Hi All,

My '91 745 was rear ended while parked last night. An older gentleman hit it - it seemed like almost the middle of his front end hit the driver's side of my rear end. The damage to my wagon *looks* incredibly minor - lost the two lower lights, some scrapes on the bumper, and a hole in the tailgate that looks like someone drove a punch through it from the inside (although the hole does not go all the way through into the inside). My car was in park, on the street, and it was moved forward about 1-2 car lengths. His pickup looked in pretty bad shape. The front end is shoved in at a V angle from where he hit my car - hood bent up, bumper completely smashed, damage all the way across to both sides of his front end. I don't know if it was driveable, the man was too confused to start the car again. I didn't see the accident, I was grocery shopping at the time. He was carted away by the paramedics, poor fellow.

I'm sure insurance will handle this all, but I was wondering if there are things that should not be overlooked. For example, will my car's moving forward in "Park" (automatic) be a problem for the transmission or anything? Also, the body doesn't look damaged in any way (except for the hole in the tailgate which still opens and closes fine), but I did notice a new "groan" from the driver's front door area when turning right at speed, and a new rattle in the front end somewhere between 50 and 65 mph - maybe I'm just paranoid? I've had the car about 6 months and it does have it's shared of creaks and pops anyway.

The spaces between the doors and body look reasonable and match pretty well between the two sides, except for the trim around the rear driver's side window does seem a little closer to the body than on the passenger's side. However, I'm quite sure this car has been hit before, also in the rear end, so that minor descrepency might not be new (paint looks just fine).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Jenn

Check everything Chris mentioned. Also check for any little ripples across the roof. BTDT. Rear end whack. Body work, then motor & trans mounts, then back to shop for ripple. All four doors worked fine.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

Sorry to hear your car got nailed.

If you haven't already done so, open all the doors at the same time. If they all shut normally with the same gap, then you're probably all right. Sometimes when they're all opened at the same time, a kink forms in the rear quarter.

Engine and transmission mounts are a big factor. The engine mounts often shear off when something like that happens. The 700 series mounts are better, and shear less frequently than the 200 mounts, but they'll sometimes go flat and then you'll get vibration from the driveline.

That's a pretty big hit. The offending car usually gets it much worse, but yours probably has a fair amount of hidden damage, which can sometimes be seen by lifting the rear floor cargo area and carefully looking at the frame members.

Being shoved forwards in park shouldn't harm the transmission. Worse things happen with no ill effects. The biggest one would be the transmission mount, since there's a lot of stress on it at that point.

If the other person is insured (or if you have a no-fault insurance policy in that state) get the car to a body shop that specializes in foreign makes. There's always a Volvo specialty place if you look around. They should measure the frame and make sure everything is straightened. Volvo frames bend easily (they're supposed to) and they straighten out very well. But as a result, a hit like that can skew the body of the car much more than you'd see at a first glance.

Good luck with the fix. Hope it all works out.
--
chris herbst, five volvos.