End of the road

[jdecker]

After more than 150,000 miles of faithful service I passed the Bonneville on to my teenage son. Didn't even make it a year with him. Thankfully no one was hurt, and he's been bitten by the bug already looking and planning to get another Bonneville. The funniest part was after rushing to the scene the very first thing he says to me is "I looked it didn't even bend that boat roller mount" very odd but I guess a testament to Harofreak's well thought out idea.
Thanks to everyone for all the information shared, can't even count the times I've been helped by this site. Going to look at another Bonneville this weekend, so hopefully we'll still get to hang around.

[MikeKerr]

Glad your Son is ok, 150k is still somewhat youthful for a 2003.

[bigchieftaco90]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Glad no one was injured.
I just bought my 2001 SSEi with 150k from a dealer for $2,000. They are getting pretty reasonable for what they offer.
If I would of known what I know now before looking, I'm not sure I would of bought this. This one was neglected a little and tons of little things to fix.
At least you know what to look for. Good luck in your search.

[nos4blood70]

Awww. Well, gladly he is okay.

[MKMike]

Glad your son is OK.

[RJolly87]

Again, glad the kid came out okay.

What happened with the accident? Did he pull out in front of someone? What were they in? It takes a pretty good hit to reconfigure the front like that, so I'm curious.

I am a firm believer that these are good first cars though. They can take abuse, they can take a hit, and they don't typically have a stupid amount of power.

[jdecker]

He was hit by '95 Dodge Ram 2500, it hit right in front of the drivers front wheel. When the truck hit it sheared the solid front axle off making it turn right and go up on the hood. It spun the car and the truck continued another 30 feet.
It's a 40mph zone, but according to my son he had just let off the brake and started to roll forward when the truck came flying across the bridge. He said it hit before he could even get to the brake. The other driver admitted to the police that he "may have been going a little fast", but the only citation given was to my son for failure to yield right of way.

[RJolly87]

Wow, that doesn't look bad at all for a 7000 lb truck hit. Thankfully he didn't have more car sticking out there to hit, and if the guy was going slower he would have had just that.

I was kind of figuring it was something like that. With the damage focused forward of the wheel, the truck was right on top of him when he pulled out.

Glad he came out okay, but I hate to say it, but teenager + male + at fault accident = rape by insurance company. Hopefully they don't get you guys too bad.