unreality

Once upon a time, there was a young man who was fascinated with rotary engines and thought that their efficiencies and capabilities were amazing. He decided that when he came of age to have a car, he'd buy an RX-7.

When that day came, he knew damn well he'd never be able to afford the FD he dreamt of, but he was intrigued by the allure of the FB. The feel of no power steering, the raw feedback from the stickshift, all the things that people complain about in older cars are what made it fun to drive. Above all else, the "cockpit" feeling of driving a small two-seater around with no way to drown out the noise from the road was perfect. (The car admittedly needed some weather stripping or something. It was a loud beast)

The young man finally found a suitable FB, a car with very low miles and little wear. He purchased it for $2,000 and left happy. Later, he'd put more money into the stereo, and the brakes, and the clutch, and the air conditioning, and so on, but it was worth every penny.

He drove it for years, taking it with him across many homes and states. Eventually, he ended up in beautiful La Jolla, California, an unlikely home for a 20 year old car, but a good home. Unfortunately, the man's housing association only provided a single parking space to him because of high demand, and his spouse's newer car won favor for this parking space. Thus, the RX-7 was destined to park on the street, but always in sight and looked after.

One night, the man got an urge to fulfil his Ikea nesting instinct, and he left with his spouse in her larger car to go fill it with cheap mass produced particleboard furniture. While he was away, the unspeakable happened.

The wicked, stupid, moronic, drunk-driving-college-girl, Witch of the West was driving the brand new Psion her daddy bought her down the RX-7's street. Whether she was not paying attention or lost control of her car shall never be known, but she ended the RX-7's life.

Men came to look at the poor automobile, and they took many pictures. After a week of waiting, the men returned with a tow truck and a check for $2,000 -- the same amount that was paid for the car. The RX-7 was gone.

The biggest shame of all? The local security force that was handling the issue decided not to notify the police of a drunk driving incident because there were no injuries, and the girl was punished only with a likely insurance rate increase. A damn shame.

In the end, steering components had been snapped, suspension components bent, the body dented, the headlights destroyed, and the drivers side door no longer opened. A lot of other internal pieces looked precariously out of position, as well. The car died with less than 50,000 miles on it.

A sad day...

notveryhappyjack

iTrader: (4)

ooo noes, thats a shame right there.
I park mine on the street also and cringe at the thought of someone rubbin on it like that. Get another fb and build a garage in memory

Syncro

iTrader: (1)

FirebirdSlayer666

iTrader: (3)

A very sad story in deed. I would have pressed charges against the girl ragardless and called the police myself. I would have made her insurance company pay the appraisal value then taken the money and fixed the car myself. It's a shame man. You'll have another FB one day man

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Damn, that sucks *** . Something similar happened to my little brother's bridgeported fb, some jackass in a huge tracked backed into his car. He ended up getting a check for $2700, and his car has many more miles than yours so I suppose he didn't fare to badly......

You had me chuckking at the ikea comment, btw.

Dan_s_young

iTrader: (1)

That sucks bad man. If i've learned one thing in life its that people suck, they can't be trusted... Drunk driving is no mistake IMO, and that girl should goto jail with a murder sentence because she killed your car!

RX(ZONE)

Man thats terrible. Sorry to hear that.

gigglesnirt

that sucks man good luck finding another one for 2000 it shouldn't be that hard.

jw what are they doing with the wrecked car?

boyee

iTrader: (3)

that sucks.. i had engine problems today.. today is not a day for fbs..

unreality

The insurance company offered to let me keep the car for "substantially less money," which is of course an amount they didn't specify. I knew I wouldn't be able to get it back in a drivable condition for any reasonable amount of cash, so I took the buyout. They likely took it to auction as a salvage.

I had taken everything out of it except for the stuff in the armrest compartment, so I lost a nice pair of sunglasses and my brother's gameboy *doh*.

I was under a pretty tight deadline to get driving again as I'm a workin' man. My fiance has to drive 10 miles South to work, and I'm 20 miles North, so there was no easy way to work out a carpool. Her schedule is all over the place, and mine is solid. We could have figured something out with a lot of effort, but I couldn't be out of a car for too long.

I'm in a much better financial situation than I was at 16, of course, so I had flexibility in choosing a replacement. A nice FD in my area still goes for $22,000 and that's -with- 80,000 miles on it. I couldn't pay that much for a car that used. The things sure do retain their value! A new RX-8, on the other hand, started around $30,000 optioned how I wanted it. This was a little out of my range.

Since I wanted to go new, I did a lot of searching in my price range, and I ended up getting an '06 Volkswagen GTI. It's got pistons, unfortunately, but it's optioned exactly how I wanted, and I got out the door with a good interest rate and a reasonable monthly payment.

I intend to replace the FB soon enough. I'm slowly working my way to the point where I'll be able to afford a 'project car.' Till then, it's pistons for me.

ALSO! Something to brighten the outlook of the story over all...

Since the incident, the association has granted me a second parking spot without charging me the requisite $300/month. *gee*

FirebirdSlayer666

iTrader: (3)

Good to see things worked out. Yeah you got a piston car but it's German engineered, so you got your money's worth.

Rx7carl

<moment of silence for the deceased>

When the time comes you'll be ready to get another one. Too bad you didnt get that parking spot earlier. Good luck bro. It really looks repairable btw, hopefully someone will save her at the auction.

unreality

I'm scouring my files for the other angles of the car that night, but in absence of a picture I'll just note: The front-right wheel was in an unnatural angle when I took that picture. Turning the steering wheel no longer moved it.

A lot of the damage from this particular photo looks superficial, but the steering/suspension repair costs looked like they would have been phenomenal.

chutzpah

iTrader: (2)

Doesn't sentimental value count for anything with insurance companies?

Yellow '79

i wouldve beat that girl with a shovel. im sorry for your loss. my friend also just bought a gti. he has the vr6. its a nice fun car but its no rx7

Hades12

That is so sad. and I am unsure of what to say.

I feel for your greef ,but want to blast you for taking it up the ***.


So post some pics of the Gti




As a note, If none of the rail was bent, it could have been fixed and ready to go in a few hours and a parts car. Most likley the Arms were just bent and could have been unbolted and replaced, Door was probely stuck cause of the fender.


I just cant stop my self today.

Normal is $200 Be I have seen them talked as low as $50 and got one car for the storage bill.

John64

You should have taken the car back, it would of had a junk title. And pieced it out and made a hell of alot more money.

Syncro

iTrader: (1)

That's more than my car payments

slashdawg00110

I know your pain. A few weeks ago, so dumb bitch backed out of my neighbor's driveway into the left front corner of my 83 GSL. Then she took off. But we tracked her down and I filed a claim against her with her insurance company.

The only good part is that the insurance $$ was more than I paid for the car in the first place and they didn't total it. The rust under the rear of the GSL is worse than I can fix, so now I have a parts car and I bought a '79 with a very clean underbody. And I had cash left over for a few goodies.

85 FB

Damn. Poor 7. I would've made that drunk driving bitch's life Hell. Hit and run charges and drunk driving for a couple, but that's just starting.

Good luck to you on getting another 7. Maybe now you should build a garage and set up a security camera focused on your car.

Latin270

Damn drunk bitch! One less 1st gen on the road!

Naegleria_Fowleri

Not in the least. Some girl hit my FB and when I went to get it appraised (her insurance covered it of course), they were going to total it out because there were so many dings and stuff on it. They never told me how much I was going to get for that, but I ended up keeping the car and only getting the money for the part that was damaged by the girl. They most certainly don't care about sentimental value. All they care about is the damage done and how much it will cost them. I'm quite sure that if I lost my FB that I would be a lot more devastated than some of the other people out there losing their brand new cars. Sure it would suck either way, but I'm way too attached to my FB's.

And I am terribly sorry to hear about your loss. That really upsets me. Like I said, my FB was wrecked too, and even though the FB I've been driving for the past seven months isn't in the best of shape, I was overly devastated about it. I've made it a clear rule that none of my friends are allowed to even mention it around me. lol I really hope you find another one of your dream FB's, though. I hope she has a guilty conscience for the rest of her life.

And also, glad to hear you got a GTI. My mom just bought a Jetta TDI a few months ago, and I was overly impressed with it actually. I never really cared for VW's until then. But it seems to be a great car.

PeteyTurbo

I was in La Jolla last summer, I cannot imagine how much it would cost to buy even a 1 BR condo in that town!!!!!I'd love to live there though..Sorry to hear about your car..

PeteyTurbo

Cars are NOT to be worked on in any way in La Jolla, if they are broken, they are to be replaced immediately with a brand new one by order of the mayor..

ray green

iTrader: (14)

When my 84 got rearended by a chain reaction caused by a semi truck, I sent pictures and a letter to the trucker's insurance agent detailing the over all good condition and recent work on the car. I did make a point about the sentimental value, saying I'd done all the work myself and that it would cost me at least $3,800 to replace it. They cut me a check for $3,800 and they paid for the one week car rental ($400). AND they let me keep the car, without reporting it as having been totaled. They said the $3,800 was for the cost of repairs, which I ended up doing myself, came out pretty good and I still have the car. So when the accident is totally not your fault it pays to go on the offensive, without being offensive about it - Be Polite and use lots of documentation. Worked for me.

Ray

Before the wreck:


After the wreck:



After our backyard repair: