Just wanted to see what everyone would have done in my situation.
Driving back from holidays on a Sunday night, around 5.30pm so it was getting dark plus slight drizzle and fog. There were about 3 cars ahead of me, 3 cars behind, all travelling at 80 which was the speed limit. Roo decides to cross the road and lucky me gets close and personal with my front grille. I stopped and assessed the damage (Roo got up and hopped away into the night), and apart from a soccer ball sized-hole in the plastic grille, and a very slight dent in the radiator, there didn't seem to be anything wrong. No fluids leaking, engine was still running and sounded fine. I then drove about 10kms to the next town where we stopped for dinner. When I turned the car on again, again the engine was running fine but the malfunction light came on so we decided not to drive any further.
My family and I were stranded about 150kms/2.5 hours from home on a Sunday night (about 7.30 pm by this time), tired after a full day of activities, having to work the next day, etc. - was wondering what you would have done in the same situation. Suggestions offered at the time were:
- Take a chance and drive home and deal with the insurance claim the next day
- Get a local mechanic to inspect the car/temporary fix and then drive home
- Call roadside assist to inspect and either drive car home / organise a tow
- Call insurance and organise the tow / transport home that night
- Leave the car and take a taxi home (local taxi company quoted $400) and do the insurance claim the next day
- Stay in a local motel for the night, and then do the insurance claim / organise a tow / transport home the next day
p.s. I called my roadside assist they said they wouldn't attend because it was an accident, not a breakdown and to call your insurance instead. Maybe I could have just said it was a breakdown… caused by a Roo.
p.s. ah dammit, buggered up the poll… sorry everyone :)
EDIT: Thank you everyone for your responses! Very interesting to see that according to the poll, there are a lot of risk takers on OzB! :)
You did the correct thing, post it on Ozb.