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C4 Rear ended Question should air bag have inflated ? |
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aculleton
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I was the proud owner of a C4 1.6 HDi sx (90Bhp) model up until yesterday afternoon, the car was only 2 years old and I had just recently acquired it, I was stopped on a main road turning right to a smaller side road waiting for an opportunity to cross when i was rear ended by a elderly driver in a for fiesta. She collided with the rear of my car on the left had side and move me from stationary about 5metres , the resulting impact meant that the two cars were stuck together and had to be pulled apart by a Recovery Truck wench/pull wire with the brakes being pressed on the fiesta and a cement block on the back wheels . I am now worried about the C4 Chassis and was also wondering should my Air bags have inflated. The other party has admitted responsibility and their insurance company is looking after everything with a local Autobody Crash repair Centre. I feel that I should have the car checked over by a Citroen Garage after the repair has been completed to ensure the highest standards   |
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Dave_Retired.
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   Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006Location: Northumberland |
It's unlikely that the air bags designed for a front end or side impact will go off if the car is rear ended so don't worry about it as although the damage looks bad, the rear impact absorbers will have taken the brunt of it. The C4 is surprisingly strong around the passenger cabin If your Insurance Co is happy with the standard of work done by your local repairer then I wouldn't bother with Citroen. Most dealers don't have their own body shops these days, the work is farmed out to specialists anyway. It will be interesting to see if the car is repaired though as by the looks of your images the rear quarter panel, bumper, floor pan and impact areas need replacing as a minimum and the repair might be deemed 'uneconomic' Let us know how it goes though. |
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SpiritedPhoenix
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I went up the backside of a transit in my old C2, approx 25mph and the airbags never deployed!!  (I did think it was just citroen saving pennies by not putting one in!  )
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BigJohnD
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  Member No: #82
Joined: Jan 22 2007Location: Hoylake |
My Missus was rear-end shunted in her Focus and the air-bags weren't deployed. The bill for the damage came to around £2.5K IIRC, plus hire car and so on. And as Dave says, the repair was carried out by specialist body shop; Ford weren't involved. It's about keeping the insurers happy! |
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Stubblechops
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  Member No: #14554
Joined: Jul 11 2010Location: Royal Forest of Dean |
I have to agree with C6 Dave, that looks marginal even for a two year old. On the plus side airbags are expensive to replace so none of them being deployed will at least improve your chances of getting it back. |
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wrinkles
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  Member No: #10336
Joined: Jul 15 2009Location: Acocks Green, Birmingham, UK |
When 'er indoors wrote off my C5, she jumped a red light(?) and hit a Lexus 4x4 on the fromt wheel, the air bags didn't deploy. When I queried that I was told the impact speed was too low for them to deploy?? | ||
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wozza
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 Member No: #2
Joined: Aug 12 2006Location: Manchester |
Yeah that is normal. The airbags will only deploy if the impact speed is high enough. They can cause serious injury as well with certain impacts so best left when they are needed. Got to remember they are explosive devices. If airbags are deployed it is funnily enough often the interior damage from them deploying which causes the cars to be wrote off. If people walked away from accidents with minor injuries obviously weren't needed. |
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routemaster1
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 Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007Location: Dorset |
Wozza wrote ... Yeah that is normal. The airbags will only deploy if the impact speed is high enough. They can cause serious injury as well with certain impacts so best left when they are needed. Got to remember they are explosive devices. If airbags are deployed it is funnily enough often the interior damage from them deploying which causes the cars to be wrote off. If people walked away from accidents with minor injuries obviously weren't needed. I drove a Clio into the side of a Saab at approaching 60mph a couple of years ago, less any speed I could scrub off with full braking. I hit it at abot 45 degrees, and was surprised to find that, when I had come to my senses, none of the airbags had deployed. All of the airbags in the Saab had gone off. I assume that, as I didn't go straight in but essentially bounced out before spinning, the actual deceleration had not been sufficient to trigger the system. The impact was bad enough to completely destroy the front drivers side, but the passenger cage was OK. We were both OK though. I was shaken up, and only suffered a minor bump to the head and a seat belt bruise. |
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aculleton
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I called up to the autoboy shop yesterday to see had the damage been assesed by the insurance company and they gave me the following report. It looks like they are going to repair the car. I explained my concerns over now driving a crashed car and the insurance company mentioned depreciation in value becuase of the crash. I also was worried about the warranty from the garage as this car still has a good warranty left with the garage where I purchased it and I was worried if there was any issues with the car that the garage might turn around and say well the car has been crashed so that invalidates the warranty, the insurance company and autobody repair shop said they could not do that. I wanted to get this in writing but they didn't offer anything in this way of re-assuring me. |
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Dave_Retired.
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Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006Location: Northumberland |
5,289 euro (£4,235) would probably have got the car written off in the UK as 'uneconomic' Don't worry about driving it repaired, it should be as good as new and as long it's repaired correctly, the Citroen Warranty should still be valid. |
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wozza
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Member No: #2
Joined: Aug 12 2006Location: Manchester |
I know I have a sick sence of humour... This made me cry with laughter and also shows just how powerful an airbag deploying can be. Not something you want going off in your face when it doesn't need to. |
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trev h
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 Member No: #10864
Joined: Sep 11 2009Location: kent/se london |
At least its cured his piles. | ||
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