So I was rear ended today by a guy with a suspended license on my way to work. Does this look totaled?

 

Suspended license?!?

Wow, hope that idiot goes to jail! Anyhow...glad you're alright but not being a body-expert, I'd still say your car can be repaired. Obviously, you'll need a new quarter-panel, bumper, lights, exhaust, and trunk.

Insurance should cover this.

 

Yeah, it sucks because I really like this car! I feel kind of bad for the kid because he's young, but he should know better than to drive on a suspended license.

I'm just wondering if there was any unibody damage.

 

You feel bad? That kid...young or not, is a moron. His parents should kick his @$$ in for letting him go off with a suspended license then!

Anyhow, regardless...I'm assuming you filed a police report on the incident? Without going under your car, there's no way to know for sure...but, first thing Monday should be a visit to the bodyshop for an estimate/assessment.

Hope you don't pay a cent.

 

Yeah lucky for me a CHP officer was riding by and pulled over because I was getting a busy signal every time I tried to call 911. I'm going to take my car in Monday morning, but I'll probably have to pay my deductible until my insurance gets the collision report and they work everything out.

 

I wouldn't think it's totaled, but who knows until they tear it apart. Sorry to hear man. Dude had a suspended license for a reason... Did the cop just cite him?

 

I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing he did tow the car.

 

we cant guess on the severity of the damage.
it has to be torn down to assess damage.

it can be fixed.

 

well at this point its close to the borderline of totaled/fixable. If you want it totaled, the body shop can make that happen. If you want it fixed, the body shop can also make that happen

 

How can you determine that at all based on a picture? Wouldnt things like mileage and year come into play? I'd think an 07 Type-S with 150K miles might be closer to totaled, but an 08 Type-S with 25K would not necessarily.

I'll say anything CAN be fixed, I've seen some crazy repairs before, so that is nothing. In this case though, without knowing the value of the car vs. the cost to repair, I don't see how it can be determined if it's totaled.

On another note, are things different in Cali insurance wise? The OP said he'd pay his deductible? WTF...Here in SC, if you are not at fault, you don't even have to deal with your insurance company. You can notify them, but all that mess goes through the contributor's insurance.

A kid turned in front of me once, and I had the car towed to the body shop, called his insurance and told them I needed a rental. They had Enterprise pick me up and I never laid a dime out. Had the rental for over a month, got my car back from the body shop, and even got a check for diminished value. Granted, I'd rather NOT have my car wrecked, but it wasn't the worst experience in the world.

 

It's a 08 TL-S with about 89k miles.

And yes, I have to pay my deductible until my insurance company gets the collision report to determine fault, once they determine it is not my fault they will return my deductible.

 

Exactly.
Body shop wanted to total our commuter car, years ago.
Begged him not to. He fixed it...

 

I think you can talk to the body shop about not being charged for the deductible upfront... At least that's what my parents told me to do and it worked out when I had my accident. Either way you aren't going to lose your deductible since it's not your fault. Unless something strange comes up.

 

Why? Why would you want to own a car that has been hit to the point of write off? Why would you want to own a car that has depreciated even more than then the accident free car of the same model?

I see a lot of people doing this I cannot understand why. I love my car, but if someone rear ended it to the point where it could be a write off, I want it gone.

 

I did this with my 96 Accord. It had an H22 swap and only had 80K miles on it and was in excellent condition. The insurance co. tried to total it out and tell me they would give me $3000 for it. Um no. This was in 2004, but even then you couldn't find a 5MT Accord with a stock engine, let alone leather for less than about 6K, at least in this area.

I told them they could give me $7000 or fix it. They decided to fix it. The body shop bill was $7500, the rental car was like $500, and they gave me $1000 in diminished value. I don't see the fiduciary responsibility in that when I told them I would settle for $7K, but hey, I didn't care as long as I was back in the exact same situation as before some tool caused a wreck. That is what insurance is for, and they did it. Loved that car too, and it looked and ran great even after it was fixed. I sold it in 2007 when I bought my first TL, and I got $6K for it then...

 

There are times it isn't worth it to have to buy another car. Especially for a car you plan to drive into the ground, it is easier to fix it, and keep on driving it. Could care less about resale value if you are going to keep it for a long time. Not everyone can always tell if the "used" car you buy is really accident free. My TL was accident free according to the dealer and CarFax. Looking at it before I bought it, it looked accident free. 5 years later, I can tell you for sure that both bumpers were repainted at some point.

You are also assuming the other party has valid insurance. There are times it is much simpler to just go through your own insurance and let them handle the back and forth with the other party. We had an uninsured motorist rear-end one of our cars. We were out our deductible since our insurance company was never able to re-coup the money from the other driver.

And you are correct that each state will vary on how the various scenarios actually work out on responsibility for the deductible and such.

 

Total usually means the repairs require 60-80% of the car's market value to fix. If the car has low miles and was in good shape, it helps bring up the repair cost.

One good sign is if the OP can drive the car and it still drives straight. I got the impression that he could still drive the car with the 'I'm going to take the car in on Monday' statement.

 

Exactly. If the other driver had a suspended license, his insurance will likely not cover him.

 

yes its true an 07 tl-s with 150k ($14k) would be worth quite a bit less than an 08 tl-s with 25k($21k), but it would still be within 7-8k of each other. a repair like this could be anywhere from 7k at a cheap body shop to 15k at super legit perfection body shop. so yes it can definitely be totaled, or it can be fixed, just depends on what the owner wants. Plus I'm pretty sure OP's car falls somewhere between the 2 examples since you gave the worst case and best case scenario, so the price difference would likely be much less than 7-8k.

 

It was a 180K mile civic commuter car....
wife fell asleep and hit a road sign(like a speed limit sign) and it hit b/w the windshield and moonroof.
it was just more labor to fix that and the bumper than the old car was worth...
didn't want someone else's high mileage car for commuting... we wanted the car we knew and cared for all those years.
the accident didn't ruin the integrity of the car...
we just wanted to drive that thing until the wheels fell off.

so, thats why

 

If you're still in Bakersfield, I can recommend the body shops to stay away from. Absolutely stay as far away from San Joaquin as possible. They tried to kill me twice with the ball joint coming out of the lowe control arm because they used the wrong nut and one of the times it happened on Taft Highway. I had a total of 14 trips back to them to make them fix their screwups.

 

I'm at the bodyshop, he said to clear out the car because it's possibly going to be a total loss and they'll know more once they take it apart. I guess it's time to look for another car

 

I'm surprised. Yes, there's unibody damage but it's not that bad. On second thought, when mine got a little dent in the rear quarter panel from a welding truck backing into it in a parking lot, they had to cut the entire quarter out and weld in a new one. That was back when mine was new and worth something.

 

That sucks, I'm no longer in Bakersfield, I finally got a transfer back to the bay area so I'm out here now and the drivers are just terrible out there.

 

I would have been killed getting out on the highway trying to beat this dudes face off.

It might not be declared totaled, you would be surprised. I'd hold off on the speculation until an adjuster looks at it.

 

Can I have the LED board from the damaged taillight? j/k man.

Really sucks to see that happen to your TL. But least you weren't seriously injured.

Good luck with everything sir.

 

As far as beating the guy's face in, at first I wanted to, but once I got out of the car and the first thing he said was "man I'm so sorry, I've been working all night and I fell asleep." It was kind of hard to be mad at that point.

The adjuster won't be looking at it since I took it to a State Farm approved shop, so it's up to the shop to make the call. When I took it in this morning the guy said it's borderline if it's going to be total loss or not, they'll know more once they take it apart and to see if the frame was damaged.

 

request oem parts, glad you are ok

 

All you have to do is put things in perspective. Your car got hit but you don't live in Bakersfield anymore lol. I think you're doing well.

 

^ +1

 

You can usually "buy it back" from the insurance that considers something total loss. You'll just be driving around a car with a 'salvaged' title but it's still your baby. Maybe something to consider, I'd hate to see another 3G TL-S off the road

 

This is true... I love the weather out here and my engine bay is actually clean and not caked with red dirt!

 

As much as I love my TL, if they total it I plan on looking into an IS350 or a 4G TL. I love this car but not enough to drive it with a salvaged title.

 

Hey! Lol.

 

The estimate to repair just came in at 16.5k. I highly doubt they're going to fix the car, I'm just waiting on my insurance company to call me and make it official.

 

Sorry to hear it's going to be a loss- 'I'm sorry' from the other driver just doesn't cut it (since his insurance is substandard), but welcome to America, where jackasses can roam the roads free of responsibility to pay for their caused damage. Very, very unfair indeed.

 

Hey now!

 

yeah buddy that's totalled. ACV is probably close to 17k for the TL-S so they are way past the 70-75% threshold.

Consequently my wife totaled her 2013 Kia Optima SX-L yesterday. Driver ran a red light. Repairs will be around $20k with frame damage. Didn't even own it a year. I bought it last July 27th. Thank the lord for Gap insurance policies!!! Don't get back into your car. Get the 4G.

 

^^ I always loved that user name, but I mean people too dumb to drive without the proper insurance and then say 'Oops' when they cause a collision.

 

I'm glad I pay for uninsured motorist coverage!