I first introduced myself 9 years ago in a "Merry Christmas to me" thread. I haven't been a frequent poster, just stopping in from time to time, especially when I had questions about my 2006 Solar Red/Silver R50.
On Pearl Harbor Day 2016, my ever faithful R50 was sideswiped by an uninsured 21 year old guy when his lifted F-250 4x4 was unable to slow from 70 to 20 when some moron ahead decided to quickly slow down for the deputy that had someone pulled over on I-5 (northbound) near the Stanwood exit. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stop in time and veered toward the shoulder. His evasive action was not completely successful. During his emergency braking/steering, the tail of his truck stepped out in a slide and the left rear corner of the truck struck the right rear corner on my MINI, smashing the right side of the hatch and tearing the right rear 1/4 open from the tail light to the middle of the wheel arch and taking the right rear glass out, too.
No one was hurt, but the wounds to my MINI were deemed fatal according to my insurance company. The car still drove fine, but it was a little chilly the rest of the way home with no RR window - and even with a garbage bag taped in place for a few days, but the heater did do to a pretty good job, considering.
I was able to find a reasonably priced ($7490) 2004 MCS in Dark Silver/Black with under 39K miles to fill the MINI sized hole in my heart and brought it home on Dec 19th.
There are a couple of pics of the damages to the 06 and a quick pic snapped at the dealership where the replacement was found.
I bought the "wreck" back from insurance and plan on gleaning as many goodies from the 06 as I can manage to swap over. Top priorities being the armrest console and heated English Panther Leather seats... but the differences between the pre and post facelift 1st Gen MINIs might make this harder than I originally thought.
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/g/album/6785500
Edited by gearhead - January/11/17 at 9:58am