A sad day indeed :crying:. Only yesterday I proudly submitted my first post on my '05 CTS in the 'Name Your Cars Game' thread, and how proud of it I am. Then today, just tooling along perfectly normally, POW. A fellow runs the red light, and even though the ABS put up a noble fight on the rainy road, we hit pretty hard. At least no one was hurt.
Horribly, I had spent quite a while saving up, and weeks searching for just the exact right CTS! This one had all the options, the colors I wanted, the 3.6, and had been lovingly tended all its life - the accident was quite literally its very first scratch. I'd only gotten it a couple weeks ago and I was still catching myself smiling every time I got behind the wheel. What an amazing car!
Now of course, my question is whether anyone here has a 'ballpark' idea just what it might cost to repair such damage. As far as driveability it seems completely unaffected, and it was a purely frontal contact, no sideways sliding or the like. The airbags didn't deploy (in my car at least, the other guy was a bit more shaken. That's a Caddy for you!) and the steering, braking, etc seem totally normal. In short it appears to my untrained eye to be limited entirely to body damage - considering the force involved, amazing - but a testament to the build quality of Cadillac!
So in brief: I know the bumper is trashed, the grille/plastic surround is damaged, the left headlight pod is skewed but unbroken, and the front edge of the hood is curled downward. All the lights seem to work, as well as the fogs/DRL's/turn signals. (hopefully my little robotic headlamp washers are okay!). The way the left headlight is pushed in a bit makes me fear that perhaps the left front fender is somehow internally damaged too, but I just can't tell. It could be a seperate mounting bracket perhaps.
Any ideas? I am not very experienced when it comes to estimating things like this; indeed in my 19 years of driving I've only dented one fender. I do know an insurance company will only pick up repairs up to a certain amount and that the other driver had a rental (so presumably has at least a passable policy) but I'm dreading the thought of learning that my Caddy is totaled just when I was starting to really bond with it. I was hoping for a few rough guesses on the cost, so that I could have something to compare against when I start dealing with the insurance company tomorrow.
And thanks, all. One miniscule consolation is that after this car had amazed me with its ride, handling, looks, comfort, economy... it scores another point with safety. I'm a Cadillac man for life now!
Horribly, I had spent quite a while saving up, and weeks searching for just the exact right CTS! This one had all the options, the colors I wanted, the 3.6, and had been lovingly tended all its life - the accident was quite literally its very first scratch. I'd only gotten it a couple weeks ago and I was still catching myself smiling every time I got behind the wheel. What an amazing car!
Now of course, my question is whether anyone here has a 'ballpark' idea just what it might cost to repair such damage. As far as driveability it seems completely unaffected, and it was a purely frontal contact, no sideways sliding or the like. The airbags didn't deploy (in my car at least, the other guy was a bit more shaken. That's a Caddy for you!) and the steering, braking, etc seem totally normal. In short it appears to my untrained eye to be limited entirely to body damage - considering the force involved, amazing - but a testament to the build quality of Cadillac!
So in brief: I know the bumper is trashed, the grille/plastic surround is damaged, the left headlight pod is skewed but unbroken, and the front edge of the hood is curled downward. All the lights seem to work, as well as the fogs/DRL's/turn signals. (hopefully my little robotic headlamp washers are okay!). The way the left headlight is pushed in a bit makes me fear that perhaps the left front fender is somehow internally damaged too, but I just can't tell. It could be a seperate mounting bracket perhaps.
Any ideas? I am not very experienced when it comes to estimating things like this; indeed in my 19 years of driving I've only dented one fender. I do know an insurance company will only pick up repairs up to a certain amount and that the other driver had a rental (so presumably has at least a passable policy) but I'm dreading the thought of learning that my Caddy is totaled just when I was starting to really bond with it. I was hoping for a few rough guesses on the cost, so that I could have something to compare against when I start dealing with the insurance company tomorrow.
And thanks, all. One miniscule consolation is that after this car had amazed me with its ride, handling, looks, comfort, economy... it scores another point with safety. I'm a Cadillac man for life now!