My new car is cursed

We just got a honda element in june. It had 7000 miles on it. We love the car but we’re starting to think it’s cursed. In the 7 months that we’ve had it, she backed it into our old car and ripped apart the rear plastic fender, I dropped my bike on the door for a good sized dent, she hit a flock of small birds sitting in the road, I fatally hit a dog, she hit a rock that destroyed the front wheel, I hyperextended the door while backing down a snowbank lined driveway with it open, and finally a hawk flew into the windshield and shattered it. Maybe it’s our fault. Surely, most of it should have been avoided by a little more attention on our parts. But nothing like any of this has ever happened to us in our entire driving career, and we’re in our thirties.



So the question is, shamen, exorcist, sell it, or what?

If I were you, I would take a course in Defensive Driving given by the AAA and other organizations. It teaches drivers to “anticipate” problems and teaches evasive moves to miss dangers coming your way. I have some friends who call themselves unlucky (accident-prone) and would benefit from such a course. Most accidents and collisions are avoidable.

I’ll give you $2,500 for it and you’ll be safe.

Sounds like you need to call an old priest and a young priest.

I dunno, Doc. This one sounds possessed!

Although I am technically trained and don’t believe in luck, good or bad, there are some people who encounter an excess of either one. The lady who used to cut my hair is Austrian, and a judge in hairstyling contests. She also likes car. Her favorite car, an immaculate Camaro IROC, was stolen; the police found the remains (basically the body shell) three weeks later in an abandoned field.

After the insurance paid, she bought a Toyota Camry, conservative and CR recommended vehicle. Six months later I heard about a drive-by shooting in which one person was killed, and my hair stylist was hauled in by the police since the shooters had stolen her car right out of the driveway.

She now drives a grey Honda Civic and hopes other criminals will concentrate on someone else’s car.

With the exception of the bird incidents, it really sounds like you and your wife need to focus on what you are doing while you are operating that vehicle. Blaming the vehicle (or karma, or…?) for your accidents is extremely naive, IMHO. No matter what type of vehicle one is driving, there is no substitute for paying attention to what you are doing.

Note: I have driven for approximately 38 years and approximately 450,000 miles without an accident, despite a “spirited” driving style. It frequently comes down to just paying attention.

I envy people with immaculate driving records. Although I learned to drive on the farm (tractor/truck) and later drove big trucks in he army, I have had one serious accident (at age 20) and a number of minor fender benders. Collisions with animals include: 2 pocupines, one deer, one fox, one rabbit, and one dog. In all cases, the collision was unavoidable.

All told, after nearly 600,000 miles of driving in various vehicles in over 30 countries, I consider myself lucky to never having seriously injured or killed anyone, except those unfortunate animals. My wife still feels bad about the young bear she killed on a mountain road.

VDC’s right, but why are you making these mistakes? Is there a lot of stress in your life right now? I’m actually serious. Not getting enough sleep can cause this kind of thing. Are you super-preoccupied with financial or other personal problems? I guess this thread is more psychological than automotive. That’s OK with me! Anyways, post back and let us know if things change. And no, neither you or the car is cursed.

Your thirties is when all the learned sloppy habits start to bite you. You have to pretend that you have never done things before. Take a fresh perspective and get over the curse. We do less damage after age 40. Maybe.

Just to clarify my earlier post:

I have actually been driving for 43 years. During my first 5 years of driving, I had two collisions, both of which were my fault. The first one, where I hit the back of a tractor trailer at about 5 mph, was the result of my inattention while in heavy traffic conditions. The second one was as a result of driving too fast for conditions on an snowy surface, with a RWD vehicle.

So, if I left the impression that I have never had an accident, I apologize for the confusion. However, my clarification does serve to reinforce my earlier statement about inattention being the cause of almost all accidents.

Imagine–2 collisions in 5 years, vs. no accidents of any kind in the following 38 years. I learned (the hard way) about the importance of paying full attention while behind the wheel, and the OP can too.

I had a streak of bad luck like that when I drove my Geo Prizm in high school, if it’s any consolation.

First on 4th of July someone threw fireworks in through the drivers side window which I had cracked open (oops). Then shortly after school started a thief broke in and took my stereo for which I forgot to remove the faceplate (oops). Then shortly after that while hanging out with my friends in the parking lot after school I had left my drivers side door ajar while I was loading my backpack, etc. and my friend took off abruptly in his 1986 Grand Marquis, V8. This car was a beast. His high profile steel rear bumper caught my drivers side door and bent it roughly 55 degrees in the opposite direction of it’s travel (think about the movie "Tommy Boy, or maybe it was "Black Sheep). So I then had to drive the car around with a door hanging partially open until I could get it in the body shop. Finally after I got that fixed I was able to replace my stereo and then about a week later my vehicle had the driver side window smashed in and not too shortly thereafter, egged. Finally at some point the madness stopped, but it was a trying couple of months.

Good luck. It gets better.

Stuff happens. It’s your turn. I’ve found potholes on a dark night, and animals, too. I know several people that it deer; fortunately none of them died. Maybe you should get help when putting your bike on the roof. Opening the door while backing was not the safest ting to do, in retrospect; nor was backing the Element into the other car. Just learn from these trials and you will get out of your funk soon. If not, you have a new career - Blues songwriter! Because you gotta suffer if you wanna sing the Blues!

I don’t know. All the stuff is our fault indeed. But why all in the past seven months and not before. Nothing has really changed in our lives except the car. I had one fender bender when I was 20 in stop and go traffic and I pulled the classic get distracted bya girl on the sidewalk move. I’ve never really been a defensive driver, although for the 2 years before the element, I never broke the speed limit because I was playing the don’t buy insurance and don’t get pulled over game. (I came out ahead by 1500 bucks). Even so none of these happenings happened while I was speeding. ( the dog happened on a snowy road and maybe “too fast for conditions”, maybe…).
Maybe I need to start speeding again and put the intensity back in my driving. Maybe driving the speed limit like the soccer dad I am has made driving a mondain chore during which I glaze over. You think race car drivers ever lose concentration? no. Now I’m not suggesting driving as fast as I possibly can because racers crash all the time at their limits. And crashing at that speed kills, I know.
Maybe I just need to find that kind of focus in something else adn apply it to driving. Maybe I need to go snowboarding or mountainbiking more (like I did before my wife got pregnant 5 years ago) to get that adrenaline induced focus back.
I don’t know, it just feels like it all comes from the element. Every time something happens, I think “Okay, now the odds of this happening again to this car have got to be way less now.” And Boom, another bunger. I think Holly’s going to burn sage in it or something.

It’s mostly random chance, possibly including your lapses in judgment when you damaged the cars yourself. If you are really concerned, I’ll trade you my 1998 Buick Regal for your Element. I’ve had great luck with it.

You may have apoint there; during the 70s oil crisis Nixon imposed the infamous 55 mph speed limit to “conserve energy as save lives”! It did save energy, and because cars were still quit unsafe at that time; it reduced fatalities to some extent, BUT IT DID NOT REDUCE ACCIDENTS!! In fact pepole got so bored driving at that speed they became careles and inattentive. Driving in Germany teaches you to be totally alert at all times; driving there is a full time activity, espcially at 80+ mph autobahn speeds.

My recommendation for taking Defensive Driving workshops is that these courses increase your alertnenss and awareness that there are a lot of idiots out there who are driving half asleep, distracted, or under some substance influence!

It also seems you may have some difficulty getting used to the Element, which is a different kind of car size-wise.

As long as the ‘happenings’ and collisions are restricted to your vehicles, continue.