My 97 met a Caterpillar during snow removal :(

[maxg765]

Hello All,

I am sad to say that a Caterpillar Snow removal (the large ones with exposed front tires) bumped the rear of my low mile pristine 97 while it was parked.

it was one of these



I saw the snow clearing operation start and went outside to move my car out of the way. I could not get into my driveway as they had blocked it with chunks of snow so I parked it on a perpendicular street out of the way and far enough from the corner to be safe. I guess the driver of the tractor felt it necessary to turn into the street a bit and it front exposed front tire hit the back of my SVX. That pushed my car forward (which was parked on a smooth sheet of ice) into the rear of my father-in-law's Nissan Rouge Mini SUV. Which in turn caused my SVX (which is much lower than his rear bumper is) to go under his Nissan. In turn that caused damage to my hood and its jammed shut. I can assume that the hood locking mechanism is also damaged. The hood is buckled. Oddly, the headlights, grill, and other related front end items seem to be free of damage. The front grill is free of damage but pushed in about a centimeter, the lights appear to still be in the correct place. The side panels are perfect and free of damage. I think I will only need a new hood and locking mechanism as I do not want to repair it on such a nice low mile example. The rear bumper had just some scuffs as it was the exposed tire that bumped my car which i think will buff out while the front bumper appears to be the same as well. In either case I will need a new OEM hood and will have my restoration guy do the work. I will have him remove the front hood and review everything to make sure its perfect and better than new. My father-in-law's 2 month old Rouge will need the rear bumper touched up as there is only a 1cm scratch probably caused by my Subaru hood badge.

The snow removal guy said to me, oh well it happens all the time, call your insurance company. As we have that wonderful "No Fault" insurance here in Quebec, Canada there is nothing I can do but either call my insurance or have it fixed out of my own pocket. I am gong with the later so far unless once my guy gets the hood opened I end up needing supports etc.... My guy does not think so by the way the front lights are intact and the bumper has not moved any. Hope he is right.


Will post some pictures later tonight.

This sucks!

Max

[Wikedjuggalo]

Man that sucks! If it happened here the guy driving the machine would be fixing it as well its his damn fault. I hope you are able to get everything back to great condition.

[ensteele]

I can see why it happens all of the time by the why the drivers attitude is. Oh well, it happens all of the time - I am just a bad driver and don't give a $h*t. Good luck on the fix.

[Green1995SVX]

The same thing happened to me last week! A city snow plow hit my car, pushed it about 15 feet and caused almost $4000 in damage. The scary thing is that in Pennsylvania, local municipalities can declare "Municipal Immunity" and can be free of liability in these sorts of situations. At this point, though, it looks like they're taking care of it.

[Ownbot]

Originally Posted by Green1995SVX

The same thing happened to me last week! A city snow plow hit my car, pushed it about 15 feet and caused almost $4000 in damage. The scary thing is that in Pennsylvania, local municipalities can declare "Municipal Immunity" and can be free of liability in these sorts of situations. At this point, though, it looks like they're taking care of it.

Oh wow I live in PA, now you are scaring me!!!!

[Blacky]

I'm a Quebec resident also. You can have the car fixed under insurance and you should pay nothing $0.00. The city will have to cover the deductable as it was the plow drivers fault, your car was legally parked.
I hope you got his name and plate on the machine. You should have filed a police report also or you will be SOL.

[liamrh]

Bull****, get a good tort lawyer.

[IceBlade]

Originally Posted by ensteele

I can see why it happens all of the time by the why the drivers attitude is. Oh well, it happens all of the time - I am just a bad driver and don't give a $h*t. Good luck on the fix.

It's scary driving around here when snow removal crews are out. The other day I almost got slammed into on the drivers side by a tractor. The guy zoomed through a stop sign. And I mean zoomed. I looked and he wasn't there, I started advancing, and suddenly he comes around the corner, and totally blows the stop, barely missing my bumper. Had I not been in a relaxed mood, I would have accelerated faster, as I usually tend to do and probably had my head taken off by the front shovel thing.

[NikFu S.]

Wow that's lame. :/

I think the laws around here are pretty strict. These guys would much rather box you in with 4 feet of curb snow rather than hit your car.

Would be nice if they could scrape my neighborhood when I'm not trying to sleep, though. They came through last week about 3am and all I could hear was "screee... chunk... scrreeeeeeeeeee chunk bombombom... SCRREEEEEEEEEECH CHUNK BOMB BOM.. *exhaustnoise* SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... as they turned the lot into a skating rink.

[dennyo]

hope everything works out for you.that scraper operator should be shot & pi..ed on.

[maxg765]

Hello

So I ordered the following new OEM parts:

-Hood
-inner hood stickers
-Right and left hinge just to be on the safe side but Subaru said they were fine
-New hood Locking mechanism and latch
-Hood Striker Plate
-Locking mechanism "holding bracket" or what ever its called
-OEM paint materials

The rest was fine unless they find the pins that hold the light assembly cracked or something. I will know next week.

She should be back on the road next week if the parts arrive this week.

My guy that does my classic restoration will do the work for me and make sure its better than when new. He is a perfectionist and did my Triumph STAG this past summer.

Once she's in his hands he will give her a complete hand rub wet sanding and air brush any scratches or imperfections.


Will keep you all posted.

I still plan on posting some before accident, after accident and after repair photos.

Regards

Max