Motors I Hit a Raccoon, In Pictures

So one night on my way to work I happen to stumble upon a raccoon, at 50 some mph, with my bumper. I tried to avoid it but he obviously had no desire to live since he jumped out of the ditch and made a mad dash to the front of my car, luck was not on his side as he hit my bumper and took a ride in the wheel well only to skid and hop down the road a bit and get up and shake it off, before running into the woods with a sense of satisfaction that he was the reason that I am fixing my car instead of buying that nice flat panel TV that I was planning on. At this point I was ready to chase the damn thing into the woods and finish the job but laziness set in and I decided to make sure everything was aight.

So as luck would have it the furry little jerk cracked my lower spoiler, shattered my bumper, and generally F.... my stuff up. I shoved everything back into place as well as I could and continued off to work swearing and screaming as I went, and the fuel light goes on. I pull into the closest station that sold diesel and noticed that all the pumps that sold diesel and gas had jerks filling up their stupid SUVs with gas except the broken one, but I didn't know it was broken. I look at the semi pumps knowing that with the huge nozzle and fast flow rate I would get more fuel on me than in the car (I tried once). I notice an open pump and try filling up, it was the busted one, more swearing and screaming when I found out and finally was able to get to a different pump and get enough to make it to work.

Now I took the car apart and found all the broken pieces and I did promise pictures soooooo.....

What the car looks like in its current form





Now look at what that little thing did to my front end!



Thats not the worst part, I have no car now and its a 90 mile roundtrip to work every day and I have three choices.

1. My dad's Passat, not diesel, not stickshift, and it lacks all the things that I got used to in my car. But he lets me use it and I am grateful for it, at least its got heated seats and a turbo.

2. My Buell, goes like hell, gets about the same mileage as the car (on premium), but the rider is a wuss and doesn't like showing up to work and school cold and wet. So its not an option every day.



3. And last but not least... at 10,000lbs and 40 feet of pure American steel (ok, those numbers might be a little bit high, but not too much) I have a Chevy 3/4 ton stuff hauler, at least its a stick. At 14mpg and the turning radius of a football field it isn't the most pleasant thing to drive but it does the job, very expensively.



I cant wait till I get my car back together....

edit: And no, I didnt get any pictures of me hitting a raccoon. There is a bunny getting creamed by a racecar on youtube if you really want to see it.

 

why remove the rear bumper? My neibough hit a deer back last summer, little f***er bouced under the car and thought it to be funny to wrap it legs around the drivers side rear wheel hub, was draged 150m before he managed to stop the car safely.

Iv never seen such a mess, spent 30 minutes with a pressure washer and jack to clean the car up.

i dislike cars due to the death they cause, but as soon as i am behide the wheel i remember why i love them...

oh and use the passat, wont cost as much to run.

 

Use the chevy, 'cause it's got what looks like a bath attached to the back - a talking point, if little else and who knows where it would lead?

 

bike you will save fuel if you go normal speeds

 

Aww! I was expecting pictures of roadkill!

Anyway, You should use the Chevy. If the raccoon shows up again, it will die for sure.

Oh, and you are lucky your airbags didn't fire.

 

I'mma pretend to be horrified by that comment (while secretly sharing your disappointment).

Hardcore raccoon; it must be pretty proud of itself.

 

this!

ANyway, sucks you cant get a new TV because a racoon jumped in front of your car, strange the cards life deals occationally

 

Racoon's are tough! reminds me of stitch, lilo's pet. Did he get the back bumper aswell?

 

There's something wrong with me...

 

The bumpers on the Chevy are steel, and they are fun to drive, in my opinion, being able to drive over raccoons, that's empowering. Go for the truck, I would.

 

You were lucky my dad hit a small jack Russel doing 50. New front bumper and the associated grubbing, new water radiator, new aircon radiator and refill on that of course(Actually work better now). My parents forgot their mobiles and had to wonder around a Cheetham hill in Manchester(Not a very nice place to be after dark). Bill came to over well over £1000 but lucky his insurance covered it. The dog ran off but it properly died form its injuries later on like your raccoon.

To add insult to injury he had to walk down the police station to report it(its classed as not reporting an accident over here and you can lose your licence) in the poring rain the next day. Why cant you report it over the phone i don't know.

 

The rear bumper was from a snow shoveling incident, I misjudged where the snow ended and the car began. I figured I would get all the body damage fixed at once and get it over with.

I use it as little as possible since it is very inconvenient to drive. Think of the worst thing to maneuver in traffic and something that could suck a gas station dry, it works great for hauling though.

 

I've driven one just like that, except a crew cab, but with the extended bed. I was used to a Honda Accord though, so having a big truck was pretty neat.
For a serious recomendation seeing your position, I'd say you dads car, lest you don't want to inconvenience him, otherwise the motorcycle unless the weather is bad, and a throwup between the truck and passat in bad weather.

 

That was one fast Jack Russel!

 

My dads swing was even quicker.

 

at least you only hit a raccoon and not something bigger. a month or two ago my brother was on his way back from a 5 hour drive in the middle of the night with his missus and 2 kids when he hit a sheep. the thing died on impact (and shat itself too) and flew a good 6 meters off sideways. the thing cracked his radiator, bent his chassis and wrecked a bunch of other crap too. luckily with the sheep dieing on impact, my brother didn't have to kill it himself especially since he had 2 kids in the car. repairs would have cost too much so my brother sold the thing and bought a moped.
I don't drive but thats mainly cause my vision is buggered and headlights from on coming traffic pretty much blocks out the road so I'd most likely crash into something while driving at night.

 

I don't understand what's happening here.

My insurance pays for the damage to the car, and I get a replacement car for as long as my car is in the shop. TOTALLY FREE!

What's the problem?

 

I hit a small deer once (monkjack...?) on the a$$ doing 50mph. It was dark and the stupid thing just jumped out of the hedge into my headlights, and almost made it. It just disappeared into the dark so god knows what happened to it eventually. Made nice mess though

 

When you have a thousand dollar deductible and pay as much as I do anyway you try and avoid making any claims at all.

 

Quite often they run off on sheer Adrenalin. Then die from there injuries shortly after.