[geeks] Mac definitions

[Nate Raymond]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Dan Sikorski <me at dansikorski.com> wrote:

> Modern cars are damaged more easily because they are designed to.
>

I learned this first-hand when my 2007 Honda Fit was totaled by it's own
airbag deployment in February this year.  (In my 15+ years on the road I'd
never been in a car accident in a moving vehicle, so this came as a bit of a
surprise to me.)  Snow was falling at a rate of about an inch an hour, and
the roads weren't plowed well, so getting to the highway meant about 10-15
mph travel.  Got on the highway, and saw that it hadn't been plowed very
recently, with significant accumulation between lanes, and I planned to get
off the highway at the next exit and call in to work that I'd be coming in
later.  Going about 30mph I started to move over one lane to the left since
the rightmost lane I was in was worse, and during the lane transition I
started to loose traction (front wheel drive car, all-season radial tires,
tires still cold).  Tried to brake, but that made my car start going
diagonally across the highway.  I had kept myself well spaced from the few
other vehicles on the road, so I wasn't at risk of hitting any other
vehicles, but I was heading toward the left side of the highway, so I
focussed on trying to get the car pointed straight.  Got the car straight,
but only just before it hit the packed snow on the left side of the highway,
which scuffed the left front aluminum rim, and put a 3 inches scuff in the
'sport' trim below the driver's side door, and then triggered the left side
airbag deployment.  Side curtain and the driver's seat airbag deployed.  The
side curtain airbags burst through the ceiling liner, and the driver's side
window was popped out by the airbag (one second it was there, the next it
was gone).  I was fine, drove the car home, stopping there to check external
damage, noticed it wasn't significant, drove it to a nearby dealer and
called my insurance company, expecting my car could be fixed up (as did the
dealer).  The estimate turned out to be 99 hours of work to fix everything
including extensive interior work, replacing the driver's seat,
reset/reprogram the airbag sensor system, etc. which exceeded the value of
the car.

Ended up getting a 2011 Suzuki SX4 Crossover (which is an all-wheel drive
hatchback).

- Nate