Well, I had an appointment to get the Perma Coat that was part of the deal for my XFire put on at a local MB dealer yesterday, but the automated appointment equipment failed and they weren't expecting me, so I thought I'd head out through the redwoods to the coast and try her out on the winding roads. WOW! couldn't get the tires to make a peep no matter how fast I took the curves. Like it was on tracks. Anyway, was really enjoying myself when I came around a bend at a rather leisurely 40 or so and a deer decides to cross from left to right in front of me. I hit the brakes, but there was no time and hit it broadside. The deer hit on the right middle of the car, and was catapulted up and over the right side of the car. I heard it land in the brush to the side of the road. I don't carry, so there was nothing I could do for the poor thing, I think it was probably dead before it landed. Needless to say my adrenaline was hyped to an even higher note. The only thing I could see from the cockpit was a large pile of deer dropping in the middle of the hood. Everything else seemed to be running smoothly. As soon as I found a safe place to pull over I got out expecting to see major damage. The only thing wrong, was that most of the grille was gone. A couple of minor scuffs and that was it. If this had been my wife's T-Bird with the fiberglass body parts, I'm sure it would have been a mess. I was able to find a replacement grille this morning and after mounting it, and cleaning up the deer dropping remains, it looks as good as new. Nice solid car. But I feel incredibly lucky that the deer didn't come through the windshield or cause more damage. Pretty scary though.

 

Great Story. Glad you are OK. I continue to be impressed by the safety of the our xfire's. Does anyone know what the crossfire body is made of?

 

~ german steel.

 

melted **** helmets?

 

I guess you are lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, your airbag did not deploy. I guess the bumper did not sense the impact and your grill took the brunt of it. YOU WERE LIVING RIGHT!

 

Titanium

 

I am surprised the airbag didn't inflate?

 

I have a crazier deer story and I'll make it quick. Going to work at 2 am, almost at the warehouse going down a decently well lit road. All of a sudden a rather large animal (found out to be a deer after hair samples) literally runs right into the side of our truck (where I'm sitting). I can't open the door and think it's stuck in it but it bent the side door far enough to cause some decent damage. Hair samples of where the deer hit were left on the fender and door.

Try explaining a deer hitting YOU to the insurance company. They didn't believe us until a guy was sent out to check the damage to see all the damage was on the side of the car and not the front.

Glad you're ok, deer suck.

 

Yeah, I'm glad the airbags didn't deploy, in this case. Maybe the deer wasn't heavy enough to cause the sensors to notice. About the deer hair, besides tufts of it stuck around the license plate and screws, when I opened the hood to remove the little bit of grille left (the top piece with the four screws) there were tufts of hair all over the top of the engine. Weird.

 

Oh my god! The EXACT SAME THING happened to me one night at 2:00 on the way home from work in my Ram 1500!!

I am glad you are ok ragtopbrad, deer can really do some damage.

 

Glad it was not too bad.
Deer are just big rats. Don't feel too bad.
If they tasted like cow there would be less of them.
All our sheet metal is high strength steel.

 

Brad, glad to hear everything turned out to be minor damage, it could have been so much worse.
My nephew was traveling south on the W.Va turnpike at about 2:00 AM a few years back and was going thru a 1 lane construction zone with those concrete barriers real close on both sides. He was doing about 60 mph when a huge "buck" leaped over the barrier directly in his path. He didn't even have time to hit his brakes. It totally demolished the front end of the mid 80's Volvo wagon he was driving, and wound up flattening the roof too. He wound up doing a "pin-ball" from one side barrier to the other for a couple 100' but was able to locate a pull off, to get the car off the road.
When the Highway patrol showed up, they were going to give him a citation for failure to control. He told them, are you nuts? The deer practically jumped on his hood. The tow truck driver asked him if he could keep the buck?


GatorLCA, My friend had a deer run into the last 3' of the pick-up bed of his new Ford truck. It may have been built Ford Tuff, but you wouldn't believe the damage it did. I can't remember if his insurance gave him any grief over it or not.

 

I think this German steel is thicker than cars built here in america, I got caught in a hail storm last summer and it was about quarter size. I made a run for cover at a gas station, when I got home I was expecting to see some dents, but not a one.

 

Actually, I think they're pretty damn tasty.

 

My ex-wife was driving in British Columbia when they hit a moose, back-end first in their minivan. The thing was so huge it's posterior ended up going through the windshield and hanging into the passenger compartment, where it proceeded to defecate into the car., covering the ex and her husband with moose-poop...

Then it ambled off into the woods, never to be seen again ... but not forgotten...


... I still get a chuckle out of that...

 

That is to funny it just ain't right BUT it is FUNNY.

 

We've had a few XFs in the shop and they do get torn up but no worse than most other new cars.
You got lucky. Apparently that deer was a midsized critter and you rolled him up onto the hood. A direct impact would have done more damage.

 

That was funny!

 

Yeah usually you can through off their timing by speeding up. It is hard to fight the instinct of slamming on the brakes, yet my dad has proved on more than one occasion on back roads that to speed up causes the deer to run into the side of the vehicle instead of hitting it front on. I also learned this works well with dogs and motorcycles...

 

The speeding up thing works well with Deer & Bikes - Had one bound out in front of my R-1 last summer...didn't panic, used the throttle & steer...you just have to treat it like NASCAR - aim for where they are, 'cause they won't be there when you get there!