PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

Wife took my car to work last night.
She was on her way home this morning, and just called.
Car wrecked. Airbags went off. Involved another vehicle. Both drivers OK.
Police on their way. Car leaking fluids, and car described as "smoking."

No other details. I told her to deal with professionals. I'm on my way.

-Mark

That's terrible. Glad that everyone is okay.

Oh no! Terrible news about the car. Am glad your wife is ok though.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm glad everyone is okay though.

Update: Did not involve any other vehicles. She fell asleep at the wheel and hit a guardrail. Car is totalled, being picked up by a salvage yard. With wife right now getting her wrist X-rayed. The airbag hits with a lot of force, but she walked away. Front of car is totally squashed. Pictures later.

There's definitely two problems... shift work and single stage air bags. Hope her wrist is okay!

Hate that your car is totaled, but I'm glad your wife is okay and seems to have only minor injuries at the moment.
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I hope the "boss lady" did not sustain any other injuries and that the wrist will heal quickly. Really sad to hear about the Silver Shadow, but it did it's job, kept the wife safe. Hope you will be ok too. I'd be having to deal with me if I was in that spot. Hope that the car isn't too bad so you will be able to bring the "Silver Shadow" back to life. - BC

See if this link works for pics.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sb6suoy7e95i ... v8hia?dl=0

Those pictures were really hard to look at

It's definitely several times the pre-collision value of the car to repair. Really sorry about the loss Mark.

Yeah, it's hard for me to look at, too. I've had that car for 16 years (bought it in `99) and babied it. What I really liked about it was how good it looked. I loved the silver with those 5 spoke silver rims. I managed to pull my Pioneer stereo, my JL sub, and my Alpine amps. I've spent the day pouring over used car ads, not finding anything really to my liking. Test drove a beautiful silver 2005 Mercedes S500 that was really nice, but it had a collision on its carfax, the driver's door sits a little high where it meets the roofline (very unlike German engineering), and there was a scratch and a cracked paint spot on the rear bumper indicating it had been rear-tapped. It was enough for me to walk away from it. Might go look at a silver S430 in the morning. I'm torn whether to buy an older model like the 2005 Benz, or spend a lot more on a newer car. I'm also tempted to buy another `97-99 Bonneville if I could find one in tip-top condition. (They're really cheap these days, but come with lots of miles.) Oh, and the dealer I bought my Bonneville from happens to have a 2007 Park Avenue Ultra on his lot right now. But it's gold. Grrrr.

It is difficult to look at those photos but it held up very well, especially for what I presume would have been a high-speed collision (she fell asleep at the wheel so would not have taken evasive action and I assume it was on the highway as she hit a guardrail). There's no distortion whatsoever to the passenger area - A post and windshield is intact. Very safe cars!

The windshield is cracked over by the passenger side near the hood. The cabin is remarkably unscathed. That's another thing that I love about these cars is that time after time our club's members have proven that these cars are very safe. If my wife had to wreck, I'm glad she was in my safe Bonneville. After the crash, her driver door wouldn't open, so she exited the passenger side. I couldn't get the driver door to budge, either. She *BROKE A WHEEL*. Yes, it was a highway, and she rolled off the right lane into a guardrail. She hit a little to the right of the centerline and it flipped the car around 180º so she landed back in the slow lane, but facing traffic. She mistook the explosives from the airbag as smoke, thinking the car was on fire. The battery is smushed almost flat and leaked battery acid all over. The whole front end was wiped out. The @$$ looks great though! The interior upholstery is all undamaged, so hopefully someone else can score some well-cared-for parts that they need from the salvage yard.

I am regularly at collisions where people think the car is on fire after the airbags deploy. There is a powder that keeps the material from sticking together after it's been folded and stored for long periods of time. Without it they may not work as designed. Oh yeah, and they smell bad too! Some newer airbags are different. One of the most common complaints we see is chest pain. Ususally this is simply from the airbag impacting the chest.

Wow, that is a pretty hectic hit. Glad she is doing as good as she is.

How bad did the drivers side look?

Another one bites the dust.
I feel like this club is starting to look like some of the clubs that my
parents belonged to, where the greatest majority of the conversations
were about who from the club croaked most recently. My father's
model train buddies were the worst. Bunch of old-coots dying off
one at time, just like our poor old Bonnevilles.

Oh yeah. The precious cargo in good condition is definitely the bright side
in most of these stories. I hope her wrist isn't serious.

Ouch, glad to hear the wife is okay, but that's really too bad about the car. I remember not too long ago seeing pics of just how good of condition it was still in. But like you said, just another example of the car doing what it was supposed to in keeping the driver/passengers safe when the unfortunate things like that happen.

My dad passed out at the wheel a long time ago in an early 90s Accord, and ran it up underneath the back of a pickup truck that was stopped in the emergency lane. That little thing didn't protect him quite as well, so now he drives things with a lot more metal around him, hence why he chose an H-body when his HHR got totaled.

Yeah, my car was recently the "Car of the Month". I never bothered to enter it until I gave it a good washing and waxing this summer, and took some photos of it to submit for CotM. I was really pleased that it won. I'm really going to miss that car.
I replaced it today with a 2005 Mercedes Benz S500.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7fmk6xt9rgvo ... 0.jpg?dl=0

It's going to take me forever to learn all the controls.
One thing I really liked was my Bonneville SE's simple basic HVAC controls. One knob for Off/Heat/Vent/MaxAC/NormAC/Bi-Level/Defrost/Defog, and one knob for Fan Off/Low/Med/High. You can't beat the simplicity of that, and I've never found computerized climate-control systems to be any better. For HVAC I love simplicity.

Very nice Looks great! I saw a couple of S550's that kind of interested me. I've never seriously followed up though.