Cars and Animals
I was once driving in the mountains with a girl and a jack rabbit darted out in front of the car. I swerved, the car fishtailed on the gravel, first towards the mountain face, then towards the 1,000 foot drop, then back to the mountain, and so on until I finally got it under control and we sat panting until our hearts settled to 130 beats per minute.

I made a pact with animals at that moment: you stay out from in front of me and I won't run over you.

That holds to this day: a month or two ago I was driving home late after band rehearsal. It was dark and suddenly what do I see but a freshly struck deer was directly in my path.

I did what anyone else would do driving a VW Passat: I gripped the wheel and jumped it; bounced all around at landing and might have uttered a few epithets, but looking back, should have done a Dukes of Hazard "yeeee-hawwwww"!

Luckily, it hadn't frozen (Minnesota in February) so the damage was only the belly plate. Replaced it with this sucker: www.dieselgeek.com/servlet/Detail?no=374 and now I'm ready for anything.

It did smell like cooked venison for the next few days while driving.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Thu 22 Apr 2010, 22:41, 3 replies)

Too early in the morning to read...
From your linky - I misread this:

"The 1998-2005 Passats have a weakness in that their undersides have no protection from damage when hitting objects in the roadway such as road kill, retreads, and ice chunks."

As:

The 1998-2005 Passats have a weakness in that their undersides have no protection from damage when hitting objects in the roadway such as road kill, retards, and ice chunks."

Freaked me out for a moment, then pissed myself laughing :D

And amen for the rule of the road - been twunted by too many people avoiding a lil fluffy. If you can do it SAFELY, sure. If you're going to plough off a mountain or into me - just fecking don't.
(spongtastic - Fisting midgets since 15.45, Fri 23 Apr 2010, 7:07, closed)

Well, frozen retards can damage the exhaust.

( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Fri 23 Apr 2010, 15:06, closed)

If I can find the pics
I'll post them. It shows what happened when I swerved around a wallaby and speared off the side of the road toward a cliff. Luckily I hit the only tree for ages and the car (demolished) stopped before it went straight down. Completely destroyed a Nissan Patrol with a Roo Bar on the front (and yes, I realise the point of a roo bar is to hit kangaroos with). I still get a creepy feeling with I think about it.
Funny thing was I'd always been taught if an animal runs out in front of you, hit it (see other post somewhere in here) but when it happened, I just yanked the wheel.
( difficultchild, Mon 26 Apr 2010, 6:53, closed)