Practically Classics Forum

With apologies to Pam Ayres and "The Hedgehog":

"It has been well recorded,
Both in chapter and in verse,
That in a Jeep and Lexus fight
The Lexus comes off worse."

Today in Dubai, whilst sitting in a queue of traffic waiting for the lights to go green, we were brutally assaulted from the rear by a LexusCruiser (Landcruiser with more toys and a Lexus badge). Our towbar got stuck in his bumper, our bumper got pushed up a bit and our tailgate is a slightly different shape now, but I think he got the worst of it. I particularly like the bit where my Jeep's exhaust pipe burnt a hole in the Lexus's bumper (4th photo)! Now to see how quickly the insurance companies sort it out (he admitted liability).......

Most importantly, no-one was hurt (although Sophie and Hannah were a bit shaken by it) and both vehicles were drivable. The cops were called because they have to do a Police report for the insurance company, and joked that mine was going to be a LOT cheaper to fix.

Had a similar incident with my landrover series 2 whilst parked a renault clio drove square on straight into the back of it, he must have fiddling with the radio or somthing,it looks like he didnt even brake and probably hit it at around 30 mph. The clio was a couple of feet shorter and never going to see the road again, the landie transmission brake linkage snapped on impact and it rolled 100yds down the road and hit a vw golf coming the other way which was also written off. Damage to the landie was zero to the front where it hit the golf and a bent rear x member which I replaced in 3 hours, plus a new link for the handbrake.

First off,I'm glad nobody was hurt.
There is something to be said for fitting a towbar, as a properly built
heavy gauge towbar can take more of an impact & cause the vehicle
that hits you more damage to them.

I have had a few rear shunts, the victim of them I should say! and
when I realised my vehicles were better off if It had a towbar fitted
I think the only car that I didn't have a towbar fitted after realising
that was a mk 2 mondeo where I had ordered the towbar after just
getting the car but was hit the day before it was due to be fitted!
If it had been fitted the car would not have been written off!

Mitsuru wrote:First off,I'm glad nobody was hurt.
There is something to be said for fitting a towbar, as a properly built
heavy gauge towbar can take more of an impact & cause the vehicle
that hits you more damage to them.

I always thought that, until I saw a car a towbar after it had been shunted. Sure it may also damage the other car more, but where the towbar mounts to the chassis gets damaged badly too.

It looks OK underneath. Luckily I saw him in my rear view mirror charging towards me so stuck the transmission into D and hit the throttle so as he hit us we were rolling forward. I think that this avoided any major damage because we were able to "roll with the punches".

Much get around to sorting the insurance paperwork.............

Those Jeeps are sturdy
Must have been about 20 years ago I had a Mk2 Granada estate...fitted with a towbar...a Rover 200 ran into the back of me at maybe walking pace in town one day, not a scratch on the Granada but the front of the Rover was in bits al over the road.
Another time a woman in a Ford KA ran into the back of my Sierra...again fitted with a towbar...slightly bent towbar and rear exhaust pipe but the towball had bent the front crossmember behind the flimsy plastic bumper and kinked both chassis legs !!! £150 to fix the Sierra, KA was a write off.

To be fair a KA would be written off if a gnat flew in to the front of it they are so flimsy