Just try to bear with me.

I was driving down a straight road when it reaches a little hill, as soon as I go over the peak and headed down, it swerves abruptly to the left and I didn't catch it in time. The area behind the first right front tire hit this pothole-like area pretty hard (hard enough for neighbors to come out thinking it was gunfire I guess). I'm guessing the area starts from the beginning of the front tire and ends at the middle of the car. I was wondering, what parts are there and could I have damaged anything?

 

So it hit the underside of the car on the passenger side right behind the tire? That's funky, very funky. If you don't see anything wrong I doubt there is. Did you look to see if there was any damage? Some of that undercoating might have been scraped off or something, or the floor panel might be bent upward, who knows, just look. There aren't any movable parts or anything there, if you don't see any damage, I doubt there is any.

 

Yeah. It was too dark for me to check.

 

messed up alignment?

 

It really depends on how hard it hit. If you didn't dent the wheel or blow a tire, I doubt it was hard enoguh to break any major suspension components. However it's very liekly that you threw out the alignment.

As for the bodywork, if it's not cracked or falling off you're probably ok.

Best thing is to take it to an collison repair shop that also does alignemnts and frame straighteneing. Have it checked out. If the repair is over $500, claim it on you insurace. Hitting a big pothole is the same an any other accident.

If it's less that $500, take a picture of the pothole during the daytime and the bill form the collision place to whatever govenment agency is responsible for maintaining the roads.