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Is it "totaled"? Subaru sacrifices itself to save my almost-SIL.


F14Scott
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My daughter's wonderful (not sarcastic; he's a gem) boyfriend was driving her car on a Houston highway, this morning, when a woman hydroplaned and spun out next to him, eventually regaining enough traction backwards to shoot across the lanes and put them both into the wall.  His airbags, front and side, deployed, and he walked away, unhurt, thankfully.  The car, a 2016 Subaru Forester 2.5i Premium CVT is mushed in pretty good.  The police found the woman at fault, and her insurance, GEICO, is handling the claim.

It cost between $25,000 and $30,000, new.  We owe just under $10,000 on the note.  It's probably worth about $20 to 22,000, based on a quick carmax.com search.  I'm worried that if they choose to fix it, it goes from being a low-mileage, near perfect car worth $20K+ to a carfax "severely damaged and then repaired" albatross.  

Knock on wood, I've never been in a bad wreck, so I'm curious how the determination of "fix" or "total" gets made.  Anyone with experience in the automotive arena care to chime in?

 

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From all the videos I've watched on youtube of car accidents, and other stuff, I'd say it's a good candidate for being totaled.

 

I was once told each airbag was something like $1500-2k to replace, if the frame is out of alignment at all it's very likely totaled.

 

About 5 years ago I had someone fail to yield at a light, I clipped them with the right front corner of my car.  Insurance company totaled it out for about $18k, had 60k miles on it (5 year old VW jetta sedan TDI)  and that was only at 30mph when it happened.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Cougar_ml said:

From all the videos I've watched on youtube of car accidents, and other stuff, I'd say it's a good candidate for being totaled.

 

I was once told each airbag was something like $1500-2k to replace, if the frame is out of alignment at all it's very likely totaled.

 

About 5 years ago I had someone fail to yield at a light, I clipped them with the right front corner of my car.  Insurance company totaled it out for about $18k, had 60k miles on it (5 year old VW jetta sedan TDI)  and that was only at 30mph when it happened.

 

 

One of my wife's co-workers made a similar comment about the airbags.  Great data; thanks!

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do not settle for repair ,  period .   it will never be right ,  you hear rattles and squeaks  and door gaps and sagging **** .  ive been in a few wrecks  i was hit everytime .  like i said  never settle  for repair .  and if you have to bluff the hell out of them .  insurance is for things like this .  

back in 87  old lady pulled out i t boned her in my 87 grand national . they wanted to fix  , the friggin motor was in my lap , i told them look this car will never depreciate  in value  ever , it will go up in price .  and i was right , they cost more now then they ever did new. 

i pay a high rate to cover my ass, my vehicles and my family for a reason.  

 

my daughter came up from florida to visit few months ago ,  retread flew off  TT   hit her lower bumper and headlight  now that was repaired  .  but anything  body and wise and undercarriage hell no  that crap is made 

to fold like paper now .  decipate energy makes you safer but also totals your **** 

Edited by ASH
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yup, modern cars are designed to crumple like beer cans and absorb all the energy.  Anything more than superficial damage to the car and they're pretty much toast, as even if you straighten out a piece of metal, once it's been bent it's lost a lot of it's structural integrity.  

Cars are safer than they have ever been before, but the trade off is you only get one decent accident and they are toast.  Sure, they can straighten things out, line them back up, but unless they replace every single piece that was affected, it will never be as good or as safe as it was before the accident.

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Good that your your daughter's beau is well, amigo.

I have no advise to offer other than insurance companies and their behavior are more mysterious than Shirley McCalin's forty-four lives.

I had a Porsche destroyed by an inattentive driver.  Traffic on the interstate slowed and stopped.  This driver didn't slow or stop.

My automobile stopped him.  Yes, you can hit a 911 with a Ford station wagon at 40 MPH and the Porsche guy walks away uninjured.

The guy worked for Allstate, it was clearly his fault (smacked in the rear,) and as I was in the emergency room being evaluated, an Allstate representative showed up pressuring me to accept a ridiculpus settlement.

Every time I called to see what progress was being made on my claim, the guy handling that was on vacation, out of the office, please leave a message.

I eventually had to engage a lawyer and sue their asses and even after the lawyer claimed a third I got enough to pay off the lien and pay for a new Porsche outright.

Yeah, I was in the good hands of Allstate and both of them were in my pocket.

 

Not saying this will happen to you, but keep in mind who the insurance claims adjuster works for and whose interests they represent.

 

Best of luck.

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I had a 2012 Jeep patriot with the off road package that I bought new and paid cash for it and I had just put larger tires on it after a year and some little old lady pulled right out in front of me from the center lane and I T-bone her car on the passenger side going about 30 mph. My Air bag went off and I was temporarily unconscious and was just coming out of it as the air bag was deflating.

The Patriot has a traverse (sideways) mounted front engine and the engine was knocked off it's mounts and the transmission was jammed in gear. There was no way it could been fixed. Traveler's insurance gave me a good price for it but I really liked that car and it was good on the highway and good enough off road and the 4 cylinder go good mileage.

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My Kenworth drove over a Ford Explorer several years ago. I wasn't driving, had a guy driving for me. Quite a debris field. The damage to my KW was way over her insurance limits. I took notes during every conversation I had with anyone involved. Cops, drivers, both insurance companies. It turned out o.k. but took many months for it to all sort out. Had some young insurance dude about 2 weeks into it started blowing smoke up my ass. I said, "Wait a minute here, let me check my notes. When I spoke with so and so from your office at this time on this day, here is what was said." He asked if I could hold on a minute. After waiting a bit, someone else took over the call, and the attitude was 180. 

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What I've heard from folks with personal injury practice in Florida is that the car is totaled when the cost of repair is  50% or more of the value of the vehicle.

Even though that statement seems pretty straightforward, there's a lot of meat in it, e.g., CarMax valuation vs. Blue Book value, etc.

HTH

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It's done.  Hopefully, the other driver has insurance.  Between yours and theirs it is time for another vehicle.  It is totaled.  I am just glad no one was hurt.

Edited by Moshe
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54 minutes ago, blackjack said:

Color me shocked for the lack of a "that'll buff right out" comment from this crowd...?

If the car was built 30 years ago, it might have buffed right out, but I'd also bet on a hospital trip for the driver as well.

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Bottom line: Cars cost more to repair these days than it does to build a new one.  Even routine repairs are more expensive and harder to do. Back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, I did all my own work on every car I owned and that included engine rebuilds and Transmission swaps.

Edited by Borg warner
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As soon as they say "repair" tell the adjuster your almost  SIL has noticed pain in his neck and back.
Good luck. 
 
As it turned out, the next morning he actually was in a lot of pain. His neck and back had stiffened up and he showed all the textbook symptoms of whiplash. He'll see a doc before the adjuster is done.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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