Marty's story
Not a crash story, but a crash AVOIDANCE story. Shortly after taking delivery of my blue/silver passion coupe on 9 May 08, my wife and I decided to go for a drive on the "back roads" around Olympia, WA.
I had stopped at a 4-way stop, and started to proceed through the intersection. Suddenly my wife yelled "LOOK OUT!!!" I slammed on my brakes, and it was amazing (and very fortunate for us!!!) how fast that little car stopped! What my wife had seen (and I hadn't), was a full-sized van that, for whatever reason (perhaps admiring my beautiful little car!) had not even slowed down for the intersection. She would have struck my side of the car at 35 mph! It was also a good thing that I didn't really have a front-end on the car, because even as it was, she barely missed me!! It didn't really bother me, but it really shook my wife up. I guess because she'd seen the whole thing happening (and she'd been T-boned once before), it took her the rest of the day to calm down!
I love my little car, and regardless of the latest "scary" reports by the insurance industry, I wouldn't take anything for my "smartie!"