Corvette repair price - hydroplaning accident

[kevinlindley1]

Hey all!

About a week ago I bought my first Corvette - a Manual Crystal Red 2015 Z51 3LT. Yesterday I was driving down the highway in a thunderstorm (you probably know where this is going...) and I began to hydroplane going about 65 mph. I could feel the car start drifting sideways with the car beginning to angle towards the median of the highway (so my driver's side front wheel would impact the median). I instinctively turned the steering wheel to the right before impacting, which saved the front driver's side wheel, but the rear driver's side wheel/body of the car smashed into the median.

Then, my car started to slide across all 3 lanes of the highway and my front passenger wheel/fender collided into the wall on the other side of the highway. About half a second later, the back end came around and it too slammed into the highway wall. Thankfully no other cars were near me, and the car came to a stop on the shoulder of the highway. I then noticed my back driver's side wheel was still partially in the lane (all other wheels were on the shoulder) so I put the car in 1st gear and was able to move it about 10 feet forward (surprisingly) to get almost the entire car onto the shoulder.
The very last impact made on the car (the one where my back rear passenger wheel slammed into the highway wall) actually caused the rotor of that wheel to fracture. I actually have 3 pieces of the rotor with me now...

Additionally, the airbags did not deploy. I'm thinking that is good because I assume that the airbag sensors would only deploy the airbags if the sensors detected the frame was crumpling? However the fact that the rotor basically exploded should say something about the force of the impact. I feel totally fine as well, just concerned about the oncoming battle with insurance (hopefully it won't be bad; I had a police officer file a report and he told me he was going to write the report as me "not being inattentive")

Anyways, I had it towed off the highway and it is at a repair center/body shop now. Looking at it, I noticed that both rear wheels are not inline with the car. I also could see thru the wheel well that one of the bars (not the axle) was totally bent. The front right fender is also cracked. Amazingly, the whole "the driver protects his side" theory proves true, with basically no damage to the front driver's side quadrant of the car.

So now I'm wondering what you guys think I may be in for in repairs (if the car is not deemed to be totaled). Just looking at it, I'm assuming there will be atleast $15k, probably more like $20k of repairs...do you guys have any ideas on what else could be wrong with it? I would honestly rather have this car repaired than have it totaled and deal with buying another one.

But at the same time, I did plan to take it to a few HPDE/track days and I am wondering if the car will no longer be safe to track/race after being repaired. I assume that the car would only be unsafe to track if there was significant frame damage, and if the rest of the parts were merely repaired instead of completely replaced.


TLDR; halp i broke my car.

Thanks guys!!

[SR-71]

Sorry to hear about your accident. Just curious. Did you have your C7 in the Weather Mode at the time of the accident? Also curious how many miles you had on your tires?

The police can always come up with some reason for what you did wrong, regardless of how fast you were going, driving too fast for road conditions is a typical catch-all phrase, and the obvious failing to maintain control is another good one.

Years ago my wife crashed one of our new vehicles. My insurance company told me the cost to repair was high and they offered me a choice to repair or replace it. I opt'ed to repair it. Big mistake. It was never the same after the crash, and a few years later the repaired paint faded, along with other issues, squeaks, rattles, etc. If I'm every given that choice again (hopefully never again) I'll opt to total the vehicle, bite the depreciation bullet and start over with a new one. Keep in mind even if the car is fixed perfectly, the car will have a negative CARFAX report which will probably decrease its resale value.

Whenever I've tried to estimate a repair it always ends up being 2-3x more costly than I had expected. Assuming your insurance company doesn't total the car, and you wish to have it repaired, I suggest having the repair shop pay particular close attention to the C7's aluminum sub-frame assembly. IMO, if the sub-frame assembly needs tweaking or repairing, have it totaled.

[phillip123hastings]

I don't think it will be dangerous to race afterwards.