Well crap! Wife in a Car Accident.

I don't know how many people have told me that new cars were safer than my 91 Burb. I just laugh at them. I was hit by a semi entering the freeway while driving a 96 Honda Civic. I crawled out of it on the other side of the freeway after carraming off of 2 cars and flipping over. I still have nightmares. Just driving down the street in my Burb has people move out of the way. I feel much safer now.

IMHO cars today are meant to be replaced, not repaired; after an accident.

I come from a family of cops, ems, and firefighters.. I've got 20 years in the fire service myself with the last 6 as a Lieutenant, and like it or not the number ONE lifesaver is a seatbelt. I get angry when we respond to a call with serious injury or fatality and know based off of the evidence on scene that those injuries or death more than likely all could have been avoided had the person/persons just clicked on that seatbelt when they got in the vehicle. I preach seatbelts, and we don't leave home without putting them on. I've seen old cars, new cars, old trucks, new trucks, commercial vehicles, garbage trucks, little, big and the like. And I hate the "Wizard of OZ', you know, where we have to use airbags, high lift jacks, and a body bag because we get on scene and all that we can find is a pair of legs sticking out from under an upside down vehicle. (this has happened almost 10 times in my 20 years- i say almost because once a guy got pitched far enough out and away but still ended up in a wheelchair doing rehabilitation to walk on his own again, sooo..) then whatever Wrecker company comes after it's all said and done and rights the vehicle and the operator/passenger compartment is largely intact with little intrusion-meaning had the person just worn their seatbelt, they'd have likely walked away with a few scratches, headache, and a valuable lesson. Or the person involved in a head on collision with another vehicle and BOTH vehicles have similar intrusion/damage and occupant one is out walking around or is still in their respective vehicle but has very little pain and complaints because a seat belt was worn, and occupant two is being extricated and raced to a hospital because they weren't wearing a seatbelt and when the collision happened they were forced down and under the steering wheel and now have ankle/leg injuries, broken ribs and trauma to the head and face off the body's impact to the dashboard and steering wheel at speed because... they weren't wearing a seatbelt. From what I've seen new cars are pretty damn safe, and even though they're a crumpled mess afterwards, the injuries are far less devastating to those involved. Especially when comparing newer vehicles to older ones..

Honky Kong jr said:

What did I do now????? I did this though....

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Yeah...the driver of that old chevy bel air may have a few bruises

Update. The insurance company is totaling my Camry! The car runs and drives and the steering wheel is only a little off center but the frame rails have been pushed over to the drivers side enough that to meet the technical criteria it would be required to replace both frame rails. One frame rail and it gets repaired but two pushed it over the limit.

This is the body gap on the passenger side. My brother in law does body work and has a frame machine in his shop. I will probably try to do a buy back, fix it and drive it. Haven’t got a number from the insurance company yet. I hope it’s fair and reasonable on both sides. Even though it’s a Camry, it stickered for almost $36k and only has 32k miles on it now.

f6john said:

This is the body gap on the passenger side. My brother in law does body work and has a frame machine in his shop. I will probably try to do a buy back, fix it and drive it. Haven’t got a number from the insurance company yet. I hope it’s fair and reasonable on both sides. Even though it’s a Camry, it stickered for almost $36k and only has 32k miles on it now.

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Unless you have experience dealing with the paperwork and inspection getting a totaled car back on the road
I wouldn’t fool with it

Especially if they offer a decent price for it
Once you get that number ask the ins co what’s the most they will pay out without having to get the title from you
Then the paperwork won’t be required

What kind of bogus new rule is that? 99.9% of the time, if one rail is pushed over, the other one is too. It's no big deal at all, it's just a normal everyday repair.

Now I know why I've been seeing so many totalled out cars being driven down the highway. Normally it's in groups of 4. 2 are being driven and used as a tow vehicle, while the other two have tow bars rigged up to the front bumper.

This has been coming up with new advanced build of the car bodies lately, especially with advanced materials, strategic reinforcement locations and special adhesives, it is not easy to be certain that the repair would bring the vehicle within the factory requirement. If anybody remember a new corvette that got totaled because of a crack in the structural part of the underbody.

No matter the build techniques, at the end of the day it's just a simple front end hit. Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. I guess even the insurance companies now look at modern cars as just a throw-away appliance.

The reason it’s more than just a simple repair these days is due to liability issues. In the case of Camrys, if the rails are bent, Toyota says the rails have to be replaced, not straightened. Each frame rail was $1500.00 not counting the labor to r&r them. I would agree if I had a hard straight in hit that crumpled a rail but in my case the car was dragged sideways a few feet and it pushed them to one side.

I’m not afraid of paperwork, I’ve done one buy back years ago and my brother in law/ body man rebuilds wrecks on a regular basis.

I wish the whole thing hadn’t happened, but I’m going to try and make some lemonade out of this situation.

Ive repaired a couple salvage title vehicles for cheap transportation

And it’s nice having a cheap car that’s already been totaled once
No worries about scratches and dings or depreciation

It the dealers association in my state successfully bribed enough state lawmakers to get rules passed that only licensed rebuilders can repair a totaled car

So...who was at fault and cited for this accident?

They buy back paperwork is NOTHING. Nothing at all to it. I just settled up on my 2nd accident in less than 3 months on my 04 Kia. I bought it back both times and today I got 4 checks. 1 for the car less the 25% buyback, 1 for the prorated tag title and tax, 1 for the tablet that was on the front seat and damaged during the accident and 1 for the tow bill. No salvage title in either accident. I guess I'll make a living totalling this damn car as long as these women keep pulling out in front of me. So long as there is no air bag deployment and neither of mine did, the liability is extremely limited.

What you're thinking of being a hassle is if the car was totalled and had to have a salvage title, then getting it back to legal again. If the car is over 10 years old, they do NOT have to salvage the title if you keep it.

What year model is this car? If no air bags deployed, I do not think this is totalled at all. $36K retail msrp and only 32,000 miles, Toyotas hold their value very well unlike a KIA, I have a feeling that car is not totalled. Just a rough guestimate by looks, I'm going to guess repair to be between $9,000 and $10,000 to fully repair that.