I am on my second XD. I had less than 5,000 miles on the first one, purchased in October, 2007. January 29th, I was driving about 10-15 mph in Houston when a woman pulled out from her parallel parking space and hit the XD very hard about an inch behind the front passenger tire. She was driving a 1988 Cadillac. The indentation left at the initial impact site was almost 6 inches deep. I remember the initial impact, which was really very hard. I remember hanging on to the steering wheel and trying to control the car. I do not remember hitting the brakes, although a witness says that I did. In any case, the car wound up in the center median, lying upside down on the windshield. I wound up on the ceiling. The windshield shattered, but remained in place except for a few shards of glass that fell into the car. Both front tires were blown and the front bumper was destroyed. Parts of the engine were exposed. The frame of the car was clearly bent, and there was a tuft of grass sticking out of the top of the back window on the driver's side. The driver's side front door was damaged, as was the front passenger door. The top of the front passenger compartment was damaged, but not crushed. There was not so much as a scratch on the back passenger areas, inside or out. The antenna was still sticking up and was undamaged. I received a concussion and some contusions and cuts and a very badly bruised left rib area and left arm. (My back still hurts, but not unbearably so.)
Obviously, the car flipped at least once, because of the tuft of grass on the back window which could only have come from impacting the center median, and because the car wound up on its windshield. I am wondering if anyone else has had any accident experience in an XD or if there are any engineers or crash experts out there that could tell me why and how that car flipped at such a low speed.

 

wow, glad you are relatively ok. Sounds like the xD held up pretty well for a roll over. sometimes it is just the point of impact that can flip a car, but hope you get an expert answer.

 

did she have insurance?

 

Yes, she did have insurance, although she first gave the police an expired card. I was very impressed with how the car did hold up. At the hospital, the police told my friend that he was surprised I got out alive. I was wearing a seatbelt and the front driver's side front airbag deployed. I don't know if I was injured from that or from the few shards of glass that fell out of the windshield. BTW, while the ceiling of the XD is almost as comfortable as the seats, I don't recommend trying it out as a resting place.

 

I so love a bit of comedy in an otherwise screwed up situation. I was reading about your wreck and thinking "damn, that sucks." Then I get to this part and I'm glad I wasn't taking a drink right then.

As for the rollover, the only thing I can think of is perhaps you were going a lil faster than you thought or perhaps she hit you a lil harder than you thought. You said the indent was 6 inches, so she must have been punching it, trying to merge into traffic at a decent speed. Lots of cars flip for the stupidest, most unpredictable reasons. You just have to have everything "just so" in order to do it. This time, you were just the lucky contestant on "flip my ride."