Pic Spocket

Well… 2 days after visiting the auto show, my car is dead.

I was coming back from work last Thursday evening, on I-94 in Michigan. Roads were really slippery because of the small snow falling on the concrete road surface and the fact that MDOT is not putting any salt or sand on the roads until it gets REALLY bad. I saw 3 or 4 accidents on my way, on my side of the highway only.

About 10 km from home, I was being pushed a bit byt a dark Jeep. Decided to play it safe (I could tell it was slippery even with my winter tires) and move over in the middle lane and let that car pass. Right after passing me, the Jeep lost control, hit the concrete median wall in the middle of the highway, rebounded off it and aimed straight at me. The direction of the jeep was aiming more towards the rear of my car, so hitting the break was not an option. I tried to press the gaz pedal a bit to clear her. I almost thought I succeded when at the last second, the Jeep bumped me on my rear driver side corner, sending me into a spin. I did a few 360’s, crashed my front end on the concrete wall in the middle of the highway and the passenger side rear corner.

After the car stopped, I had a hard time bringing it to the curb it was so damaged. All my coolant on the ground, had to push REAL hard to open my door since my front bumper was wrapped around my door on the side.

The Jeep that lost control was then T-boned by another car.

The driver of the Jeep was a pregnant women - one would think that in these conditions she would drive more carefully. Within minutes, we had a big circus going: 3 police cars, 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and 2 tow trucks. All highway lanes closed but one because of us… 

Anyway.. it took forever to get home: waited 1.5 hours for a taxi that took all the US money I had left on me to bring me back in Canada).

The day after, I went to the impound to look at my car and take my belonging out. Here are a the pictures:

Since I had a lot of mileage on the car (159 000 km) it is clear that it is a total loss. I am now waiting on the insurance to appraise the value of the car before I get out something else. I feel like I am going to get screwed… The black book says the value is between $1000 and $3000 only, while similar high mileage models are on www.trader.ca for 7000-8000$.

It really sucks: that car was still driving very nicely, reliable, it was all paid for, it was triathlon and dog friendly… I am now going to be back with car payments. Oh well…

Tuesday last week, I took a day off to visit the Detroit Auto show. Every year, they organize a photo contest and people that show up on the Tuesday morning with camera equipment can get early access, 2 hours before general opening, which is VERY nice! I had no plans to participate in the contest, but I wanted to browse the show without the crowd hehe!

 Here are a few of my pictures.

All the other pictures are in the album below.

2011 Detroit Auto Show

If only I’d known that 2 days later I would be in need of a new car, my focus would have been a bit different (story to follow inmy next post)…

The winners for the photo contest organized by the Detroit Auto Show NAIAS 2009 (which I have participated in) have been annouced. Click the image below to go to the NAIAS website and see larger verions. 

NAIAS 2009 Photo Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners! It was fun to participate and get early access to the show. I may make that a yearly appointment.

The 2009 NAIAS Detroit Auto Show was running for the last week or so. There is a photo contest organized for the show. People wanting to participate in the contest and showing up at the door with any other camera than a camera phone could access the show 1 hour before official opening last Tuesday.

I did not necessarily want to participate in the contest, but could not pass the opportunity to enter early while the crowds are not yet there. I always went to the show on weekends and it usually CRAZY over there. I usually end up with a headache from the sensory overload (light, noise, etc).

Maybe 20 or 30 people showed up for the early entrance. I’ll tell you: it seemed almost strange to walk this show with virtually no body there for a while. It helped to get many pictures without people in them. That being said, the show did not seem as big or as crowded as I usually see it. With the actual economic crisis, there were some big companies missing such as Nissan.

So I did not originally planned to participate, but finally submitted one picture per category of the photo contest. Here are my entries:

Convertibles and Coupes		Black and White Photos
Cutting Edge Concepts		Coolest Close-up
Luxury		Snapshots at the Show

There are many good submissions though and only one winner per category, so I really do not expect anything. It’s just for the heck of it. You can see the pictures submitted by other people here: 2009 NAIAS PHOTO CONTEST.

Here are some more of my pictures during the show:

You know it… larger versions and many more pictures in the album below. Enjoy!

We always managed to get around with only one car, but lately it’s been a problem since Corinne has to get back home for lunch every day to take care of the puppy. We decided it was time to get a second car. (That becomes an expensive dog!!!)

After a lot of searching, we found a really good deal on a used 2004 Ford Escape XLS 2WD. It’s in really great shape and has only 54 000 Km. It still drives like new. It has the Duratec V6  3.0l engine which I know pretty well since I had the 2.5l version of this engine in my 2001 cougar. I’ve put 175 000 Km on that engine before having problems (an engine seal).

Corinne drives it. She likes it a lot!

Here are a few pictures.