George Knighton

On Tuesday evening I was headed home in heavy traffic, had just crossed an intersection and doing about 35 mph.

Somebody who was unfamiliar with the area turned in front of me from a side road, trying to turn left in front of me to head the direction opposite to me.

Not much time to react, but since all the traffic was going my way the opposing lane was free so I tried to move that way.

She stopped about halfway into the lane I was in, but I couldn't get over enough to avoid her.

It was a hard, loud impact.

And unfortunately, because I'd tried to get out of her way, after the initial hard impact on right front, the remains of her car scraped the whole right side of my car.

:-(

"That's aluminum, isn't it?"

Initial estimates (from body shop, not insurance) are so high I don't want to talk about it. I hope they don't total the car because I've always liked it and I'll never get another one. Don't even like the new ones.

Except for the fact that she destroyed the right front wheel and moved the tyre off the bead, I think I could've driven the car home. Air bags didn't go off, I guess because nobody was in the passenger seat. Maybe because the interior is in such good shape it'll move the adjusters away from trying to total it.

The other drive got the ticket, of course, so it's on them...but no results from the carrier yet.

I'm told it's normal not to hear from the adjuster for a couple of days, but this is hard to understand. I never have to go through things like this so it is an experience alien to me.

Something that might be in my favor is that I'm told the adjuster is probably going to think that I want to total it...and I really don't.

EvilVirus

iTrader: (8)

Glad yall ok though

Limelight

Fortunately you’re ok but sounds like the car didn’t make out too well. I seem to recall yours has higher mileage so I suspect they will total it and write you a check for way less than it was ls worth to you.

Sucks you might have to go car shopping when you didn’t want to...

RLX-Sport Hybrid

That blows! I'm glad you are ok. Having been through the claims process before personally, getting your own insurance company to get involved and talking with the other company is the best bet. It will be on the other driver's policy so it won't hurt your record, but if she is under-insured, your policy will kick in on the no-fault side. But that stinks that you might have to find another car when you didn't want to look for one. Mine will be out there this winter on the wholesale market as I will be ending my term with it as I move to another vehicle. It has been fun.

Yumcha

Damn...glad everyone is okay.

miner

Sorry to hear this this unfortunate news George. I am afraid you may be getting a TOTAL from the sound of things. Put up a good fight to get al the value you deserve. How is your back feeling?

hondamore

Terrible news, George. I'm so glad you were able to walk away from the accident - cars CAN be replaced, you can't. Here's hoping they can put her back together and , if not,
all the best in finding a new car if they should end up writing it off.

Midnight Mystery

No! I hate reading this!

Be ok, bud!

moose66

Tough news, only made better that you came out unhurt physically. Good luck with the process.

neuronbob

Nooooooooo...the highest mileage Sport Hybrid injured! Glad you are OK, George.

George Knighton

Hmmm.

AcuraLink says that they ran the motor enough to drop the range from 392 miles to 388 miles.

I wonder what they're up to.

Midnight Mystery

RLX-Sport Hybrid

What are you talking about? They turned on your car without you being in it? Sorry for the dumb question, but why?

George Knighton

I dunno.

I do not know what is going on. LOL.... I'll call them back today.

They said when speaking with me initially that they would have to pull codes, perhaps the engine needed to be running for some of that. There's a message from a guy in Ohio saying that Honda engineers had looked at the car, too. I'll find out more about that.

George Knighton

AcuraLink says 387 miles now, hood is up and right front wheel is off. Other three wheels are on and TPMS working. :-)

ddswv

George:

Glad your OK, and sorry to hear about the car. Having purchased an 2018 I am very satisfied with the build, quality, and ride. It's the quietest, smoothest riding suspension and drive train of all the Acura's I have ever purchased. If it comes down to it being totaled, I'd recommend a drive in a new one before writing the RLX off.

Hope all goes well in your favor whatever that may be.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

In case anyone is interested, mine will be hitting the wholesale market very likely in February. If interested prior, let me know. It has been fun with it.

neuronbob

What’s the next daily?

RLX-Sport Hybrid

After a lot of research and talking with others who actually own the car I am going to buy, the car for us next is............. the Volvo XC90T8 with all of the trimmings. It is a little pricey at $88,800 MSRP, but I will be getting it for about $10k off and there is a combination Federal and State tax credit totaling $5,419 which will help to offset cost at a net level. I already have the MDX Sport Hybrid and love it, but I think I really want something different after all these years, and many people I know who already own this particular vehicle swear by it. They have all said the same thing that it is bullet proof and the kinks got worked out in the 2016 and 2017 model years. They updated the brakes for 2020 to behave like the Acura Sport Hybrid brakes which is the only real complaint anyone I spoke to has mentioned. Also you can't pull up the third row seats easily like you can with the MDX which has a handle. The amenities are at another level, the seats are the best I have ever sat in with all of the adjustments, massage functions and real cooling instead of the venting we have now. The driver aid functions are ridiculous, and the sound system with the Bowers & Wilkens option is simply mouth open awe inspiring. Yes the overall is more costly, but that hardly matters to me as it isn't that much in my mind. The only downside is that I have to wait 3-4 months to take delivery as I have to order it. I'm considering the Sweden delivery option in which they fly you round trip and pay for your hotel so you can drive it out of the factory and experience it there before they ship it home to the states. It might be a cool experience, but then I would have to wait another month to get it home. So maybe that won't work out. I don't know. It is a cool idea though. Not a practical one. One person has not put gas in his for months as most of his driving is local and he drives almost entirely on EV mode for weeks at a time. That isn't gas mileage mpg. That is a simple zero. He also has not seen a real difference in his electric bill at home either where he charges it, but he also charges it where ever he goes too. Cool stuff.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

One correction to my last post. The combination of Federal and State tax credit totals $5,919 at the moment. That might change before I take delivery.

George Knighton

Hmmm. So what does "wholesale" mean, exactly?

0_o

Still no final word from the other guy's insurance company, although I have heard from an auction company suggesting that I should get everything out of the car.

So they've listed it as at least a "possible total loss."

Midnight Mystery

This happened to us three years ago. It went on for just over 30 days. Then, on about day 34, they just decided "total", so we had to buy the RDX the next day. Our insurance covers 30 days of rental. We had 34 days of rental from their lack of making a decision, and they refused to pay the 4 day difference... Very annoying.

miner

THESE DAYS INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE NOT CUSTOMER ORIENTED. Selfish, self-imposed guidelines to line their own pockets.

Acure4RDX

Did you have the CMBS (Collision Mitigation Braking System) turned on? If you did, did it activate ? Maybe it was an option for your car.

George Knighton

I don't turn off safety features when I am commuting. It was on.

There was no time for any autonomous system to do anything about what was happening.

If somebody's dumb enough to pull out right in front of you, when you're less than ten feet away, there's really no saving it. :-)

George Knighton

The car is gone. The insurance company compromised as best they could.

They raised their settlement, but rejected Honda's offer to help.

So the car's gone.

I was looking forward to a few years of no car payments and of course the settlement will not be enough to buy a new KC2. I've looked at used KC2 but was not willing to buy the ones that are available at the moment.

So....

I'm probably going back to my roots.

The next time you see me, I will probably be the owner of a Civic or Fit. I just want to not have a cary payment while I'm helping a family through their tough times.

Life could be tougher. :-)

Midnight Mystery

No shame in driving a Civic! It's no RLX, but it's still a fun car!

Fit's interior space looks great!

mrgold35

There are a lot of restrictions with CMBS and object not in front of the radar/camera system, objects within a couple of feet of the MDX, moving too slow like in a parking lot, objects 3 feet or shorter, and objects thinner than a person checks all the boxes for the CMBS not working properly.

George Knighton

I want to make it clear that no system in the KC2 malfunctioned.

The woman pulled out right in front of the car, and my car did what it was supposed to do.

My attempt to avoid the accident by moving as far as I could mitigated the injuries to the other driver, but it unfortunately also caused far greater damage to my car.

The car was totaled because of the expense involved with all of the aluminum in the car, and because the insurance company was afraid of suspension trouble that mightn't show up until thousands of miles later.

Every panel on the right side of the car was damaged, as was the front bumper. It was just too much for them.

The funny thing is that if the right front wheel hadn't been destroyed, I could have continued to drive the car.

Nothing in the car's systems malfunctioned. The car did what it was supposed to do.

miner

George,
Bottom line is you survived with out injury. Do you mind sharing what Honda's offer was to help?

RLX-Sport Hybrid

So as a follow up, I had an extended test drive today of a 2019 version which belongs to the dealership owner (he let me borrow his personal demo car) and drove it for about 100 miles. I experimented with the various drive modes and realized that my learning curve will be longer than I expected. Overall I managed to get 49mpg for my drive time as I spent most of it in EV mode and hybrid mode. I am told that the mpg can range from the high teens to more than 60mpg depending on how you drive it and manage the use of the EV mode and hybrid modes. The previous mpg on the screen said it was averaging 42 mpg before I drove it and he had 338 miles on the tank when I got in, and after my 100 miles more, when I returned it, it was right on the 1/4 marker. For 2020 they enlarged the gas tank to 18.5 gallons so that would theoretically give it a potential real world range of 900 miles for a tank of fuel. I am shocked at how awesome it was in relation to either the RLX or MDX Sport Hybrids. Not that the others are crap as I am real fan of both and the brand, but the Volvo XC90T8 is at another level completely. Fit and finish are extraordinary. The materials are first rate. Every seam, every surface, every view was clearly thought out and engineered in what looks like a non-mass produced manner. No creaks, rattles, or anything else to complain about. I will say it may take some time to get used to the exhaust sound which is slight and muted, but the supercharger whine, then the turbo spin up will not get old very quickly, assuming the engine fires at all. In my test drive it was almost 30 minutes of driving before the engine even turned on. The vehicle definitely is not aimed at being sporty, rather complete luxury. To be honest I did not want to come back to the dealer and now I will be pacing the floor waiting for mine to arrive in 3 months. The sound system is simply spectacular. Best I have ever heard hands down. The way I can customize nearly every aspect of the car's set up, the HUD, the dual navigation screens, the totally configurable displays, change the interior LED ambient lighting, and then we have the active head lights. WOW! There are videos out there showing how the automatic lights work which will demonstrate its abilities better than I could explain but I thought the lights on the RLX were awesome, these on the XC90T8 make those look like garbage by comparison. The MSRP is sort of high at $86,480 (I removed one option which reduced the cost slightly) , but with discounts and the tax credits, the actual cost is about $72,400 loaded to the gills. That is about $12,000 more than a MDX Sport Hybrid Advance before any discounts. This makes for a very compelling upgrade and quite frankly makes Acura look bad by comparison if I am comparing content to content for the money. I have been an Acura guy for 30 years, but if this vehicle delivers the way I am anticipating, it will be hard for me to come back to Acura for another purchase. We will keep our MDX Sport Hybrid for a long time as it only has 33,000 miles on it and it is 2.5 years old. It will likely be a 10 year hold for us, but so might the XC90T8 too. I am afraid to say it, but if you test drive the XC90T8 and it is in your budget, I doubt you would select the MDX Sport Hybrid over it. It is just that good. Completely worth the extra money. Sorry Acura. Better step up your game and fast.

George Knighton

I do not mind, but they might. :-)

Kind of looking forward to driving a Fit for a while. It is noisy.

Midnight Mystery

The good thing about the Fit is that you can drive it like you stole it! It's so slow you can just leave it in vtec all of the time! I really have a thing for those 2012-13 Fit in the sport trim package.

neuronbob

Sorry to read the Sport Hybrid is gone, and especially the way that it happened. Nothing wrong with a downgrade! On my list of potential next daily drivers is the Accord Sport 2.0T, in fact. Fit at least looks nice and holds stuff. If you want to go faster (and noisier ), there are at least two supercharger kits for the Fit .

3.2cls6speedmt

dr. bob

will you look at a manual?

neuronbob

Of course. It’s mind-bending to me that Honda figured out how to put adaptive cruise control on a manual transmission car.

wcoy

Accord Sport 2.0T is exceptional. Manual is a must.

neuronbob

The 10AT is not chopped liver, though. That drivetrain has turned out to be fairly decent. It’s not perfect, mind you, but I could live with it.

Midnight Mystery

My favorite new car on the market! It's definitely worth a look!

George Knighton

It disengages if you put the clutch in and coast.

As long as you are shifting logically up and down, with just a short delay between gears, it maintains speed well. :-)