seeking bashed car advice

[emmline]

Subject: '98 Subaru Forester

Situation: 18 year old daughter ran it into the back of friend's SUV while trying to follow without getting lost.

Condition: Airbags deployed, headlights smashed, front grill a goner, hood moderately buckled. (Other car ok, apparently, as are the 4 total passengers.)

Body shop says sum total of body repairs equals or exceeds Bluebook, which is defined as a "total." Car drives fine.

Insurance broker advises to file claim (we've started the process,) to prevent the possibility of insurance company waiving their involvement if any personal injuries should crop up later.(otherwise, we might just eat it, to prevent insurance cost increase and keep the smudge off daughter's insurance record which will be there for 3 years--there is no traffic violation issue, no problems of that sort.)

We feel that it may be more practical to apply whatever payoff there might be toward repairing the car, even if we pay some out of pocket, because we'd end up with a vehicle which is known to be reasonably dependable and safe, versus acquiring whatever other junker $7000(?) might buy. (Probably wouldn't replace the car at all, in that case.)

Have not yet seen the insurance appraiser who will evaluate the vehicle. I'm wondering, can one opt to repair a vehicle which has been declared "totaled" by the insurance company? Are there any practical reasons one should or should not pursue that option?

[amar]

emm, i hope your daughter is fine!!

[mcbob]

I have found that alot of the cost of repair in this sort of situation is replacing the air bags. Find out if you can put the vehicle back on the road without them being replaced, if you are comfortable with that. Check with the repair shop on how much of the repair quote is for the air bags.

[emmline]

All girls involved were fine. Airbags are about 1/2 the bluebook value. We are a bit obsessive about safety issues, and if we're making a car available for the use of our kids it has to have safety features intact.

[Redwolf]

While you technically CAN repair a "total," (the insurance company won't make you junk it, but they'll only pay out the value of the car), whether it's worth it really depends on the total amount of damage involved. For example, is the frame still straight? If not, the car may never be truly safe to drive. Was the engine block damaged? If so, it may well be cheaper to buy another car.

One thing I would do is have a mechanic evaluate it who ISN'T the insurance company rep. I've had insurance company reps tell me that there was no frame damage to my car when any well-informed layperson could clearly SEE that the frame was warped. Find out from a mechanic YOU trust how much it would cost to make the car safe and reliable again. Then work from that.

$7000 definitely won't buy you another Forester (I know...I've priced them second-hand because I'd love one to replace my Taurus, but they hold on to their value really well), but it should buy something fairly sturdy and reliable.

Redwolf

[Loren]

How's the car's frame? If the hood is buckled significantly, the frame may be bent, in which case you're likely better off to find another car that hasn't been in an accident.

Loren

[Martin Milner]

I typed in Subaru Forester into google, just to see what one looks like, only I mis-typed it as Forster.

Imagine my suprise to discover that Subaru make Forsters and Foresters.

[anniemcu]

Subject: '98 Subaru Forester

Situation: 18 year old daughter ran it into the back of friend's SUV while trying to follow without getting lost.

Condition: Airbags deployed, headlights smashed, front grill a goner, hood moderately buckled. (Other car ok, apparently, as are the 4 total passengers.)

Body shop says sum total of body repairs equals or exceeds Bluebook, which is defined as a "total." Car drives fine.

Insurance broker advises to file claim (we've started the process,) to prevent the possibility of insurance company waiving their involvement if any personal injuries should crop up later.(otherwise, we might just eat it, to prevent insurance cost increase and keep the smudge off daughter's insurance record which will be there for 3 years--there is no traffic violation issue, no problems of that sort.)

We feel that it may be more practical to apply whatever payoff there might be toward repairing the car, even if we pay some out of pocket, because we'd end up with a vehicle which is known to be reasonably dependable and safe, versus acquiring whatever other junker $7000(?) might buy. (Probably wouldn't replace the car at all, in that case.)

Have not yet seen the insurance appraiser who will evaluate the vehicle. I'm wondering, can one opt to repair a vehicle which has been declared "totaled" by the insurance company? Are there any practical reasons one should or should not pursue that option?

Here's the problem we ran into with a similar situation, only ours involved a depressed deer throwing himself into our car.

The insurance company would only handle the claim by declaring the vehicle "totalled", which meant that not only did they pay us the bare minimum value for it, but they took possession of the vehicle, since it was declared "totalled", and they ahd "paid" for it... so... we couldn't take the money and get the vehicle repaired. Not a good experience all around.

Ask questions about that before you decide what to do. Also, you are only required to report the accident. You do not *have* to put in for insurance coverage on repairs to your vehicle for this accident. That should not have any effect on your liability coverage if anyone from the other vehicle puts in a claim.

[brianc]

We feel that it may be more practical to apply whatever payoff there might be toward repairing the car, even if we pay some out of pocket, because we'd end up with a vehicle which is known to be reasonably dependable and safe, versus acquiring whatever other junker $7000(?) might buy. (Probably wouldn't replace the car at all, in that case.)

Have not yet seen the insurance appraiser who will evaluate the vehicle. I'm wondering, can one opt to repair a vehicle which has been declared "totaled" by the insurance company? Are there any practical reasons one should or should not pursue that option?

Be careful. Regardless of what the adjuster gives in a 'total' scenario, you have potential future issues to deal with that may not be apparent right now.

Example: I was driving down a country road at 40 - 45 MPH when the left front tire decided it didn't want to help climb the next hill. (The vehicle had been in the shop for an oil change & tire rotation the day before, and the grease-monkey forgot to tighten the lug nuts).

The vehicle had moderate damage, all things considered, and the shops' insurance company picked up all the visible damage.... about $1,500 worth.

Fast forward 2 months or so.... I'm driving to work, and the vehicle overheats. Why? The water pump had failed. Why? The fan bearings had been rattled out of their joints, though it took nearly that amount of time for them to get good & worn out to the point of failing. (The vehicle was only 5 years old at that point, with just 45,000 miles on it). As previously mentioned, a bent frame is another potential problem waiting to happen ("Why can't I ever get this steering aligned correctly? Why do my tires always seem to wear out early?")

Lesson learned: When in an accident, hope for two things:

a) Hope for no injuries.
b) Hope for a 'total', and look for another vehicle.

Best of luck to you,

[emmline]

Thanks all, for the kind advice. The slightly sticky problem is that the car had been "issued" to daughter #1 upon the commencement of her college career--partly as an incentive for choosing a low-cost school, partly for the convenience of her getting herself to and fro, partly because we happened, at that moment, to have an extra vehicle.
I have wondered all along, how we might handle the precedent when the next one goes away to school in '06. Free cars to kids isn't really a philosophy I would normally embrace.
If the original car is reparable, at low cost, it makes sense to give it back to her. If not, it does not necessarily make sense to seek a new one for her, despite the fact that I will, of necessity, become mighty familiar with the 210 minute round-trip jaunt to her school.
Thus, we have several implications to fiddle with.

[Redwolf]

Thanks all, for the kind advice. The slightly sticky problem is that the car had been "issued" to daughter #1 upon the commencement of her college career--partly as an incentive for choosing a low-cost school, partly for the convenience of her getting herself to and fro, partly because we happened, at that moment, to have an extra vehicle.
I have wondered all along, how we might handle the precedent when the next one goes away to school in '06. Free cars to kids isn't really a philosophy I would normally embrace.
If the original car is reparable, at low cost, it makes sense to give it back to her. If not, it does not necessarily make sense to seek a new one for her, despite the fact that I will, of necessity, become mighty familiar with the 210 minute round-trip jaunt to her school.
Thus, we have several implications to fiddle with.

Well, you can always do what my parents did. I didn't have a car at college and, when I wanted to come home, I had to take the bus...and I had to pay for it. My school was about 300 miles from home, so that translated to 8 hours on the Greyhound. They did take me to school at the beginning of the year and pick me up at the end, because I had all my stuff, but for vacations and weekends home and such, it was go Greyhound or don't go at all, unless I could find someone who was driving my way. You can call it an object lesson in the hazards of tailgating

Redwolf

[emmline]

You can call it an object lesson in the hazards of tailgating

Redwolf

and it has been that!

[Redwolf]

You can call it an object lesson in the hazards of tailgating

Redwolf

and it has been that!

Tell her if it's any consolation, I totalled my mother's station wagon when I was 16 (just six months after getting my license). As in your daughter's case, it wasn't a matter of reckless driving...just an error in judgement (in my case, I crossed a busy road in poor visibility trusting to another driver's wave-through rather than creeping slowly and checking for myself...got T-boned). Sometimes the learning curve is painful...but thank God she's alive to be able to tell her kids someday about "the time I wrecked the car"

Redwolf

[TomB]

You can call it an object lesson in the hazards of tailgating

Redwolf

and it has been that!

Tell her if it's any consolation, I totalled my mother's station wagon when I was 16 (just six months after getting my license). As in your daughter's case, it wasn't a matter of reckless driving...just an error in judgement (in my case, I crossed a busy road in poor visibility trusting to another driver's wave-through rather than creeping slowly and checking for myself...got T-boned). Sometimes the learning curve is painful...but thank God she's alive to be able to tell her kids someday about "the time I wrecked the car"

Redwolf

Heh! Heh! Heh!

I almost totaled my folks' car when I was on my Learner's Permit. That wasn't my fault, though. A couple of years later, I almost totaled there next car by rear-ending someone. Umm, that one was my fault.



Tom

[emmline]

A decision has been reached. Between the body shop people, and the insurance person, we feel fairly confident that everyone has discouraged the fix-it option for good reason. There seems to be structural damage which involves the radiator housing, in addition to the sheet metal and airbags.
They're going to give us $8500 which should, if autotrader.com is to be believed, buy us a slightly newer, reasonably safe car of some sort.

What happens when daughter #2 heads to college is a bridge we'll cross later.
At this point, perhaps we'll offer all 3 of our daughters to Amar, and let him take care of their transportation needs.
It has been their father's position all along that rather than foot the bill for 3 weddings, we would just purchase, at owner's wholesale cost, 3 ladders.