John Kane

Well said. I'll accept that score addendum.

Actually, the pretensioner did not go off. I've experienced the pretensioner on a false alarm of audi presense. I approached an intersection with a concrete island separating the left and right turn lanes. I was making the right, and went to the right of the island. I think the presense mistook the island for a vehicle or other obstacle. Presense and pretensioner fired suddenly, and the car came to abrupt halt. No cars around anywhere... and then it released. Scared the hell out of me because it was so sudden and out of nowhere.

In this case, I dont think any of the sensors were engaged or tuned for an object dropping into collision from vertically above the line of sensor sight.

On the grand scale, the impact thud was minor. I half convinced myself that 'maybe its not so bad' while I was still inside the vehicle. A lot of energy went into crumpling the quarter panel, and the angled front bumper corner caught and threw/pushed the deer down and to the left. I think that was the key.

John Kane

Just a follow up: I'm a few weeks in on my repaired vehicle, and all is well. Aside from one slip: the safety/airbag warning was not cleared when I picked it up (and the shop fixed that a few days later), life is good.

The paint match is right on, and the car handling seems back to normal. Sadly, I've already had to do some life-saving evasive maneuvering in the car due to idiot drivers, but that convinced me that the suspension and alignment are all good. The ford Fusion Hybrid rental that I was in for 2.5 weeks is a looooong way down, and I have no such confidence that I'd be unscathed in it, for similar maneuvers.

Driving my repaired A4 out of the shop parking lot, I almost went into warp when I pressed on the accelerator. Thanks again to everyone for their well wishes.