Got a call tonight from the body shop.
Initial estimate to "fix": $13,000
NADA value: $28-31,000
percent needed to be totaled (according to State Farm): 75%
$ needed to be totaled: $21,000

So these guys claim that the frame isn't bent, and that although "you must've been hit really hard!", the damage is only to the trunk and can therefore be "repaired" and not "totaled". I haven't seen the estimate yet, so I don't know any of the details. Sounds like I'll be working the phones tomorrow.......

How can NADA say that a 2 yr old car with 36k miles be worth $30k??? Edmunds has a more realistic value of $25k or so.

Anyway, yeah, we've started thinking about the '06's, although we heard an ad for a clearance sale on '05's. Either way, this experience has convinced us both that these cars really kick some *** if they happen to be called on for this type of duty. And we thought it was only fun to drive, how silly.

The white car that's sticking up in the air, the one circled in the above post, is a '97 A4. It's resting on an Explorer's windshield, with the nose crammed under a Mercury Mounaineer (same thing as Explorer). The 20 year old kid driving it was scared ****LESS.

 

Good that you're OK. The car can be replaced.

 

man its time to retire that car and have insurance pay for a new one.

 

Ouch, glad your okay because that looks nasty. I hope it all works out okay for you.

 

Actually, statistically there are more accidents in the summer months and warm climate states than in the winter.

 

Your car is F***ED up but al that matters is that everyone is ok.I hope that they dont try some BS with fixing the car.

 

Looks like 93 north of boston??? I heard there was a pileup somewhere in the greater boston area... Gotta LOVE boston drivers! WOOOt for us m*******s!

 

Does this happen often?

 

they will prob just weld a whole rear half end to your car.that they cut off from another wrecker.i hope ur interior isnt ruined, looks like you got no rear window and its snowing..

 

Insurance companies are a real pain in the a$$. You pay them thousands of dollars a year for insurance that you mostly never use, but then when you could use their help they usually try to duck out of it. Maybe it's not totaled via NADA values, but good luck trying to sell it for NADA value when that much damage shows up on your CarFax report. So the insurance company pays out ~13K to fix it because it doesn't meet their definiton, and you end up losing out on thousands of dollars when you try to sell it.

I hope it doesn't work out that way for you, but it looks like another classic example of an insurance company scamming a customer...

 

Good luck settling with the ins. co. Personally, I would hate to get the car back after it's fixed. It will never be the same.

 

tsk tsk, you should have slashed all the tires and had an angry midget jump on the windshield and hood of the car before sending it in to the insurance company... ! j/k, glad to see you're ok... gives me a lot more confidence in my X now and I'm sure I'll need it since everyone in NY seems to feel brake lights are just suggestions to stop.

 

this is the Dery NH pile up.

 

Just remember, you could have been the guy in the two door Geo Metro.. imagine driving THAT into a near 50 car pile up!

 

No...not at all....it's a fluke accident. It was obviously snowing at the time, but according to the news coverage, the accident was caused by a tractor trailer that swerved to avoid a car....then the dominos started to fall. They said luckily due to the snow falling, people were driving slower than normal....otherwise, they said it would have been a lot worse.

The only time I hear of pile-ups here on the east coast is those nasty ones that happen in CA in the hills/valleys due to the fog....

Chico - I believe you on those stats....makes sense. When it snows, people tend to drive more cautiously, and less accidents probably occur.