Had an accident in my 2008 Touring this morning. Think this is totaled?

wow, that's the difference between the west and east coast!

 

Hope it all works out ok.

 

Yeah, like Boppo said I hope it all works out Ok.

Reminds me of when they tboned my truck. 8K worth of damage, took 2.5 months to get it back from Nissan. Problem causing delay was parts availability.

What is most important is that YOU are Ok.

Ron

 

When I had my very similar accident it was at 85,000 miles, the shop did a fantastic job on putting it back together although it took them exactly 24 days and the vehicle drives as good as it did prior to the incident. I now have 148,000 on it and it has been about 3 years ago. The only thing they did incorrectly was they placed one of my air conditioning lines incorrectly and the rubber hose wore a hole in from lightly brushing up against a screw from a nearby hose clamp about 2 years after the repair. I was able to repair that myself though rather then go up there and complain about it.

 

But, what is the value of the car after all the repairs? I would imagine that is not even close to the 17k. With all the extra costs that pop up, I really do think that it will be closer to 10k. You have a really high deductible, so did your coverage even allow for a total replacement? I had $3,500 worth of damage to my 2006 Civic before I bought the Prius, the airbags did deploy, and GEICO totaled it.

 

Wonder if he has any recourse based on Diminished Value?

Diminished value - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I can't believe the airbags didn't activate. Being that it's a used car, I'd ask the body shop to verify they are in place and working and, if so, why they think they didn't go off.

 

Generally speaking, most insurance companies will total a vehicle if the airbags deploy. Not all of the time, but most of the time.

Ron

 

I too would be asking that question. With the damage that occurred, one would think the airbags would have went off.

Again, I am glad to hear the OP is Ok, and I hope in the end it works out well for him.

Ron

 

Diminished value is apparently optional in the state of California. Whereas, here in Georgia, insurers must pay for it. So, his coverage for that depends entirely on his insurance agreement.

 

Front airbags do not deploy if the force of the impact is less then 35 miles per hour. It didn't deploy the airbag because at that speed it has been determined that they cause injuries rather then prevent worse ones to an otherwise should be fine driver. And that is proven from the OP's ability to pull out his phone and take lots of photos as he was perfectly fine after the accident. The damage actually looks much worse then what it really is because the front end of all modern cars are designed to crumple to absorb most of the energy of the impact rather then transfer most of it to the car you hit. Back in the old days your car would have been fine knocking someone in the rear bumper with maybe a dent and some scratches, but the person you hit would have had a list of neck and back injuries.

 

Since your getting it fixed and repainted, I heard that they should remove the HV battery before painting. High heat in the paint booth to speeds up the curing process. It is good for the paint, but bad for the battery.

 

looking at that quote it looks like they are putting your car back together with mostly junkyard parts....
that is a lot of diminished value right there

 

It looks hurt bad. I have to say, it scares me when I have people tailgating me and purposing slow down to allow more stopping distance. Glad there were no serious injuries. I am honestly surprised at the $17.5 K value. My 2009 just turned over 35K.

 

I work with a lot of shops who buy crashed Prii, fix them and resell them with Salvaged titles. Your car actually looks great!! Probably the most expensive thing to get would be the HID light enclosure...which they dont have any aftermarket. Everything else can be bought at really low prices....if you shop where the body shops get their stuff.
i.e... Front bumper primed cost $42.
One of the body shops I deal with did a customers car with similar damage for a total of $3k, Parts, Paint, Labor.

 

I'd like to know where I can get a new front bumper cover primed for $42.

 

PM sent

 

thanks

 

Third party parts are much cheaper than OEM

 

Ok, so I hard to participate in this conversation as I was going to post my own "post collision" issue with my 2009 Prius (80k miles) and happened to notice the thread. I was in a very similar accident as you, although mine wasn't quite as much damage as yours appears to be? I hope you are ok!!

The initial estimate from the auto body shop was $8k, so the insurance company moved forward to fix it. Later, the auto body shop went BACK to the insurance company for another $3k check. That, plus the $1300 to rent a vehicle for 7 weeks while it was repaired, plus the cost to tow it 100 miles (that's another story), puts the total loss at probably $13k, which should've been way over the threshold for calling it a total loss at 80% of car value.

Unfortunately now post accident, the car doesn't feel the same. It looks perfect, but something just isn't right. I almost feel a drag, and the MPGs have declined from 44MPG average to 36MPG or so. They only replaced the one tire (I have Nokian WRG2s), and although the others were relatively new, I wonder if the imbalance could be contributing to the decline in MPG. Anyway, the auto body shop, in my opinion totally scammed this whole thing (the insurance company let THEIR estimator perform the initial estimate?!) and now I'm left to deal with a post-accident car with greatly diminished value. Wondering if anyone can shed some light on possible reasons for the MPG decline? Could it have to do with the single new tire (which they moved to the rear)?

So the moral to this story is - in retrospect I would've insisted on either a 2nd opinion or forced the insurance company to use their own estimator to evaluate the damage.