Just wanted to share these with everyone. My little brother slid on the snow and ice Friday night and hit a curb. Instead of calling me he let the cops call a tow truck and tow it to their garage which wasn't open over the weekend and the car had to sit inside, so he was bummed. Now, for the good part. He has a 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix, a very nice car. He told me when I picked him up Friday that he was only going 5, maybe 10 MPH when he slid into the curb and damaged the car. I'd like your opinions on the speed he was likely going, lol.

Sorry for the pic quality, phone camera FTL.









Busted the steering knuckle in two, bent the control arm, ripped the CV joint apart, and the front wheel is bent and about 8" of bead was broken off as well (sorry, no pics of that).


So, any opinions? LOL

 

holy smokes. I did this to my 03 dodge ram and didnt even do this much damage and i hit the curb going 45mph...(going around a corner and rear tire let loose,whooops)


he hit it going 55 lol

 

If he hit the curb flush it would do more damage than if he hit it driving straight on. Those powdered metal parts arent the strongest.

Chris i bet you hit the curb going straight on. If you hit the curb flush with the sidewall it would have flipped.

 

5-10mph sliding sideways into a curb with that wheel hitting first, definitely capable of that kind of damage.

And the steering knuckle is cast aluminum which is quite strong.

 

lol..... I dunno, I used to have an '88 Park Avenue and hit a parking block in almost the exact same way he hit the curb (much the same way as swartlkk described while doing a little shopping cart bowling) at around 45mph and all it did was bend the rim a little. Either I was very lucky then, or he's very unlucky now.

In any case, he shouldn't have been out driving anyway.

On a good note, I got it loaded on a trailer and to my shop without too much trouble, and the Jimmy pulled it just fine even with all the snow/ice on the roads.

 

i was doing about 15-20mph when i slid into a curb on about a 45deg angle from straight on, it bent the living sh|t out of the lower control arm to the tune of about $200 to fix but other than that the lil sunfire took her n kept going. if he hit er @ a 90deg from straight angle or close to that ya, that kind of damage is very possible since most parts are more designed for fwd/rev directional kind of impacting (driving and such forces) rather than a straight on impact from the side of the vehicle. granted i bet he was closer to the 10-15 range tho

 

it depends on the vehicle, if it is a small car, well that is to be expected as it has lighter duty parts. Now on the other hand a good 4x4 could do the same and possibly avoid damage. I speak from personal experiece, as i spun out in my blazer on ice and while trying to recover it, i jumped the curve at about a 40 degree angle and fishtailed in the grass and pulled back onto the road, all while doing 30-35 mph and i checked her and nothing was damaged.

 

we had a '71 International pickup when I was a kid... going down a hill in Omaha we spun it into a side street on purpose to avoid running into the VW van trying to come up the hill. didn't even bend anything.

 

totally right Zanders, i was in an almost compact vehicle when i did it, the grand prix is just a bit bigger and basically same type of quality in parts and workmanship so for either to hit the curb it'd likely end up @ the same results. Not to mention the curb i hit was higher than the norm here of about 5 inches - it was something around 7 or 8, so no chance in hell of actually jumping it. i just got lucky and only did that damage to the car when i hit it.

 

i slid into a curb in my 3/4 chevy fullsize at 5 mph max and it sheered a few things like that. got nsurance and police paperwork. =P