[Ztirffritz]

Wife was trying to get into the left turn lane at a light and scraped just about the entire right side of the car down the length of the car against the bumper of a big truck she was passing. I'm trying REALLY hard not to be angry but the car has less than 10k miles. I love her dearly but she has no spacial awareness. Thinking in 3 dimensional space is a foreign concept to her. Her Camry she owned previously was damaged on every panel, all 4 doors, both bumpers....

I just needed a place to vent where she wouldn't read or hear about it. Sorry.

 

[Joe67]

Things happen. I'm glad she is OK.

 

[bro1999]

Go get a 2017 and tell her she can keep driving the '15. Lol

 

[Fyodor]

You have a wife you love dearly, and a scraped car. Everyone should be so lucky.

 

[TheBlueFlash]

It appears you are a two vehicle household (two Volts)? Coming from experience, I think you wife would greatly benefit from a vehicle with a higher seating position and better visibility all around. These are two aspects that unfortunately, the 1st Gen Volts do not excel at. For example, my wife is vertically challenged and has had several close calls in our Volt similar to the situation you describe. We also have a Leaf that has a higher seating position and better all around visibility. She admits that she likes driving the Leaf more because she feels like she can handle it much better than the Volt and she can see the front of the Leaf hood from the driver seat unlike in the Volt where she can't. Just something to think about. She may benefit from a smaller car such as a Spark EV or even a Leaf. Used Leaf's are dirt cheap right now. I don't know what the market looks like for the Spark, but maybe even a Smart EV would work. I don't know, food for thought at least.

 

[Barry]

Nothing but used cars for her. Preferably a Leaf or Prius. We have a similar situation at my house. She can't get a car to last past 100k miles. Mine are still new at the same age. The worst one was when she hit my car with hers, damaging both at the same time. And I was in the passenger seat screaming "stop!"

 

[bro1999]

Yeah, a cheap used Leaf sounds good. They are basically throw away cars anyways.

 

[Dutch]

Sympathy to the OP

"back in the day" I had a girlfriend who was otherwise wonderful but had no concept of spatial relations. Her 2 year old car (she bought new) had curb damage to all 4 rims, minor impact damage to all four corners, and deep scrapes on two of the 4 doors.

always made me want to cry, it was a pretty nice car.

 

[hellsop]

The car will get rumpled SOMETIME. Sigh, console yourself that this is cosmetic only and no hospitals were involved, and schedule some time at the local paint shop. Or leave it, knowing something worse will likely happen eventually anyway, something that you actually *need* to fix.

 

[Sly Bob]

Offer to get your wife a drivers training course and failing that you could get her one of these.
http://bestonbumpercars.com/electric-bumper-cars-for-sale/
Just be thankful she wasn't hurt.

 

[Mister Dave]

Wife was trying to get into the left turn lane at a light and scraped just about the entire right side of the car down the length of the car against the bumper of a big truck she was passing. I love her dearly but she has no spacial awareness.

How she didn't know she was in contact with a truck early into the incident is troubling (some braking should have occurred). But I would still have her eyesight checked thoroughly - especially for astigmatism.

 

[Dutch]

How she didn't know she was in contact with a truck early into the incident is troubling (some braking should have occurred). But I would still have her eyesight checked thoroughly - especially for astigmatism.

I've seen several instances where making contact startles the driver enough that the instinctively step on the gas before they think to let off and brake. Ask any body shop, it is not an uncommon thing.

 

[16513]

This post brings to mind an incredible accomplishment: NO door dings in my '13 (turned in, 31K mi.) or my '16 (15K mi.) How can this be? In a past life my Chevy Corvairs were door ding magnets. I attribute it to the adoption of springless (?) door check devices. (back then, G.M. spring-powered door checks would fling the heavy door outwards on a level surface, almost guaranteeing a crunch.

 

[Carl S]

I feel your pain, OP.

My Volt just got back from the collision center for a big scrape (down to the metal) from the middle of the rear door, across the rear rim, to the rear bumper cover. I have the tricoat Viridian Joule paint and polished rims.

Total cost to fix it was about $1,800.