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Model Y - Accident
- Thread starter athlon
- Start date
Glad to hear you are OK! I'm sure it is both sad and frustrating, but cars are replaceable, you are not. Looking at these salvage MYs, I'm going to guess yours totaled. Given your car is so new, assume your insurance has some type of "new car replacement" as part of your policy? And it would cover the latest cost for a white MY?
The right fender is pushed back so far it’s overlapping the a pillar by a good inch. That’s much more severe damage than just a replaceable crumple bar at the front. A lot of the front substructure is also damaged, likely with a lot of the components that go with it. Without a better view I don’t see a pillar damage, but there could be a buckle that we can’t see somewhere.
Windshield is cracked. That alone is a few thousand. All the airbags need to be replaced, headlights, every body panel forward of the front doors assuming those aren’t damaged from the fenders pushing them, all the under hood components, whole new dash, guaranteed suspension damage too, and you can see the passenger side has been pushed back further than the driver side. With the labor cost and paint and all the other nonsense it’s totaled.
Both fenders are pushed back, possibly impinging on the doors... any metal or paint damage on the front edges of the driver and front passenger doors?
On the totaled front, the fact that the crumple zones do their job AND the A pillar didn't bend (non-crumpling safety component) means that a car is more likely to prevent injury and more likely to be totaled in an accident. Take a model T and run it into a tree at 25 mph and you will have a car with minor damage and a dead driver... do the same in a modern car and you have a dead car (totaled) with a uninjured driver.
Keith
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Pure speculation all around. Good information, though.
Suspension? It doesn't appear that the wheels have been pushed back. MY speculation is the damage is above the suspension. Serious, for sure, but sheet metal.
Very sorry for the OP, but we'll learn from this. Would love to see more detailed photos.
Suspension? It doesn't appear that the wheels have been pushed back. MY speculation is the damage is above the suspension. Serious, for sure, but sheet metal.
Very sorry for the OP, but we'll learn from this. Would love to see more detailed photos.
Not always. Cars get totaled when any critical parts/areas are damaged which can be way less than 80% of the car value.
I hope you know that they can only provide you the assessment of exterior damage.
Glad everyone is okay.
You want it to be totaled and get a brand new vehicle.
Just about anything is repairable, but do you really want to go through that?
You want it to be totaled and get a brand new vehicle.
Just about anything is repairable, but do you really want to go through that?
Where I live an adjuster can not make claims on damage that the adjuster does not see or have attested to by a competent repair shop... so if (for example) the front motor case is cracked but he can't see it because the front of the car is wadded up, no assessment is made on the drive unit until the repair shop tears into it and finds "additional damage" to add to the claim.
I had a car (Chevy Volt) destroyed by a lightning strike. The insurance company spent thousands of dollars on diagnostic and "one part at a time" computer system repair attempts before they finally gave up and totaled the car. Every computer in it was fried when the building it was plugged into for charging was hit by lightning.
Keith
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
I would recommend, as much as you can, to get it totaled, mostly to save time.
Buying a new car might be more costly for you than getting all the repairs paid by the insurance,
but to get the car repaired and all your expenses paid will be a very tedious process.
The repair will be at least $20k to $30k, but the power train and the subframe need to be examined
to determine if there are any structural damages or more important than cosmetic damages.
The fact that the air bags have been deployed can also be determinant for getting the car totaled.
I imagine that the motor relay, with explosive bolts, must have been fused and will have to be replaced.
1. Having a rental car paid for more than 30 days is something than need to be estimated
and been agreed in advance, and written down, otherwise you will have to go to court to get your expenses paid.
2. Diminish value is also a difficult issue to deal with. You need to contact a specialized lawyer who will send you
a paper to send to your insurance, after paying a fee for it. The insurance will try to negotiate something
like offering $5k for the $20k asking. Otherwise you will have to go to court, which can take a couple of years
to get it resolved. And the lawyer will take like 40% to 45% of the whole amount the insurance will paid.
So if the insurance paid $20k, the lawyer will take at least $9k, and might ask to cover some other expenses like travel.
Here is my own experience from a low speed accident:
Three years I get rear ended but my car was drivable. The rear quarter panel had to be replaced,
I spent about 6 months to get the parts in order and get a spot available at a body shop.
And then it took about 3 months then to get the car fully repaired, and I had to return the car for minor cleaning
and to get one wheel to be repaired, as one rim must have been damaged by an impact tool when removed or put it back.
If you have your car sent to a body shop, take as many pictures of the rest of the car, especially the wheels.
Make a small mark with a marker, to be sure that your wheels will not be exchanged with another car.
The serial number on my tires were all the same, so not sufficient to check.
Cover all your seats with some tissue wrap, I used some old bed sheets, to avoid any damage or paint traces during the repair.
Finally I had some minor pain from the accident. My health care paid every cost, and deal with the car insurance.
However I also hired a lawyer for pain and suffering, and after three years the case has not yet been closed.
Part of it is that many offices were mostly shut down during Covid.
Recently, like six months ago, my lawyer contacted me to verify my mailing address.
No news so far, so this might take another year to get it solved and closed.
In conclusion, I felt sorry for this accident, but in some ways you were lucking for not been T-bone,
which could have caused more severe injuries.
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