[the99contour]

So as many of you know, I drive a 2008 Solara.

It is a sleek car that I like very much for its looks and how it feels to drive something that you don't see a lot of every day.

However, this car is a damage magnet and I wanted to know if any Solara owners in particular or Camry owners in general have the same experience with their cars.

Here is a list of the repairs that have been made to my Solara in the 21,000 miles it has been driven since new.

1) Rear bumper repainted due to paint chipping from parking lot construction incident (not my fault)
2) Rear window cracked, shattered and fell into the backseat after turning on the rear defroster one morning
3) Large dent kicked into the side of my car while parked outside my dorm at College (###### also kicked in three other cars nearby) dent took 5 days to fix and cost my insurance $2000 to fix
4) Neighbor's siding came off the house durning a windstorm, hit the car, scratched the driver's door (clear coat touch up and buffing required)
5) Garbage can lid flew of during windstorm and hit the hood (clear coat touch up and buffing required)
6) Driver in front of my hit a construction barrel and threw it into the car, left rummber transfer marks on the hood, fender, door and bumper (due to obsessive waxing, all buffed off)
7) Passengers side mirror glass fell out when someone hit the mirror from behind, glass replaced for $25.
8) Car was hit in a parking lot by an old lady in a freakin Buick, she scraped the front bumper down to the primer in several spots, left red paint all over the bumper and then drove off.
9) Car was hit by a deer crossing the road, that's right I said hit by a deer. I was stopped and the stupid animal ran into the side of the car. The fender was damaged so badly that the passenger's door wouldn't open.

So the car has spent the better part of a month in the bodyshop in the 23 months I've owned it and none of what put it there was my fault.

I've paid out so many deductibles to my insurance it's making me sick.

Right now, I'm driving a rental. The insurance company agreed that driving a 2 door with 1 door that opened was dangerous and agreed to let me have a rental while the fender was being ordered.

I had a PT Cruiser for the first 2 days, but because of it being so filthy that it took me 3 hours to clean it up to the point where I could stand to drive it and the fact that the pop spilled on the shifter by a previous driver rendered it difficult to get the car into park, I asked that they get me something different.

What they ended up giving me to make up for that pathetic PT Cruiser was a Cadillac SRX AWD.

I love the Cadillac, it has restored my faith in American automobiles.

It strongly has me considering purchasing a off lease CTS for my next car.

Anyway, the Solara will be back soon, good as new.

[Dave]

I have to say I've had cars like that and it doesn't seem to matter what make or model it is... I've had two almost identical cars and one attracted all the accidents. I had one that was backed into four times while stationery, at lights and stop signs; hit from behind while at traffic lights and stop signs; T-boned while parked; and left by the dealer on top of a hill with the stick in neutral and no parking brake on (you can guess the rest). It just seemed to have bad karma or something. The next owner had no problems ... and that was the last time I had a parked or stopped car hit. Go figure.

I guess given the millions of people and cars out there coincidences are likely to happen but carma (note compound word/pun) is an easier explanation.

[fishexpo101]

Sorry to hear about your string of bad luck man. I'm with Dave - some cars, regardless of make or model, just seem to get hit more than others. A function of the wrong place at the wrong time.

Back in my high school and college days - my old car (BB Mopar, an old Dodge Monaco) got its share of bumps and scrapes. From people learning to drive (drive by feel) and from drunk frat guys passing out ontop of my car or dancing on my hood (if you saw the car, you'd understand - think "land yacht", hood was about as long and wide as a compact truck bed). Old Chevy 4x4, got regularly egg'd by some hood misfits or kicked by some disgruntled drunk or 1/2 baked ape. My old Camry was fairly trouble free - aside from college door dings (people backed into the car all the time, tight parking decks). Most unusual accident involved an old Christmas tree in a truck on a country road. Followed a stakebed truck (large landscaping type one), had it usual assortment of stuff in the back, but didn't notice the tree at the top. Truck hit a pothole and the tree somehow propelled itself out of the bed at directly at the Camry. Swerved and braked hard - tree fell short, but exploded under the car. The larger branches jammed into my wheel wells cause the front end to lift up slightly, causing the car to swap ends. No serious damage, but the car smelled like a pine air freshener for a few days.

My Corolla has been through some fender benders, not a single one was an at fault and/or happened when the car was not running/parked.
- Car was struck from behind by a poorly driven BMW at a tollbooth. Private property, no police report could be submitted, but police was contacted. Insurance company fought it out - then she tried to sue me for stopping at a tollbooth?! End, no fault accident due to weather (light rain) and mysterious circumstances (total BS by other insurance company - Geico). Quoted $3000 to repair, fixed myself with a sledge and a coupled whacks with a rubber mallet. Still need to get a bumper cover, on my todo list.
- Truck or SUV backed into the driver's side door, hit and run, private property (parking lot). Quoted $1700 repair, fixed it myself - out of pocket for about 1/3 of that. Still have a little damage on the trim, on my todo list.
- Car struck by out of control SUV, out of all the cars on the road - SUV made a directly bee-line to my car. Was parked infront of the house, heard a loud crash very early morning, ran outside but the truck/SUV was gone. Baja'd over a hill and out over the road. About $3000 in damage, just left it as it makes the damage in the rear "symmetrical".
Note: All of the above was within a period of about 6 months. Was on travel a lot, so I wasn't around the car - came back, saw car, me = WTF!

Matrix - has its fair share of accidents, mostly parking lot bumps and scraps (does no one take responsibility anymore!?), again not a single one were we at fault.
- Biggest one, car was T-boned by an Acura MDX, significant other was driving, private property (parking lot). MDX peeled back the front driver's side fender like a sardine tin, bent driver's side suspension, chipped wheel, and shifted the front end by a noticeable amount. Was quoted $7000 in repair, Geico (other's insurance)said they were at fault and would pay, their bill came to $1800 - go figure. Repair was shoddy, had them redo it twice, third time around - ended up taking the car because it was going on 5 weeks+ for a repair. Matrix was bought for her, so she made the final call. Car looks a bit "off", drives "off", repair quality was mediocre at best (basically typical repair quality). If I pulled that at my dad's shop - I'd be fired in a heartbeat.

Not much you can do, aside from wrapping the car completely with bubble wrap. But most of the issues seems to be from some very poorly driven cars out on the road. Some people just should not be driving, or they need to make the driving tests much harder. When I got my license in OH - I had to do a road test with mixed driving conditions (residential, some traffic roads, school zone) and a maneuverability test. When my significant other got her license in VA, basically drive around the block and pull into a parking space - that was it.

[Dave]

The funny thing about my particular accident-prone car is that it was not driven in any different conditions than the cars that followed it, and we didn't move or anything; nor did location seem to be an issue. When not moving, it was likely to be hit, pure and simple. Changing cars fixed the problem with no other changes in my life!