Driving home from work on the A1M stretch between Alconbury and Peterborough in all the snow on Tuesday night I pull into the middle lane to overtake a gritting lorry. I can only assume I hit a large lump of grit under my front-right wheel and began to slide across the outside lane (covered in snow and ice,) and into the central barrier. Giving it a bit of throttle allowed me to straighten the car (I love RWD,) so I hit almost exactly sideways at about 40mph, and skipped back into the outside lane.

Having carefully manouvered to the hard shoulder I get out to survey what damage the steel barrier had done to my 18 year old £100 car.

A scratch running 4 feet along the side behind the drivers door, the rubber running strip mangled in places, knocked the right front of the bumper of its mounts and a broken right front indicator lens cap (didn't even break the bulb.)
I don't know of any other car of that age/price, and a lot of newer/more expensive models that would handle that sort of collision that well.
I love my 340!

PS. To repair the damage I found a scrapped 340 (3 door, E reg, same as mine) at the breakers, bought the lot for £60. Its got all the dials, econometer, external temp etc.) that will be moved to my 340 today. It also has electric windows (both working.) Would it be easier to swap the doors with my existing doors (the car is a different colour but after the scratch needs a respray anyway,) than to remove the motors etc?

Well bad luck does sometimes turn into good luck.

I'll glad you escaped that one ok.

Good luck getting her fixed.

A lucky escape! But glad there wasn't much damaged - also, you got one hell of a find with that scrapper car. The gauges alone are worth around 20 quid each

ChrisW wrote: To repair the damage I found a scrapped 340 (3 door, E reg, same as mine) at the breakers, bought the lot for £60. Its got all the dials, econometer, external temp etc.) that will be moved to my 340 today. It also has electric windows (both working.) Would it be easier to swap the doors with my existing doors (the car is a different colour but after the scratch needs a respray anyway,) than to remove the motors etc?

blimey , because of the extra dials ,thats even a better bargain than my gle, well done ,

it is probably easier to swap the doors , even with all the suggestions ive had from people here, i have still not managed to thread the two wires through from the door to inside( think its coz ive got big mitts ). I am even tempted to tie them to a tape worm and wait the otherside with a piece of cheese til he comes through lol

redline wrote:
blimey , because of the extra dials ,thats even a better bargain than my gle, well done ,

it is probably easier to swap the doors , even with all the suggestions ive had from people here, i have still not managed to thread the two wires through from the door to inside( think its coz ive got big mitts ). I am even tempted to tie them to a tape worm and wait the otherside with a piece of cheese til he comes through lol

Might just do that then. Think i've really landed on my feet with this one. Very lucky with the scrapper, it was the only one in the yard. (It's a GLE btw.)
Although wouldn't changing the door locks be a pain? Suppose I could just use two keys

Door locks are a fiddle but fairly easy to change, done mine a few times.
Cheers Adam

Door locks are fiddly as you like... but so's getting wires through that flipping snake Remember you'll need to rewire the door the other side of the A pillar if you swap the doors over....

Swapping the barrel is easy - getting the door latch mechanism out and back into the door is a lesson in frustration...

Lucky escape mate, and some good luck finding a car with the trimmings! Bargain cars, made to last.
Pete