wednesday, I have gone out tonight and pulled the trigger on a 52 plate Volvo S60 2.0T.

Not the worlds most exciting car, but it's only got jut over 90,000 miles, cold air-con, 12 months MOT (advisory on rear tyres), half leather, a couple of tiny bits of lacquer peel, and a couple of small parking dings.

All for a remarkably small amount of cash.

Quite how long I keep it for I have no idea, but at least I can get to work for the rest of the week!

S60 - very good, underrated cars in my opinion.
Had a D5 for 3 years from new around 2003.
Did approx 75k from new without a sniff of trouble. One set of tyres after about 45k is all I can recall?
Very comfortable seats, nice ride and lots of Volvo safety kit all built in. Mine was Dawn Blue, which I think dated very well...
Hope yours gives you plenty of trouble free mileage.

You won't go far wrong with an S60.
I had a 51 plate 2.0T for 5 years and all it needed was a set of tyres and a drivers door lock lubricating as it kept popping open after locking.

It would happily sit at 120 when required (on a private road of course)and averaged 32mpg.

Well, picked it up tonight and a very easy 2 mile drive home. Looks like it need petrol though!

There is a bit of a knock at the front over potholes which will need sorting at some point, and I need to find a way of hooking an external feed to the stereo, and I couldn't get the seat to my liking, but didn't try too hard.

Then the hire car people sent me an email telling me they are charging me for the new tyre that got punctured......



I need a drink.

A week in and all seems OK.
There was a bit of a whiff of petrol after I filled it, and examination of the filler cap revealed a perished and half missing g seal, so that's been replaced.

One of the 2 advisory tyres went flat so I replaced them as well.

One Ballache has been the pub cure I had on the hire car. They have billed me £250 for a tyre the I could have got all in for about £55!
It never even occurred to me that I should just get it fixed myself, assuming they would want to handle it. I wish I had now....

I think you should be able to try and claim it as an out of pocket expense from the other insurer? Talk to your insurer to see if they can help and/or get some to advise of if you can put a claim in direct. Worth a shot.

I have a whole list of out of pocket expenses from this, including my excess I think it's over £500. I really wish I had left legal cover on my policy as the insurers would have dealt with all this.

Volvo S60 totally understandable after seeing that Pug disintegrate

I disliked the look of the S60 when launched but they have grown on me. Young chap at work had a 5 cylinder Turbo for a while which was rather rapid and followed it with a loaded Diesel V60, I must confess that I quite liked it