Kizashi Club

Hello.

I bought a 2011 Kizashi SLS for my wife on Wednesday. On Thursday during a storm, a tree fell on it as my wife was driving, hitting the passenger side headlight. The damage on the body of the car doesn't look that serious, although every single airbag deployed, even though the car was going no more than 30 MPH. This car has a lot of air bags

The one thing I noticed after going around the car, is that none of the 4 doors close all the way.They are no longer flush to the body. I can close a door, then pull on it, and the "open door" light comes up.

For a tree falling on the car, the dent on the hood is rather small: it looks more like a bowling ball fell on that corner of the car: seems a new bumper, hood, headlight, and windshield will do the trick. But I don't know what to make of the doors. None of them sit flush with the frame anymore... they seem ajar by maybe an 8th of an inch.

So, my question is, does anyone know if the doors' condition may be a safety feature, i.e., after an accident something prevents the doors from closing all the way? Or is it that the frame got bent out of shape? It just seems really strange for a collision that happened on one corner of the car to affect all doors in the car the exact same way.

My concern is that indeed the frame got damaged somehow, in which case I want to fight with my insurance company for a total loss, so we can turn around and buy another Kizashi.

Id say your frames twisted, my mate had a holden cruze/Chevrolet cruze depending on where your from that had a branch fall on the boot/c pillar and afterwards all the doors were a mess even though none were obviously damaged. He was able to get them fixed to a point where theyd close but they looked obviously out of line, wasnt a write off due to the fact theyd close but it was obviously unsafe so he traded it. His lower frame was damaged from the side imapct as the branch fell, most body damage was above and behind the rear wheel arch.

I'd be most surprised if it wasn't written off if all the airbags deployed. That would be a substantial sum of money just to fix the interior.
I wonder if the pressure from all the airbags deploying has caused the adjustable door latches to move a bit? They might just need to be loosened and adjusted back?

The body itself IS the frame in a unibody car. Most makers design crumple zones for front, rear and side impact, but not a heavy blow from above. Sounds like quite an impact if all the airbags deployed...and that alone is usually enough for insurance companies to do a complete write-off.

I have some bad news for you. Your car will most likely be totaled. The reason why is that every single airbag deployed and that itself caused damage that would exceed the value of this under-appreciated car with low resale value.

The reason why your doors don't close is because of the airbags. The side impact airbags deploy from the headliner/pillar area and the side of the seats for both front and rear. I think that after the deployment, the headlining around the edge of the door and the pillars is deformed and is preventing the doors from closing.

The damage from the tree's impact won't be the thing that totals your car. It's far more likely going to be the airbags. It's been the case with a few people here.

Thank you for all your responses.

My main concern was, I have never seen anything like this before, and was afraid the insurance company would try to tell me the doors were "ok enough", but since I made the post, the insurance company deferred the estimation to the body shop, and the body shop we chose has an excellent reputation, and I learned that just replacing an airbag can run between $700-$1000 dlls, so just in airbags alone, would be $5000-$7000, so I am somewhat confident the car will be declared a total loss. In preparation, I have a 2013 SLS on hold at Carmax.

I tell you, I would never have considered buying a Kizashi; we got this car on a whim: we went to Carmax to kind of start looking for cars for my son, who's getting his license soon. My wife saw the SLS, and I guess her middle-age crisis kicked in, and she said "look, Tokyo street racer. Let's take it for a test drive". I was very surprised with all of the features in this car, and how it drove, and when I sat on the seat, I just fit in it. As we were driving back into the lot, I spotted a 2013 Mercedes Benz c250 Sport. Beautiful car inside and out, but after driving the SLS, the c250 felt sluggish, I could not adjust the seat in any way, shape, or form to feel comfortable, and handled like a boat in comparison to the SLS. That pretty much sealed the deal for the Kizashi. It is a very fun car to drive (I love the steering wheel paddles, since I am hardcore stick shift) and apparently very safe.

I am myself looking around to replace my 2006 Infiniti G35. I am looking at Cadillacs (kind of want to start acting my age) but I am seriously considering his and hers Kizashis. Fun cars to drive with lots of features, and they look darned good.

Wow, that's an excellent review. I think you should get yourself a Kizashi.