BT5150

Bad news, it was an all around shytty week, but the worst was on Weds when I crashed the CL! I'll admit it, I was dialing my phone, I have a Samsung Instinct, sort of a fake Iphone for us Sprint users, that is all touch-screen, so you have to look at it when you dial. BAM! ran into a parked car, my front passenger side into their back driver's side. The whole front corner of my car is all punched in, you can see what must be the frame or unit body or whatever its called. Looks like even the passenger door would have to be replaced, the damage goes back that far.

Of course, the good part is that I'm fine, other than a sore neck and there was no one in the other car, so no one was hurt, but it still sucks!

It was towed to an autobody shop, just waiting to hear what the results of the estimate are. I had to drop off the keys and talked to the owner, he said usually on cars that are over 5 years old, the damage has to exceed the value of the car before they call it a total loss, he wasn't sure just by a quick look whether or not it would be worth fixing or not. I told him I figured book value on an 02 CL with 90,000 miles was probably around $7000, he said he still wasn't sure what the estimate would be, but said it could be up there.

Not sure how to feel about this, obviously I'd rather have not been in the accident, but I don't know whether or not I should hope they can fix the car or not! I'm sure that there is frame damage and have heard so many times that unibody cars are never quite the same after they have been "fixed". On the other hand, I really loved this car, especially for the price I paid for it. I bought it from a guy who worked for the local Acura dealer, so all of the service for the first 70,000 miles was done at the dealer (including the auto tranny rebuild) and I have copies of all of the records. I had planned on keeping this car for a long time, maybe picking up a "summer fun" sports car sometime in the future, but using the CL as my daily driver till the wheels fell off.

A couple questions for everyone, I remember hearing once that if you are in an accident and they fix the car, you should hold out for some extra $$$ because now the car will be worth less due to now being a repaired accident vehicle-anyone hear of this? Obviously now, if I do go to sell the car at some point, if they run a carfax on it, the accident will show up.

If they do repair the damage, what should I look for when I go to pick up the car, to make sure they did it right? Obviously, I'll take it for a thorough test drive at high and low speeds and look for things like shaking, pulling to the left or right, either when going down the road or when braking and any other obvious differences, since the car was as stable as a rock before, even at 110+ MPH, which I personally tested myself several times on the IL tollway! I'll also look for obvious paint and bodywork flaws, but I don't know too much else about what to look for to make sure they do a 100% correct job. How about the mechanicals? The whole front corner is punched in, (I will try to get some pics on Monday and post them!) I'm sure things got pushed around under the hood. I mean, how do I make sure that nothing mechanical was screwed up internally? The place they took it to looks real nice, a big shop they spent a lot of money on and a friend who's in the auto body biz said this place has a very good reputation, but I have just heard so many times that crashed unibody cars can never be 100% perfectly fixed. Any advice on this is much appreciated, don't want to have my baby turn into a lemon!

Or, should I just keep my fingers crossed that the damage is too much, maybe I can pick up a different CL?

Rajca

iTrader: (8)

damage has to exceed half the cost of the cars value to be consider a total/ salvage title.

pics of accident so we can get a better idea of how bad it is? air bags blow and any frame damage? if they did its most likely gonna be totaled

CL-S progression 01

iTrader: (2)

from the sounds of it the car is a write off. the whole right side of the car is fucked up to the passenger door!! thats a big impact.

and no offense.... but why would u post this in writing before ur court case isn't finished? u just incriminated urself with the whole cell phone thing no?

obv the odds of someone finding this aren't the greatest but shyt... still i'd be a lil more careful

my 2cents

I'm paranoid about evidence until case is closed bro... gotta wait till they drop the hammer if u catch my drift.

In canada if u crash cause f a cell phone and they know it's because of the celly, u are superfucked. dunno what the law is there but I'd wouldn't even talk about it till court is finished

tnobori1

He's already at-fault since he hit a parked car. Whether you're driving legally or not, insurance has to pay. Even DUI claims get paid!

OperationDarkie

iTrader: (1)

Next time just pull over and use your phone, people who text or look at their phones while driving are a danger to those around them.

I've seen people fall/trip while being so busy with whats on their phone to realized their surroundings.

on that note I did laugh at some high school girls that bout 5-7 of them fall on a patch of ice cuz they were texting.

BT5150

I wouldn't have admitted to using the cell phone while driving if I had hit a person or if someone had been in the car that I hit, but thank god there was no one in the car and no one was hurt, besides me having a sore neck for a couple days. The cops didn't even give me a ticket for the crash, but it was in the city of Milwaukee, where the police have a lot of bigger stuff to worry about, like murders! If it had happened in some sleepy suburb, I'm sure I would have gotten a ticket for inattentive driving or something like that. Either way, like tnobori says, I'm still at fault no matter why it happened, so I (or my ins co) has to pay up.

I will go to the body shop on Monday and take some pics of the car and post them. Like I said, I have a friend who's in the auto body business, too (although he runs a dent pulling shop, this is way beyond what he does, or else I'd take it to him) and he said the place they took it to has a very good rep as far as the work that they do, but I just wonder how well any shop can fix damage like this. Sure, they may get it to look good again, but I just wonder if it will shake it high speed or whatever. I also wonder what if any mechanical damage may have happened, either to the motor itself or other parts under the hood and whether or not an auto body shop knows how to diagnose and fix that stuff. I think I'll call another friend who's the service mgr at our local Acura dealer and ask his opinion on this.

As far as the phone goes, I think I'm going to sell this one and get a different phone! I bought this Instinct because my brother has an Iphone, which is really cool, but I'm on Sprint through my job, they don't have Iphones but they did have these Instincts, that look like Iphones. Problem is that there's no cool apps for this phone, like they have for the Iphone, so it's just like any other smart phone. With my old phones, I could dial without having to look at the phone, just by feeling the buttons on the phone. With this stupid phone, you have to look at it to see what you dialed, cause its all touch screen.

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

if you want an iphone so bad just buy one and jailbrake it so you can use it on sprint.

CL-S progression 01

iTrader: (2)

lol the phone is CURSED.. hehehe

ur styl gonna be doing ur thang on the phone tho while driving, which is why u want a new one

in my province u get a ticket just because they can give it to u and then u gotta fight it

tnobori1

If you have any say in the matter at all, I would take the cash. Whether the car drives fine or not, it will never feel the same to you. Same goes when your car gets stolen. Take the cash and buy a 6sp

aznboi2424

iTrader: (10)

I saw a girl texting and she walked into a pole. I just stared at her as i was laughing in my head. I text while i drive/walk but im never that into my phone, yes i have a touch screen phone.

BT5150

I'd never try texting while driving and after this I won't bother dialing while moving, either unless I get a different phone with a regular keypad again. I usually don't like to talk much when I'm driving either, I work about 60+ hours a week and I enjoy my time driving because I get to listen to music and chill out. My brother, who's my business partner loves to talk on the phone when he drives, he thinks a great time-saver, I always try to stay off the phone in the car, not necessarily for safety, but just because I find it annoying to talk and drive at the same time. That's another reason I loved the CL, it was such a comfortable car to drive. Now I'm in a f**king Kia Rio that my ins co is paying for, I'm too cheap to pay extra for a rental car! (Actually, I have to say the stereo's not half bad for a OEM unit in a cheapo car and it has Sirius satellite radio, which is kind of cool, especially when its free!)

I'll stop by the body shop on Monday, I have to go nearby anyway and snap some pics of the damage. If they do call it a total loss, I actually probably would look for another 2nd gen CL, I like it that much. I would probably look for a 6-speed if I could find one nearby. I do hate the auto tranny issue with these cars, it seems so stupid that a company that builds awesome products like Honda would let something major like that get as bad as it did. Although, as I mentioned in an earlier topic, my friend who's been the service mgr at our local dealer for like 20 years swears that they rarely see any CL/TL trannys coming in for rebuilds anymore, that if it was rebuilt and updated properly it should be as good as any other tranny, provided that you get the fluid changed regularly and that you don't beat the hell out of the car, which you could probably say for just about any tranny. If I could find a nice 6-speed at a decent price, I'd jump on it though. I make decent $$$ and could easily afford to go and buy a new or newer car if I wanted to, I've bought new cars before, but I don't like the idea of dropping $30,000 or more on a car and having it be worth $15,000 a few years later, plus all of the interest expense. I also like the CL because it's not a car you see going the other way on the street 10 times a day, like you do with the TL.

The air bags didn't go off, I wasn't going fast enough for that, but I'd guess that the unibody was damaged, the damage is definitely more than just cosmetic. I'll post the pics on Monday.

dave_ramkumar

iTrader: (5)

hearing things like this makes me see im can hurt other ppl while i look at my phone or multi task while i drive...good luck with everything man...it could of been worst..so look on the brightside

darketernal

Speaking of ur situation....I just had that happen to me except the other way around. I was the victim with the parked car and my driver side rear was messed up in the morning. The person didnt even bother to leave me a note or anything. Luckily the neighbors pointed out another car a block away with damage that matched. I went over there to take pictures and called the cops. Thank god after the cops came the owner of that car admitted cause I sure as hell didn't wanna pay deductible if I didn't find the person at fault.

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

i hate when people do stupid/dangerous things then try to justify it.

YeuEmMaiMai

not true at all.........

talking to Luther Collision when they fixed my car they stated it comes down to this:

1. what type of car it is.
2. milage on the car.
3. does the damage exceede 70% of the value of the car.
4. condition of the car.

YeuEmMaiMai

lol teh iPhone is teh GSM and Sprint is CDMA. U cannot use teh GSM phone with teh CDMA'z networkz doooooood.....

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

fixed, that was driving me crazy.

didnt know that.

YeuEmMaiMai

lol i was goofin' on joo with teh spellingz....but yeah unless the phone is a hybrid (GSM and CDMA) a GSM phone will not work on a CDMA network and vice versa.....

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

oh i was like how do you spell it wrong 4 times!!! lol

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

which is why i hate the new all touchscreen phones, you have to look at them, when you have to anything with them, where the regular keypads ones you have hard keys, which you can kinda feel around to be able to push them with out having to actually look at the phone

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

and every manufacter including Honda, have their f*** ups occasionally, i think part of the problem is that people always expect Honda to not have any major problems, so it was kinda blown out of proportion (sp?), but if it was a domestic manufacter, people would not be surprised, just kinda expext it from them

OperationDarkie

iTrader: (1)

jailbreaking an I-Phone voids the manufactures warranty, only reason why I haven't done that to mine.

Might want to read up on that.

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

I been knew that. if mine breaks I'll just buy another one.

YeuEmMaiMai

back to the OP,

Sorry man they gonna total it but you can buy it back and fix it yourself if you have the knowledge

what you will need at a min

1. sub frame (get that sucker used)
2 fender (get that used)
3 a SET of headlights (unless you want one lense to be a different color than the other one)
4. some various suspension peices that got mangled when the engine cradle ( subframe) got mangled
5. Door skin and possibly shell (the shell is spendy as a mofo- might just want to get a used door)
6. Radiator
7. Upper and lower tie bars (can get used)
8. A/C condensor
9. Right side bulkhead (front) where you mangled it. (can get used)
10. front bumper (used)
11. inner fender liner
12. mud guards
13. splash shield

figure about $6.5K in repairs based upon what you said. HALF of that will be labor and the rest will be paint and R and I, and reworking what parts they can.

BT5150

When I dropped the key off at the body shop the other day after it was towed in, I talked to the owner for a little while and asked him what the "rules" were on when the ins co would just total out a damaged car. His answer was that on newer and more valuable cars, like less than 5 years old, that they would go to 70-80% of the value of the car in repairs before they would total it out. For older cars, he said that they will often go higher, close to 100% of the value, for whatever reason.

I did a little research and also came up with info that the ins co will also factor in whatever estimated sale price they will get from selling the wrecked car to someone who wants it for parts (or to someone who would want to attempt to fix it, but usually its just for parts) They also need to figure the very good possibility that the shop will find more stuff that needs fixing once they get it totally apart, so there will probably be more charges as the job progresses. Plus, they need to figure in the chances that the customer will get the car back and not be totally satisfied, maybe it shakes at a certain speed or whatever and takes it back in for more work to be done, again more bills for the ins co.

One last issue I found, which apparently is still disputed between the ins co and the car owners is what they call "dimished value". Read this part, because it totally makes sense and is an area where we are getting screwed by our ins co's everyday. Once I get my car back, even if they somehow do a 100% PERFECT job (which is highly unlikely-I mean no one is perfect-right?) I still end up with a car that is now worth less (a good amount less) than it was before the damage and repair. When I go to sell the car, either as a trade-in or to a buyer, they will almost always ask and look to see if it has ever been in ANY kind of accident, even a little fender bender. All they have to do is run a Carfax and they will find out that the car was in a crash and they will ask me what happened. Now, assuming I don't lie to them, I will have to tell them that the whole front pass side was punched in and that the frame was bent. Sure, its all fixed up now and I may think its just great, but who in the hell is going to make the same offer that they would make for the same car that had never been hit? They are going to lower their offer for my car, or just keep looking for one that wasn't in a major crash. Somehow, the ins co's think that they don't have to pay us ONE CENT for the new lower value that our cars now have after they were fixed! The insurance is supposed to bring us back to where we were before the accident, but yet we will be left with a car that is worth probably thousands less than it was before, even if it is "repaired"!

MaiMai, I think you are probably right on with your estimate, you were pretty thorough! If it does come to 6.5K, I bet they will total it, because when you add in what they can get for the wreck and the other factors I mentioned, it would be over the book value for an 02 CL with 90,000 miles.

YeuEmMaiMai

I just got my car back from being curbed and the damages were $5K and I needed

New parts
1. front bumper skin
2. front exhaust pipe
3. A/C condenser
4. splash guard
5. mud flaps
6. various gaskets
7. Tow hook
8. Lower Control Arm (right side)
9. Right fender liner
10. right roof moulding
11. various small other peices like body gaskets and seals

The following parts were used
12. subframe
13. r rear quarter glass

They reworked the following parts
14. R fender
15. R door skin
16. upper and lower tie bars

the only time that deminished value comes into play is when you are trying to sell a car with low miles once you get more miles on the car after the accident (like 120K and u had an accident at 60K), no one cares.

I got a '94 accord that was salvaged at 60K and I drove it another 108K sold it to my friend who has it now with over 200K on it. I really don't think anyone who buys the car is gonna care that it was totalled at 60K when the car now has 140+ K more on it......


Me I am driving my car until it is not practical to drive it anymore no car payment > than car payment....

StonedCL

iTrader: (1)

go on car-parts.com, you might be able to find a CL that was smacked in the back or on the other side of where your car was smacked the same color of your car and might be able to steal the parts ... car-parts.com searches all junk yards

BT5150

I went and took the pics as promised this morning, but I can't figure out how to post them to this thread, in my posting rules box it says that I "May Not" post images, not sure why, it lets me do everything else. So, I just started an album and uploaded 6 pics there, check out the damage to my favorite car, its too bad!

That's actually a pretty good idea to go and find on that's hit on the opposite corner, if only I had the time to sit and wrench away on a car! I opened a bar/restaurant 1 year ago that I run, so I work a lot of hours, just don't have the time right now to be doing any big car projects. I wouldn't mind attempting some smaller mods, like maybe some HID fogs or who knows what. At least then, if I get distracted and would have to let the fog light project sit on the shelf for a week or two, it wouldn't be any skin off my back not having fog (road) lights for a while. On the other hand, having not just one but 2 partially assembled vehicles sitting on my lawn for a month would not be a good thing!

Anyway, check out the pics, I think there's a chance it will just end up being totaled, especially after seeing how far $5K went to fix another CL. It has 90,000 miles, so private party book value is around $7000, even with the $400 I just dropped on new tires for winter. Its the crashed CL album.

brian6speed

iTrader: (5)

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-cl-frequently-asked-questions-52/how-post-pictures-476552/ this thread tells you how to post pics

SG81

iTrader: (1)

good luck w/ your car. at least you weren't hurt

BT5150

I was hoping I could post them right here on the topic, but I don't see a way to do that. I did get my album going, so take a look at my car and tell me what you think!

YeuEmMaiMai

to post an image you need to do this ( no spaces )

[ img ] link to picture here [ / img ]

so [ img ] http://images.cars.com/main/DMI/192378/V7733P1.02.jpg [ /img ]

=

BT5150

Let me give this another shot here:



Hmmmm! Didn't seem to work. Well, here's a link to the album I made here on the Zine, you can see some pics of the damage:

https://acurazine.com/forums/album.p...ictureid=23792

clpassenubye

iTrader: (20)

Man that seems like quite a bit of damage but it all depends as you or someone said above on several factors whether your car is totaled or not . As for the diminshed value claim its usually extremely difficult to impossible get anything if you were the at fault party in the claim and at the value of your car it would be very small if you did manage to get anything.

Good luck.

Rajca

iTrader: (8)

id take the money and total it if the insurance let me. i dotn want to ever own a car that has been hit from the front. panel fitment problems, suspension problem, color mismatches behind panels. just me, my car was lightly touched when i got it and the bumper to hood fitment pisses me off. o well. just something u have to look close to notice it, but its their.

BT5150

Ya, as much as I love that car, I'd definitely lean towards just taking the cash if they ask if I want it fixed or not. I doubt it will ever be the same, plus when I do go to sell it, its carfax will have a big black mark on it!

YeuEmMaiMai

something is missing from the link so I got a red X too :P

BT5150

Apparently the shop they towed it to has finished the estimate, but nothing has showed up yet on the website for my claim, so I'm not sure what they came up with. It sounds though like they think that they could fix it for less than what it would cost just to total out the car. I'm insisting on a different shop though, one which does all of the body and paint work for the local dealer and comes highly recommended. I stopped by that shop yesterday and wouldn't you know it, there's a red CL being pulled into the garage. There were at least 4 other Acuras there that I saw, along with a bunch of other cars, many of them nice imports.

I called the Acura shop today and talked with the guy about my car, he said once they get it towed over, they will just do their own estimate on it, they really don't care what the first place said. I'm not sure yet what the first shop came up with for a price, but the guy at the second place said something that makes a lot of sense, that you can never really write a full estimate without disassembling the damaged area and seeing what's all under there. Plus, these guys have worked on a ton of 2nd gen CL's and TL's, so they'll know what its supposed to look like.

This also makes me think back to when I had bought a brand new Chevy Blazer, back in like 1998. I had it for a few months and a bus that was going around a corner cut the corner too close and screwed up the rear driver's side corner of the bumper. I took it to the dealer where I bought it and they wrote an estimate for $1200. Later, after I got paid by the bus co. I ended up taking it to that same dealer, where the guy asked me, "do you want me to fix it to the estimate or just get it looking right again?" I asked what that would cost and he said, "probably around $300'! I took the $300 repair and pocketed $900 for my time and trouble! From looking at it, you couldn't tell anything had been repaired, I'm not sure how they saved the $900. That just makes me wonder, if I'm running that first shop and I can look up the book value of a 02 CL and see its around $6500 or so, I'm going to tell my estimator to try to get the estimate to come in well enough under $6500 so that the ins co doesn't total out the car and we don't get the work. If they could cut some corners fixing my Blazer bumper, I'm sure there are a lot of different corners they could cut on a much more complex job like this one!

On the other hand, I'd really rather just have them total out the car anyway. I mean I loved that car and thought I got a good deal on it and I planned on keeping it till the wheels fell off, but now that its been smashed up, something's just not the same.

clpassenubye

iTrader: (20)

Every situation is different and yes shops have the ability to cut corners on repair jobs but I wouldn't knowingly use one of those shops because the corners they cut now could come back to haunt you later if you kept the car and had another accident in the same area. Shops sometimes do an intial estimate and then when they tear down the area where the damage is they call the ins co for the supplemental amount after the fact.

Rajca

iTrader: (8)

what ever u can get, get it new, oem new. not no aftermarket crap