I tapped a deer, very light front end damage but it caused every airbag to deploy. 160k miles, immaculately maintained - I have every reason to believe it has another 100k+ miles left in it. Car is paid off, but insurance is liability only. What Would You Do? Suggestions?
To what degree would you fix it? What is the max amount of $ would you put into repairs in order to take advantage of the remaining 100k of usability?
i can't say without knowing the replacement car market, but i would probably be willing to put a few thousand into it. has the exhaust heat exchanger been replaced?
Heat exchanger has not been replaced - I assume this must be a rather expensive item that I should expect to be replacing soon? Im also wondering what the community thinks of the airbag replacement process... Are these incredibly difficult to swap out? I do have a friend that is ACE certified and willing to help, but he deals primarily in regular mechanical/maintenence issues, not necessarily total vehicle repair. Is it possible/smart to just run it without airbags? What are the main issues, other than heat exchanger, that I should be asking myself prior to making this decision? Any and all help is appreciated... This insurance debacle has me in pretty dire straights at the moment.
Interesting approach, but I would imagine the donation value to be unable to offset the financial burden of replacement, even if replacement only involved a few thousand.
there's no guessing at the heat exchanger, idk what percentage have gone bad, and it may be that at your mileage, it has shown to be a good one. that's really the only gen 4 major ecpense, and even that can be mitigated by using a bypass hose instead of replacing it. i think the only problem with not replacing the airbags would be trouble lights, if you have to pass inspection in your state.
I searched air bag deployment repair costs and got this. https://www.carparts.com/blog/air-bag-replacement-cost-process-and-other-faqs/ Don't know how accurate it is, but I do know I'd be in the same situation as you are now, if it happened to me instead. I have had both the AirBag warning light go on in my old hybrid and it was a pain to get it shut off, I also have had way to many Takata air bag recalls where the dealers shop did a quick and dirty job of replacing the recalled air bags, every time I got another recall notice.
It's a real shitty story, but I actually DID have full coverage. My insurance carrier is denying my claim because after I payed my monthly bill over the phone ($130/m full coverage policy) I asked for a quote on what a liability only policy would cost for a month and was told that would be about $40 a month. No authorization was given whatsoever to change my policy nor was it communicated to me that any change was going to be made to my policy - a liability policy was only discussed as a quote. However they changed my policy to liability only immediately after that call having already taken $130 of my money. I hadn't gotten any notification whatsoever in any way shape or form from them indicating this change until 6 days later when in the car is totaled after I hit that deer and called in my claim. I filed a complaint and I'm going to probably have to take them to court to get them to honor them the policy that I paid for. I'll be talking to a lawyer which is sad to say.
Some phones can record calls, especially if jail broken. That aside, you can always redneck record: put them on speaker phone, and have a second phone recording, or a dedicated recording device of some sort. For next time. What are the odds a dodgy insurance company will "lose" the recording...
That’s just it, they have no recording. They’re basing their entire claim on some note that was placed in whatever system they use. Apparently, it has a date and time Stamp accompanying the note, but this is still a load of BS. I do feel a little twinge in my neck all of a sudden though….
Well, here’s my current shituation. The blue car is a 2017 four touring, the white car is a 2016 two Eco. The 2017 has about 25,000 miles on it, but it’s a salvage title due to a somewhat substantial collision which occurred on the driver side - front door primarily. Other than that, the car is an excellent condition. I put it up on a lift and was surprised that there was nearly any rust anywhere. The 2016 runs and drives as if nothing happened apart from one rather concerning issue. Though I have maintained it well (regularly scheduled oil changes every 5k miles with Pennzoil UltraPlatinum) it appears to have developed some head gasket issues. It sounded awful when I first started it… the engine shuttered and shook for about 30 seconds, which correct me if I’m wrong, is most likely caused by the cylinders expelling coolant which has slowly leaked past the head gasket? I hadn’t noticed it earlier because I drove the car daily. That issue aside, the deer caused cosmetic damage and the airbags to deploy. I have some mechanical abilities, but body work isn’t something I have much experience with. I was considering fixing the cosmetic issues well enough to be road legal and getting the title rebuilt to use it as a beater. Maybe it’ll allow me to keep the mileage low on the blue car. I’m not so sure now with the head gasket issue coming to light and 160k on the odometer. What would you guys do? A) get what I can out of it from a salvage yard and be done with it? B) get it road legal and use as a beater? C) pull the hybrid battery pack - explore option to install in blue car (if it’s possible) to decrease the number of charge cycles on the blue cars hybrid battery, thus extending its useable lifespan? C) fun project car? (Off road, drag, etc)
If it were me, I’d be focusing on the insurance claim. That will determine (and rule out) all other hypothetical concerns and situations. I can’t see how they could win this. You said you have documentation of payment for your usual (full) coverage. Did you receive new cards (reflecting liability only) whether emailed or physical cards in the mail? Are you talking to your local agent or to an 800 number?
So you kept rolling in it after wreck last fall, and now it has engine issue? Not sure what you mean by "when you first started it" - when is last time the engine ran fine? IMO on the insurance you had full coverage for 130/month - if you were still paying in months that followed, then id sue them, theyll settle fast once they see your bank transactions. if you started paying 40/ month, slim chance youll gain anything. Next time think it over before you call in hitting a deer with (possible) liability only modeled insurance. used engine - 1500 Install engine - 2500 Front clips + hood + other body + paint - 5000 Front suspension (likely will need basic wear parts soon if not already) - 1000 Or, you could sign up for full coverage, and hit another deer
