[Thorzdad]

Went for walk tonight (it’s finally great weather!) and noticed a car in a driveway that had apparently had some severe front end damage. Everything at the front of the car was being held on by this crazy conglomeration of trash bags and black duct tape. Like, rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls of black duct tape, wrapped and criss-crossed in every direction possible all of the place.

From a distance, it looked like a huge mass of branches and shrubs stuck to the front of the car, but it was this huge crazy mess of tape and trash bags.

I kind of understand, though. Around here, even the simplest collision repair is being scheduled months out. So, if the car is still rolling, you do what you can do.

[ghporter]

Vehicle damage, and long lead times for repairs, reminds me of something.

Last weekend, somebody tried to drive through our neighborhood’s gate early in the morning. By “drive through” I do not mean “ingress in an appropriate fashion,” but rather “open the gate with the front of the vehicle.” Of course our gates move sideways, so the driver was frustrated. No, we don’t know if this was a resident, but a vehicle matching the description, with or without license plates, is not visible in the neighborhood.

But now we have a big, bent sliding gate that has to be replaced, which is $$$expensive$$$. But wait! We had cameras installed at the gates for just such shenanigans. And the outside and inside cameras for that gate caught it all. The driver even seemed to pause, posing for the camera to catch the license plate.

The association’s “people” have the video, and hopefully the driver (or the driver’s insurance, or whatever) will start coughing up the dough to fix our very expensive gate damage pretty soon. I’ll point out that our association’s board is not anything like the memes.

[reader50]

Any normal car or pickup will have expensive front-end damage after a stunt like that. If they pushed the radiator into the fan, they won't have gotten far.

Have you seen the pics? Any idea how much their vehicle is messed up?

[ghporter]

I got the downloaded video from the camera vendor (my wife is on the board, and I am pretty much “the” tech guy for the board). I was able to do frame captures, particularly of the license plate, and I’m quite impressed by the quality of the video.

The vehicle was poorly lit after the impact, but it should at least have a torn up bumper cover. The driver was able to leave the area without too much difficulty, so I don’t think it was as bad as radiator damage.

The consensus of both the vendor and the board members who saw the video is that the driver was either angry at the gate, or “impaired”, or both. This should be quite interesting as it plays out.

[subego]

Just crossed a whopping 25K miles on my 8yo van.

[Thorzdad]

8 years? Geez. We would’ve been closing in on 200k after 8 years on our cars.

[subego]

A benefit of city life right at the boundary of a commercial district. Almost everything I need in my personal life is either in walking distance, accessible by train, or deliverable. I pretty much only drive for work, which is why the cargo van as my DD is going so swimmingly.