Squirrels are thought of as being one of the cutest and most innocent of the woodland critters, so when one runs in front of your brand new BMW, of course you are going to try to avoid it, even if you run the risk of driving right into a lake and completely totaling your ride. This is what happened close to (and eventually in) San Diego’s Mission bay according to U-T San Diego.
There were two young men in their 20s in the car, who escaped unscathed, unlike the car itself which is for all intents and purposes was totaled – just think of how many electronics are at work with a modern BMW like this, and now imagine none of them working. This renders the car virtually useless, despite being structurally sound, with probably very little actual physical damage.
If this had been an older car with much fewer electrical components and electronic gizmos, they could have pulled it out, cleaned it up, let it dry for a while and just try starting it right up – just think about that old Top Gear episode when they try to kill a Toyota Hilux. They fail, even though one of their ideas to finish it off was to anchor it in a bay that gets really high tides, and let it drown.
However, after some minor work by a mechanic, the (diesel) Toyota started right up, whereas this BMW isn’t going anywhere on its own…