Yes. It's true. A week ago a 120 lb. Doe ran out in front of me and stopped, about 20 feet from my car. Luckily I was only going 35 mph at the time and a passenger yelled 'deer' to give me a little time to get my foot off the accelerator and move it over to brake. I still hit it. Solid. Dead on.

We screamed like little girls. Luckily the airbags didn't come out, because our tonsils would have been burned. Well, the deer died. It did not flip up onto the hood, but kind of bounced off and rolled over into the opposite ditch. We all got out to check on the deer first.After that we went over to the car and amazingly it didn't look too bad. The front grill 'nose' was smashed in about an inch in some places with broken plastic in the middle and one side. The hood has ended up with a small ripple and the bumper is almost perfect except a one inch section on one side of the grill. Nothing came into the engine compartment. Radiator is fine. Car drives fine.

I'll try and get a picture on here. I went for my estimate a couple days ago and was shocked to get a $2300 estimate! All cosmetic. They are replacing the bumper, grill, and hood. Guess they want to do it right. I like that. So, now I'm trying to take this to my advantage and get a nice aftermarket front bumper and grill. I was looking at Oettinger (sp?) but they are spendy and it would look silly if I only got the front. I'm up to $3200 to get the whole kit wrap around. I don't have S-line but I'm thinking about getting the S-line front end as the 'cheap' solution.

 

Glad you and your friend are OK and that your A3 only had minor damage associated with bumper, grill and hood with a Deer run-in. At least all those front end chips will be gone after you get the body work done!

 

Thanks John. Yes, I've tried to look at the positive too. Only 8500 miles on it and still looking shiny and new. I've been in denial, but making this post is my first step. Ha ha.

Any thoughts on upgrading my front end? I've got an Ocean Blue Premium setup. I'm sure I could get the s-line bumper with no problem. Right?

 

Another suggestion is to use the S3 front end makeover kit for a A3 that was mentioned previously. Check out this topic.

 

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Did you bring the deer home and eat it?

 

Venison jerky is awesome

 

LOL

Everyone is a chef when it comes to road kill.

Sorry about your loss.

 

Not EVERYONEs a chef I can do without the roadkill pics myself. What I do want to know though... is if the deer had a new tattoo with 4 rings?

 

It is good news to hear you weren't injured in the crash...it is those "middle speeds" where the real problems occur. At low-speed, deer are essentially punted forward. At high-speed, deer are ejected back over the top of a low-slung automobile. It's in the 30-50 m.p.h. span where the deer slides up the hood and/or can even crash through the windshield. A relative of mine carried lifelong facial scars from deep cuts sustained in an accident with a deer. There are far more deer in the United States today than there were in 1907. True fact.

 

Also the state of New York has the highest frequency of deer collisions if I remember correctly, several thousand a year!