The E90 got broadsided by a deer tonight.

[slo town]

Sue and I were heading over to Cambria for dinner tonight. While driving down Vineyard Drive a deer came out of nowhere and broadsided us at full speed. Besides destroying the mirror, I've got two creases on the front door, a dent on the left rear quarter panel, and paint scuffs down the entire side of the car. Dammit, but it could have been worse.

I have personally seen two deer get hit and killed by cars in front of me, a hooligan bear get hit and suffer horribly (I'm still traumatized by that!), and an absolutely spectacular clydesdale mountain lion bound confidently across the road just 20 or 30 feet in front of me. Dusk and early evening seems to bring them out, and tonight was one of those nights.

I circled back and the deer was laying roadside, motionless, probably dead.

Being the type of guy I am I will get every last detail fixed. You can see one of the creases in the door below the mirror.

Scott

 

[bdcardinal]

Ugh I'm so sorry about that. Don't know any body shops up there enough to be able to recommend any.

 

[edyvw]

Sorry man. It is important you guys are OK. I know how you maintain your cars, so I have no doubts it will be up and running fast.

 

[carviewsonic]

Darn deer, that’s frustrating. Hope the repairs are done quickly and properly.
I see roadkill deer around here too often. I try not to drive on the highway at night if I can help it, since a deer totalled our low miles Lesabre.

 

[joegreen]

That sucks. Are you that guy that also has that really clean older bmw? Someone on here has one where even the underside was immaculate and it had like 97k or something on it.

 

[Lubener]

That's bad. I had a deer run into the side of my 92 Dodge Spirit long ago. No damage to my car, the deer picked itself off the road and ran off. I guess both lucked out.

 

[slo town]

That sucks. Are you that guy that also has that really clean older bmw? Someone on here has one where even the underside was immaculate and it had like 97k or something on it.

Yep, that's me and my E46, 95.5K miles. And the E90 is pretty immaculate too, 106K miles. And detailed maintenance records for both from new. These are 4 inch thick binders, not the thin ones.

Scott

 

[Dave P.]

Sorry to hear that. I've had 3 deer impacts in my life resulting in 1 certain death, 1 probable and 1 hurt feelings. These were the deer BTW, not me. Just this morning at 4:30 am on my way to work I came up on 4 deer standing in the road staring at me, almost daring me to approach! I had to inch forward just to get them to get out of the road. It's things like this that put an end to my motorcycle days. Any of the above mentioned impacts could have had very serious results for me. Out of the five days a week I drive to work, I see deer at least 3 of those days. Guaranteed.

 

[shortyb]

That sucks. Are you that guy that also has that really clean older bmw? Someone on here has one where even the underside was immaculate and it had like 97k or something on it.

I believe that is the biggest understatement I've seen on this site in a long time .

Have worked 27 deer/car collisions since October, some pretty catastrophic. Lots of construction and land clearing has driven them out onto the roads. Sorry to hear about your crash Scott, glad you and the wife are ok though. Sheetmetal can be fixed, even if it does make you physically sick to look at.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Yep, that's me and my E46, 95.5K miles. And the E90 is pretty immaculate too, 106K miles. And detailed maintenance records for both from new. These are 4 inch thick binders, not the thin ones.

Scott

View attachment 139536View attachment 139538View attachment 139540View attachment 139541View attachment 139542View attachment 139544

Back in the earl 2000's I was on the E46 board of Roadfly and there was a guy from Washington St who would detail his cars like this. So jealous.

 

[Cujet]

That sucks and sorry to hear it. I also keep my vehicles very nice, and it tears me up when damage occurs. Wife opened up the entire side of the truck like a tin can, by turning a corner too tight into a parking lot bollard with a mushroom top that looked just like a can-opener blade. She then heard a noise and stepped on the gas! I made darn sure the repair was perfect. And I could not be happier! This is 6 or 7 years after the repair of two new OEM doors, new side panel on the cab and bed.

2009 F150

 

[stranger706]

I'm just impressed by the metal interior structure of that side mirror. Most everything is plastic these days.

Glad you're ok.

 

[jeepman3071]

Ugh that sucks, hopefully you can fix it soon. My sister had that happen in her Civic. She waited on the side of the road for me to get there, thinking the damage was worse. The deer was laying on the side of the road not moving, and between the time she called and the time I got there it jumped up and ran back into the woods.

 

[doitmyself]

If the paint is o.k., consider finding an excellent PDR guy for the repairs. I was flabbergasted with the excellent outcome of a dent I had on a seam.

 

[BMW Dom]

Deer always scare me. There are always some in my backyard.

The other day, right in front of my neighbor hood at night, there was a deer right by the road, I kept flashing my lights to be sure people would see it if it happened to cross into the road.

 

[Lubener]

That's why there are "controlled" harvesting of deer in my area to keep the deer population in check. The meat is donated to the food kitchens. Nothing is wasted.

 

[The Critic]

How did this turn out?

 

[slo town]

How did this turn out?

The damage was more extensive than I originally thought. Besides taking out the mirror, the driver's door had a half dozen rippled dents, presumably from the deer's rib cage. The rear door had a dent on the edge of the body line and the rear fender (right behind the trailing edge of the rear door) had a shallow 10 inch diameter dent in it. Paint was undamaged.

I got a local PDR guy to come out. I took off the door panel to give him better access to the inside of the front door, where most of the damage was. He was very good and spent 8 or 9 hours on it. Because of all the structural reinforcement inside the door for side impact protection he was unable to fully remove all the dents in the front door. That said, it is barely noticeable. The rear door and rear fender - impossible to see any sign of damage. A small dent remains in the A-pillar. He tried his best to fix this with stick on pads and a small slide hammer puller but the dent was impossible to fully remove. You can see the dent in the third picture. I had to replace the mirror of course, and get the mirror cap painted.

All and all it cost me $2,800 to fix, all out of pocket.

Scott

 

[The Critic]

Thanks for the update. Glad to see that you were able to achieve a reasonable repair without visiting a body shop.

 

[John105]

Sorry to hear, E92 owner here.

I would not be surprised if PDR can fix the crease around the mirror. I had one done in the lower front corner of the driver door, where it’s no supposed to work…p.s. I see that’s the case. It’s great to avoid paint…