My poor HHR
 

Hit a deer last night coming home from work. As soon as I hit him, all of my gauges went dead and the console was giving me electronic failure notices, airbags, abs, check engine, power steering, etc... Then my engine went full throttle without me giving it gas, I pushed the clutch in and it immediately shut off. I was able to coast to a safe place to pull over to survey the damage. Couldn't see much last night, but this morning I was able to see the radiator pushed back on top of the engine. Got to wait until insurance man comes out before the body shop can pull the hood off to see just how bad it is....

http://bcwhite.net/images/hhr_vs_deer.jpg

Oof. That has me wondering whether a little grille guard would be a good idea. With the car's looks, I think a modest one would look pretty good, while protecting some of the more tender parts without interfering with the crash protection design.

seems very odd that you got full throttle, not to mention dangerous. Good thinkin on the clutch.

As long as your okay, doesn't look as bad for hitting a deer. I figured on our cars the whole front would cave in.

Another sacrifical HHR, glad you weren't hurt.:thumb:

Did you at least get to keep the deer? I keep hoping I'll hit one with my Jeep so I can get some venison in the freezer (I got skunked hunting) and so I can fix or replace that Heep.

Jim

Glad you're ok, damage looks minimal.

The deer rolled over the top of my car, surprised my windshield didn't break/shatter, and I guess ran into the woods as we couldn't find him when we went back to look.

@SmoothHHR - The throttle was definitely a little nerve racking especially after just hitting the deer, but since I have a manual and was in 5th gear, it wasn't like it geared down and picked up speed quickly, so I had a little more time to react.

I hit the deer with Cruise set at 64, didn't even have time to get on the brakes until after I hit him. As far as damage, I'm just concerned with the electronics, and the fact that the body shop guy told me there was a puddle of what looked like transmission fluid on his flat bed when he unloaded my car last night, the radiator had already emptied itself on the side of the road before he got there last night.

Glad to hear you're alright , the trans fluid on the flat bed is mst likely from the cooler in the rad for the trans on the drivers side, I had to replace the o-rings last year for the hose fittings. keep us upto date on the repairs

So glad you're OK bwhite757, that's the most important thing. HHR's can be repaired or replaced, you can't.

The full throttle thing might have been caused by a crushed throttle body, but I'm sure they'll figure that out during the estimating and tear-down process.

Glad you are okay.