Significant damage to right side of my Model 3

[noahthomas03]

Well, the unexpected happened. I was t-boned by a speeding car while I was turning left in an otherwise clear intersection (he was going 45mph in a 30 zone and flew around a corner before he hit me). Still waiting on the police report, but I hope I'm found not at fault. Pretty significant damage as you can see in the photos. The front right wheel is also stuck at a different angle than the left wheel. I couldn't identify any damage on the inside of the car, but the glovebox won't open. It appears it's being pinched by something.

Luckily no one was hurt, and to my surprise, no airbags went off in my car. Amazing how unscathed I was. These cars really are the safest on the road.

The car has been sitting in a tow yard for the past few days, but I'm having it towed to my garage to await my appointment at the body shop (next week). My insurance adjuster came up with a repair quote of $6k (absolute joke). No in-person inspection, just wrote that up based off of photos. I'm expecting the body shop to quote much much higher, and am crossing my fingers that they just declare it a total loss.

I'm leasing my car through Tesla, so I'm curious if they get involved in this at all, since they will be the ones eating the cost of any depreciation at the lease term end.

 

[GeoG]

Ouch!!1 Glad to know everyone is safe. Keep us posted on how insurance goes.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Yeah, that's totaled. The A-pillar took a pretty direct hit and they don't mess around with that one, nevermind the B and C pillars being hit plus the rocker panel and suspension. It's basically totaled 5 different ways.

You may have dashcam footage of the incident if you enabled the recent auto-save feature or otherwise saved footage after the crash. Glad you're OK!

 

[afadeev]

Well, the unexpected happened. I was t-boned by a speeding car while I was turning left in an otherwise clear intersection (he was going 45mph in a 30 zone and flew around a corner before he hit me).

Sorry to hear, glad you and everyone else is OK!

If you were turning left across another car's path (no traffic lights or stop signs, as per pictures), it was YOUR responsibility to make a safe turn.
Good luck convincing police and insurance company that it wasn't your fault. The other car's speed is not relevant, and is just a conjecture.

Pretty significant damage as you can see in the photos. The front right wheel is also stuck at a different angle than the left wheel. I couldn't identify any damage on the inside of the car, but the glovebox won't open. It appears it's being pinched by something.

Luckily no one was hurt, and to my surprise, no airbags went off in my car. Amazing how unscathed I was. These cars really are the safest on the road.

Lets give credit where it's due - the other car saved your bacon by avoiding a direct T-bone hit, and turning right to synchronize his turn with yours. He couldn't stop in time to avoid you, but he did his best to minimize the force of the impact to both of you.

Front airbags didn't deploy in your car because it was not a front-end collision (for you, it was for him).
Side/curtain airbags would have deployed if the passenger seat was occupied. Luckily (and evidently), it wasn't.

The car has been sitting in a tow yard for the past few days, but I'm having it towed to my garage to await my appointment at the body shop (next week). My insurance adjuster came up with a repair quote of $6k (absolute joke). No in-person inspection, just wrote that up based off of photos. I'm expecting the body shop to quote much much higher, and am crossing my fingers that they just declare it a total loss.

The damage is definitely higher than 6K, between the body panels and the suspension alone.
If enough force had been transferred to the frame and the battery tray, then the repair cost will head north of $25+K.

Usually, the totaling threshold is ~60-80% of the car's current market value. Value varies by the insurance company (which one is yours?), and sometimes regulated at the state level. It appears TN may have legislated that level to be 75%:

What is Total Loss Car Insurance? | Bankrate

Total loss car insurance is one type of insurance policy that can help in the situation where the damage to your car is just too much.

www.bankrate.com

With Tesla raising prices on new TM3P's (now at $58,990), your residual value may not be much lower than 50K.
75% of that is $37.5.
That leaves a LOT of room for the insurance company to ponder before they declare the car totaled.

I'm with you - if this was my car, I would definitely prefer to have it declared totaled.

I'm leasing my car through Tesla, so I'm curious if they get involved in this at all, since they will be the ones eating the cost of any depreciation at the lease term end.

Financing company will not get involved, until insurance decides to total the car. At which point, it becomes a settlement issue between Tesla financing entity and the insurance company.

Unfortunately, until you get a "it's totaled" decision from the insurance company, I would place an order for a replacement.
Good luck, and I hope you have a second car to fall back onto, especially if you are stuck with a long repair process.

a