Cost of collision repairs...unreal

[Tom Beals]

I have a 2004 ST with around 125K. About 2 weeks ago I was in a VERY minor fender bender. I was at a gas station parked in front of the building, the slots were straight in, not angled. I backed out and turned 90 degrees to head south, coming to a stop behind another vehicle. Said vehicle began to back out to head North and impacted my Trac right at the gas cap with the rear driver's side corner of their Rav4. I had what I would call abrasions to my paint over the wheel well and my gas tank door was knocked off (I super-glued it back together due to cosmetics). Only one segment of my Trac was affected, and my paint is silver, so the damage was difficult to see from over 10 feet away once I was able to secure the gas cap door back in place.



The estimate was over $1100! The other driver's insurance stepped up and I was able to have my vehicle repaired on their tab. Once in the shop, it was discovered that the plastic wall behind the quarter pannel (this is what I was told, Im not a car guy) was cracked as well and had to be replaced. The final tab ended up being over 2K. I ran my vehicle through blue book and it only came back at around 6500.



I love my ST. We have 2 young children (8 and 4) so we can take the whole family in it, it doesnt take up my whole garage, and it has some bed space and enough towing capacity to handle my 4x8 trailer. I had a 2 mpg collision, if that collision had involved more than 1 panel of my truck, it might have been a total.



Unreal.

 

[Bill Koonce]

These days $1000 is pretty much the minimum charge for collision damage. It's just not worth the effort for good body shops, so they jack up the prices of small jobs unless you're a good customer. Unless you get a lot of custom work done, you don't want to be on a first name basis with the body shop people.



I've been watching a show on Velocity called "Wheeler Dealers". It's made in the UK and the cars are European, but the basic principles apply to all cars. These guys want to spend a minimum in money and effort to fix up old cars for resale. I've picked up a lot of good DIY tips for taking care of minor to medium cosmetic repairs that anybody can do with basic tools and maybe a friend to help with big parts.



With newer cars and more plastic parts, it's getting more and more common to get damage under the skin, so if it's the other guy's fault ant their insurance is handling it, you should treat every collision like a big deal. If you get rear-ended and think "that will buff out, forget about it" DON'T! The bumper that's hidden by the bumper cover is good for one use only! Get it replaced, or at least inspected and re-certified for your own safety if nothing else.

 

[Steve McKellop]

Huh??? The "plastic wall" behind the quarter panel is the BED box. Did they replace your bed box? if not then they are screwing somebody...........

 

[EddieS'04]

As per Steve M,

The only wall behind the outer fender is the bed box. About 6" between the two.

This damage to mine cost over $4k.



[Broken External Image]:

 

[David Hiatt]

That 2k repair is actually pretty small by today's standards. I have been in the body shop business for nearly twenty years and although the shop I work at deals with mostly higher end cars, most of the estiments I see are 9 to 10k on average.

Although we did have an 02 sport trac with 107k miles come with damage to the front and rear and it had a $5300 estimate on it and was no where close to a total. I would have to say that your trac would have to be worth more then what blue book says its worth.

 

[Kyle Maguire]

i remember before i got my Sport Trac i had a buick lacrosse cxs 2006 and i was on my way home from an app. and a Rav4 cut into my lane and i mean i annihilated her car i mean just destroyed it. ripped the whole front end off tore it to shreds. and she hit me and caused my car to be totalled when visibly all that looked wrong was my driver side mirror was knocked off and my paint got scratched($3,200). well after 2 weeks in the garage they told me it was totalled because it somehow she hit my frame so i went to look at it and there was a minor microscopic scratch on the frame so that obviously says totalled in there book. so ya they screw us all. cuz everyone is right in here there is no panel other then the bed behind the fender so i think u got screwed alittle. glad your ok tho

 

[Jeff Antonucci]

You have to be real careful when you file an insurance claim on an older vehicle. If the damage is too close to the vehicles value, the insurance company can total it and take it away from you. I had a 10 yr old car with a fenden bender and they totaled it on me and I could not stop them. I was able to buy it back, rapair it and get a R title but now with the R title it is almost worthless.



I expected trouble so I never let the body shop or insurance company take posession of the car. That way at least I had some control. If I ever have to do this again, I will get my own estimates and only show them to the insurance company if they are less that 80% of the vehicle's value.

 

[Richard L]

jeffantonucci,

The insurnace company has no rights to take your vehicle away from you. When the repairs exceed the market value of your vehicle, you are given a choice:



1. Take the market value of the vehicle (prior to the damage) plus any taxes and registration fees, etc and give up your vehicle as your settlement.

OR

2. You can take the market value of your vehicle minus the scrap value and keep your vehicle.



I had a friend who did something a little different that might be a smart way to go for some people.



He had a brand new Toyota Tundra truck, only about 4 days old when he got hit in the side and the insurance company claimed it was repairable. He did not want to keep a new truck with over $13K dollars in damages. so he took the $13k for damages, and found a scrap company who paid him another $15k for the truck. He paid about $30K for the truck and only had 400 miles on it. He lost about $2K (about the depreciation value when he drove it off the lot), but he was able to locate another nearly identical truck and purchased that new truck.



In another case, my daughter had a older model Ford Tempo that she bough an paid for and had been driving for about 2 years. She got rear-ended and the insurance company claimed it was a total loss but the market value was a little more then she actually paid for the car. She kept the car and got a check for the market value minus about $900 for the scrape value. She drove the car for about 6-months more and then was given $1800 trade in value on a new car purchase.



So you are not forced to give up your vehicle if you don't want to...You just need to weigh your options and find out which way gives you the best value.



The only exception to this might be some state law that prevents totaled vehicles from being put back on the road...which I suspect may be the case. Here in Texas, you can keep your totaled vehicle, however if it gets sold as salvage, nobody can buy it back unless they are an approved auto repair / body shop capable of performing total vehicle restorations, and even then the vehicle will always have a "Salvaged" title.



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

This is why I never park in spots I have to back out. Learned that one 20 years ago in a similar incident with little damage...but still learned it. When backing out you are at the mercy of other drivers, some that back out and turn to go forward but continue to back up two or three parked car widths for no reason, or because of the a-hole that drives through a parking lot like it was a road, or the guy that never looks behind him as he starts to back out, etc.



Pull through spots are the bomb.

 

[Richard L]

TJR,

I had a guy go through a pull-though parking spot and hit my old mini-van. Insurance deemed that he was at fault.



However, I don't avoid parking spots that require me to back out when I leave. I don't think you are ever at the mercy of other drivers as long as you are careful. My biggest concern is stupid pedestrians who see you are slowly backing out, and insist on stepping in front of the rear of your moving vehicle...:angry:



I even had one lady curse me out because her little boy walked behind my vehicle while I was slowly backing up. She was lucking I caught a glimpse of him in my mirror when he walked out from behind the pickup truck parked next to me, and only a split second before she reach out to grab him and pull him back !!



...Rich

 

[Kevin Lang]

Pull through spots are the bomb.

Agreed. Some times, with the ST, I find it easier to back into spots (especially in garages) than pull in. It's because I generally give myself a better approach angle (and in garages, reverse has me turning downhill instead of uphill) when I set up to back in, but I find it interesting that I'd rather back in and pull out than pull in and back out.

I don't think you are ever at the mercy of other drivers as long as you are careful

I can't say that I agree, if you're backing out and some moron comes racing through the parking lot at you, there isn't much you'll probably be able to do besides stop and hope he has the wherewithal to dodge you. Reminds me, on a slight tangent, of the moronic drivers who aggressively weave through heavy traffic at speeds that are much too fast: it isn't their skill that lets them safely cut in between cars as much as it is the skill of the exasperated driver they cut off at hitting the brakes. Something about "if you're not changing lanes, you're not driving", up there with the belief that "loud pipes save lives". :banghead: :banghead:

My biggest concern is stupid pedestrians who see you are slowly backing out, and insist on stepping in front of the rear of your moving vehicle..

This, however, I can totally agree with. While they don't help much in a parking lot, I move that we need to keep pedestrian traffic off the same throughways as cars. Pedestrian bridges and tunnels save lives, crosswalks don't.



On topic, it seems foreign to me that the insurance company can confiscate your ride if they declare it totaled, without your consent. I suppose that it would be inconvenient to keep the car, rather than give it up to the insurance, if it isn't driveable and has been towed to some salvage/repair place, but it should still be possible. My only experience with this has been when my ancient sedan was totaled, but since it was drivable (a miracle) from the accident site I was able to keep it at my residence, pocket the money the insurance gave me, and then (once I got over the delusion that it was worth repairing) donated it.

 

[Richard L]

KL,

I don't think you are ever at the mercy of other drivers as long as you are careful

I probably worded that statement wrong. I agree that you may be at the mercy of some idiots, but I don't let that deter me from carefully backing out of a parking spot. Most insurance companies do not assume that because you were backing out, that it automatically makes you wrong. In fact many insurance companies now will accept that a person backing out of a parking space in a parking lot may not be able to see vehicles coming down that parking lane and may actually rule in your favor if someone going forward hits you in the rear of your vehicle since they should be able to see your vehicle moving out of a parking space.



That's exactly what happened to me since the guy hit me in the rear corner of my vehicle with the center of his bumper. Of course it did not help his case that he then backed up into another car, and it was all witnessed by a store employee collecting shopping carts in the parking lot.



The backing up rule only applies when two cars are backing up in a parking lot and back into each other, since both are assumed to be at fault. That rule is interpreted differently depending upon if it is a one-way parking lane, or a two way parking lane, and if the parking spots are angled.



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

RichardL said:

don't think you are ever at the mercy of other drivers as long as you are careful

I disagree, but to be fair let me restate:



When I said "at the mercy", I guess I should have said "more at the mercy of",



I say that and I believe that because a pull through spot has more visibility and allows for a quicker, more maneuverable exit than a spot you have to back out.



So, if you aren't as maneuverable, you can't see as well, and you can't get out as well, that all (to me) means you are more at the mercy of other drivers when backing out.



Just make sense to me.



Of course, if careful, then you lessen the likely of issues. But backing out due to the factors I mentioned mean you need to show extra care just to be at the same level of risk when backing out than when pulling out.



I avoid backing out at all costs.



Pull through spots are the bomb.



I have seen many parking lot accidents caused by two cars both backing out. Never seen one with one car pulling out and the other backing out...or with both pulling out. Wonder why that is? ;-)



TJR

 

[H D]

If you just lift your truck higher than the vehicles around you, as I have chosen, you have a good view of what's coming down the lane.:grin:

 

[Kevin Lang]

If you just lift your truck higher than the vehicles around you, as I have chosen, you have a good view of what's coming down the lane.

I appreciate that, so that when people like me are driving their commuting Fusion around they too can see traffic as they can see under the lifted trucks :bwahaha:



I have to say that I'm all about the pull through spots too.



I think the biggest hazards, besides pedestrians, when backing out are the people who "camp" your spot, vying with each other to take your spot the second that you pull out. Especially annoying when they block me from backing out... :angry:

 

[Thomas Rogers]

KL,



Yeah, people "camping" for spots. That's another thing I try to avoid. If the venue I am going todoesn't have free parking spots further from the facilities, then its probably just too packed with people and therefore a good place to avoid at all possible.



In my "old age" I've started to find that the people, on average, that tend to allow themselves to be crowded into venues or to endure long lines, filled parking lots, etc, for an activity, are, again, by and large, filled with many individuals that simply frustrate the crap out of me to be around. ;-)



Rant over.



TJR