# Pix of rear ended Cruze



## iKermit (Dec 13, 2010)

This is yours?? Totalled I'm guessing. Strong crunch zone. 

 -I'm mobile-


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

One good reason after years, the DOT finally made a rule where the gas tank has to be moved forward. And vehicles now today are made to be crushable so they can slowly, (relatively speaking) absorb the energy. But also added to the throwaway list that is rapidly growing. Get it thrown away. But for the front end, still a lot of valuable parts in it.

At replacement parts cost today, just a small handful of parts can easily exceed the cost of an automobile. Believe me on this, seen some of my own stuff marked up as high as a 150 times at the dealers over our manufacturing cost.

Once sheet metal is crushed like that, will never maintain its original stress characteristics, don't be fooled on this, and with unit body vehicles, the entire rear end would have to be replaced that requires automated equipment that no body shop will have. Plus would hit with high shop labor rates and stuck with a salvage title making your car next to worthless.

Didn't your air bags go off? Even from the rear direction, the shock should have been great enough. In a more minor accident years ago when I was hit in the side by some idiot that ran a stop sign, was that seat belt that did more damage than anything else. Could be grounds for a lawsuit against GM for your passenger, this is one time, those air bags could have helped. Nobody was suing back then, was an act of God. 

With medical, some things won't even show up until months or even a couple of years later, keep this in mind in your settlement. Once you sign that release, you are dead meat. 

Good luck with all of this, stick to your guns, keep us informed, and hopefully all will end well.


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## Evofire (Oct 3, 2013)

gotta be totaled. i bet the frame is twisted, and DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER when you tell them to replace the car at full value. less then 400 miles. wow....so sorry.


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## Gus_Mahn (Aug 16, 2011)

I've been looking for another totaled Cruze to rebuild, and it's amazing the amounts that are totaled from rear end hits. I'm not saying it's a weak car. It just seems like 20-30% of the ones in auctions are rear end hits.


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## beachbaby902 (Apr 28, 2013)

Does seem the rear end of the cruze is a lot weaker then the front end. 
The other day i almost had a totaled cruze myself. Dead stop on the highway, a Saturn VUE in a pretty orange color i saw flying toward me, i had enough time debating to pull the e-brake, but figured with getting rear ended with her going at least 60mph, it would be better on both of us if i bounced into the car in front me. Then i saw her slam on her brakes and pretty much skid toward me and managed to swerve to the side and stopped with her front end at my passenger front door and probably only a hair from at least side swiping the passenger side rear end.


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## mc2crazy (Oct 25, 2013)

What you can't see is there's something broken underneath that feels like it's the frame. After the impact the Cruze felt like it had a hinge in the middle and was wagging it's rear side to side like a dogs tail. It was taken away on a flatbed and the police and tow truck driver all think it's totaled.

I was driving at 55mph in a 55 speed zone when struck from behind! That girl had to be going probably 80mph and was from TN. I caught a white blur in the mirrors and WHAM! She was ticketed by the police and her insurance has already called us and said they know the girl was at fault. 

I think it was the third time I drove it. It's sitting in the impound with a full tank of premium we had bought the day before. I had also added stick on wide angle mirrors to the side view mirrors the day before and bought a new spark plug gapper. I had just aired up the tires about 10 minutes before we were hit.

I bought this Cruze about 2-3 weeks ago for my better half. She recently graduated from college and needed a car to get a job. We're not young. I'm 63 and she's 43. I got hurt much more than she did. Either because I'm older or because the impact was directly behind me. The van's air bags went off. We would have been hurt more if ours had gone off. 

This is a new 2013 1LT 1.4T 6A with the Driver Convenience and Technology Packages = $21,585 sticker price plus 7.25% sales tax.

A description of what happened is here http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/9-ge...-our-new-cruze-rear-ended-mini-van-speed.html


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## mc2crazy (Oct 25, 2013)

I did some research on NADA and this accident was a big mismatch. The Cruze weighs 3100# and the Kia Sedona "mini" van that hit us weighs 4800#...
That's more than 150% difference! The Cruze did it's job well. OnStar's response was immediate and very professionally handled.

For a comparison my "big" Ram Quad Cab (4 door pickup) with a big old cast iron Hemi weighs 4850#... virtually the same as the Kia!

Our Charger R/T comes around 4100# or about 1000# more than the Cruze.

All of the bigger vehicles average about 12-18mpg, which is why we bought the Cruze.


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## mc2crazy (Oct 25, 2013)

iKermit said:


> This is yours?? Totalled I'm guessing. Strong crunch zone.


Yes, the crunch zone did well. The impact was hard and abrupt on us because the van hit low and did some major structural damage to the Cruze. Nothing protruded into the cabin area. From this experience I will take those crash test ratings more seriously!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Son was rear ended in his GM SUV by a driver in a Taurus while stopped at a cross walk on his college campus. Driver was drunk, estimated speed was around 20 mph. Totaled that Taurus only doing $2,700.00 worth of damage to my son's SUV.

So something can be said about weight, after my accident, was tempted to buy a Freightliner. 

Quite a difference between driving my Cruze with all these SUV's and large pickup's on the road by these power seeking drivers that think they own the road. But its a far different story when I climb into my motorhome with that huge steel bumper in the front. They are far more courteous and even fearful.

Ha, when I get behind the wheel of my Cruze, getting behind a Suburban looks like a monster in front of me. But behind the wheel in my motorhome, looks like a roller skate.

Ha, my wife would like me to buy her a larger Silverado pickup, almost did when Chevy was showing a $12,000 discount on the net. But when I went into my dealer said something like the only way to get that discount was to have a 1928 Reo to trade in or something to this effect. Least now after my talk, adding, some restrictions may apply to get this discount.

Also tried to warn her, half of her paycheck will be going to the oil companies. Got this from her co-workers that were driving these things.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Rear torsion beam suspension probably broke, frame might be twisted but I doubt it's broken. 

Rear ends (of sedans) always crumple more - both to absorb impact and because there's no engine or other stuff to absorb impact. I saw a Mini hit in traffic the other day - doesn't look like they crumple much, but bet the driver has bad whiplash. 


Sent from AutoGuide.com App


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Gus_Mahn said:


> I've been looking for another totaled Cruze to rebuild, and it's amazing the amounts that are totaled from rear end hits. I'm not saying it's a weak car. It just seems like 20-30% of the ones in auctions are rear end hits.


This makes sense since by far the most common accident is rear end collisions. While still a crumple zone, the engine compartment is also a protective cage around the engine, which results in less damage to the front of the car responsible for the collision.


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## Gus_Mahn (Aug 16, 2011)

obermd said:


> This makes sense since by far the most common accident is rear end collisions. While still a crumple zone, the engine compartment is also a protective cage around the engine, which results in less damage to the front of the car responsible for the collision.


Every car that gets rear ended was hit by somethings front end.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

It's true that every car that is rear ended means that something else has front end damage. The issue is that the front end of a car is significantly more beefed up to support the weight of the engine than the rear end, which has absolutely nothing behind the rear axles. Even the gas tanks have been moved in front of the rear axles on most cars now. Thus the damage to the car that is rear ended is frequently more severe than the damage to the car doing the hitting.

This type of collission is far more common than head-ons or t-bones. I'm actually kind of surprised the insurance companies haven't put pressure on the auto manufacturers to beef up the frames in the back of cars just to avoid having to total as many cars as they do.


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## Camcruse (Oct 4, 2011)

I think with a little compound...good as new.

Really sorry to hear aboui this, but it's good that you're ok.


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## Daryl (Nov 10, 2013)

NickD said:


> Son was rear ended in his GM SUV by a driver in a Taurus while stopped at a cross walk on his college campus. Driver was drunk, estimated speed was around 20 mph. Totaled that Taurus only doing $2,700.00 worth of damage to my son's SUV.
> 
> So something can be said about weight, after my accident, was tempted to buy a Freightliner.
> 
> ...



I came from owning a 2011 Silverado 6.2L to this Cruze. Averaged 15mpg, but with the deal on a house we were trying to purchase falling through I decided to trade it to buy a better house. Payment went from $575 to $348. Felt safe in the truck, but times are getting to where it was unaffordable.


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## mc2crazy (Oct 25, 2013)

More research results...

*The girl driver who hit us totaled her Jeep about 5 months ago in June!!*

Some people shouldn't be on the road. I hope they pull her license. The insurance companies should drop her... on her head and knock some sense into her. Maybe she's suicidal or maybe just a very bad driver. She should have been tested for DUI, which around here is drugs and alcohol. 

How did I find out? She was bragging about it on Facebook... LOL :signs057:


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## Daryl (Nov 10, 2013)

mc2crazy said:


> More research results...
> 
> *The girl driver who hit us totaled her Jeep about 5 months ago in June!!*
> 
> ...




Wow... Amazing how stupid some people are. Pretty dumb to brag about being the cause of an accident. People who can't take driving seriously shouldn't have a license.


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## iKermit (Dec 13, 2010)

mc2crazy said:


> More research results...
> 
> *The girl driver who hit us totaled her Jeep about 5 months ago in June!!*
> 
> ...


Insurance/state should force her to retake driving lessons and re pass the exam. Minimum of 10 hours of learning before taking test again. What a horrible driver. No wonder insurance is off the roof 

 -I'm mobile-


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## mc2crazy (Oct 25, 2013)

iKermit said:


> Insurance/state should force her to retake driving lessons and re pass the exam. Minimum of 10 hours of learning before taking test again. What a horrible driver. No wonder insurance is off the roof


I live in Ga and she lives in TN. People often switch from state to state if they have a bad record. There's no resciprocity between these states. There are too many uninsured motorists in GA. A taxi driver hit a relative's parked car and totaled it and he didn't have insurance. They put down a deposit, get the tag and drive any piece of junk that runs. There are no safety nor emission tests around here either.

Another nice thing about the Cruze is the low insurance cost: full coverage with $1M liability is under $600 per year!
I researched fees like this and taxes before deciding to relocate to GA.


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