Bird strike

[Alfettaman]

An in-flight pheasant met our Honda E, creating a big, pheasant-sized hole in the black plastic front panel....

The Honda was doing 40mph. I don't know how fast the pheasant was going, but it appeared from a hedgerow at the side of the road, with no time for me (or the E's safety systems) to react. A pheasant is a big, heavy bird - they can be up to 1.5kg.

Amazingly, everything on the car still works: cruise, auto-follow, lane-keeper, all lights, etc. The only damage is to that plastic front panel and to one of the horns – which still works but is physically damaged. The precision-guided pheasant somehow managed to miss both the bumper and the bonnet. So, a new front panel, the oval radar cover below the Honda emblem, and a new horn. 697 GB Pounds and ready to collect in three days time.

Could have been a lot worse....

RIP pheasant.

[Verone]

Oof, that's brutal mate, sorry to see your e is wounded, but it looks like it fared well all things considered! Glad there were no injuries, and no serious damage! <3

[Mailforkev]

Ouch. You got away lightly there I suspect, 700 quid for all that isn't actually too bad. Especially considering the glass charge port above it is over a grand!

We were on a bit of road trip in my wife's Volvo last year when a bird decided to fly across the motorway and just turn straight into us. I could see it happening in slow motion. It hit us with a proper thump, no way it survived. Amazingly the windscreen didn't break, although I did have to squirt/wipe off a few feathers and the ghostly outline of an ex-bird.

[Alfettaman]

Yes, I think we did get off very lightly: a bit lower and we might have needed a new bumper, a bit higher and a new charge port. What amazes me is that all the expensive stuff behind the black plastic panel survived unscathed. The dealer gave me a 'worst case' quote before they dismantled anything and that came to 3700 GBP. It included a deformation bar, three impact sensors (700 quid each!) plus the black panel and radar cover.

I'll bet the radar head is well over 1000 GBP too....