The Bravada was rear ended Friday afternoon sitting at a stop light. Took a hard hit, but only $1300 in damage. Good solid full frame.

Today, after my Wife dropped me off at the airport, she was returning home on the interstate in snowy conditions. She was driving conservatively in the right lane of a 6 lane freeway (3 in each direction).

A motirist at reported high speed in the far left lane lost control, slammed into the rear left side of the Bravada. It spun the Bravada around and she slammed into a concrete barrier. She was facing the wrong way on the interstate shoulder. The guy that hit her ended up facing the proper way in front of her. She was in super shook by this.

The guy got out of his vehicle, asked if she was ok in broken English. She asked him to call the police and she was calling me. I told her to call the police. Before she knew it, they guy had driven away.

I took a taxi from the airport to meet up with her. She was sitting in the back of a state police car, super upset. She did not think to get the guy'* license, didn't even get a description of what kind of car he was driving. She is 51 years old and never been behind the wheel in a accident.

The Bravada had tons of fluid on the ground. Coolant and who knows what else. The Bravada was flawlessly maintained. Moog upper and lower ball joints,
Moog tie rods, all new shocks, new copper/nickel brake lines, Delphi fuel pimp, new radiator, new alternator, new fuel pump, dealer replaced LIM gasket last winter. Interior was mint. I am sure it is totaled. Beind spun into a concrete barrier on the interstate, even at 40 MPH is unforgiving. The concrete barrier always wins.

Tow truck driver, called by state police refused to have the vehicle towed to my body shop. Instead, he had it towed to his yard, and yard was closed so I can't pick it up today. He will be charging storage fees, etc.

We do have collision insurance with $500 deductible, but I had to put her in a rental car until I figure out options. Bravadas can be great, but they normally require a lot of initial work to get them reliable (fuel pump, front end stuff, LIM gaskets, etc). And Bravadas that do not get the trans fluid updated are prone to drivetrain failures.

May be bringing her the Bonneville from Arizona.......

thats too bad, wrecks most of the time dont work out for anybody

Wow I am really sorry to hear of this bad news Michael..really.
I am so glad that your wife is ok, and they you were able to get back to her, and help.
I am sure she was pretty badly shaken up and you offering your support really helped, bad timing just before your flight, but u absolutely did the right thing! I would have left the airport ASAP too.

Thanks guys for the kind words. Tough to accept when so much pro-active work was put into the Bravada.

Life goes on....

Wow, glad your wife is okay after all this. I've always believed the heavier the vehicle, the better its outcome after an accident, along with who its carrying. Blazers/Bravada'*/Bonnevile'* always do well.

Being your Bravada is 15 years old, I'm surprised your insurance company didn't total it out.

Because I'm aware of the line of work your in, isn't it time to maybe hang up what your doing and find something closer to home? Even with me, I'm spooked being out 13-15 hours 5 days a week.

Mike, you are spot on. I am trying to get 6 more years for a full pension. It really upsets my Wife I am not home.

The insurance will total it out now.......

Been looking all over for a Bravada, needs to be one owner and from SouthWest. I don't want to go through the brake line, fuel tank drop, etc on a rusted vehicle. Found a 49k mile Bravada in California, I suspect it will need $2000 minimum in parts to make it reliable (LIM Gasket, upper and lower ball joints, delphi fuel pump, tie rods, idler arms, water pump, radiator, new hoses, tires). My tools are all in AZ, so that in itself is a challange to get the work done in Illinois.

Put an ad on craigslist to see if someone might want to drive the Bonneville to Illinois. A craigslist ad is how I got it to AZ from IL.
Drive full size car from Arizona to Illinois

BTW- anyone want to see my Wife in a better place:

Oh I remember her!

6 years is a long time before ETS/Retire. Hmmm, I wonder if I secretly sent her videos of the Finger Lakes region, she might even put in more effort to make you retire early

you guys have pet kangaroos?

We went on a once in a lifetime trip to Australia a few years ago. Stayed in some super remote cabin that had three generations of female kangaroos that, although still wild, got attached to people at the cabin. Real crazy. Male kangaroos would never become friendly. These females were friendly, but reserved. The female kangaroos would leave at night, but come look in the windows of the open cottage to see what the humans were doing in the morning.

We never saw the cities in Australia, except the airport. Figured we could see big cities anywhere. We did things that we couldn't do in the USA. Great trip, but the US dollar doesn't go far in Australia.

$1.00 US = $1.14 AUS

Load of bread at current rates = $2.94. About what I pay here in NY. (good bread)


I envy you Mike, I'd like to visit Australia just to see if the toilets do flush backwards.