Totaled Car?

Recently I got into an accident and didn't even know that the insurance co. considered my car totaled. Anyways for those that may not know what a totaled car is you might find this video helpful. Cheers.

reply to post by demonid011


I work in a body shop and I've seen some cars with barely any damage total and others with extreme and extensive damage still get the green light for repairs just because they're still more valuable than the cost of repairs. I still don't understand it sometimes... I've seen a few jobs over $10,000 USD on high-end cars, yet a little subcompact with a bent fender in otherwise decent condition gets scrapped.

It's all about economics and nothing to do with actual damage.

I once had a car that got rear ended from acar that went into and underneath it. I ended up with a bowed frame as a result. Despite my repeated protests, the insurance company insisted on repairing it because it was cheaper than writing it off for them.

I ended up with a car that I had to sell in the end because it was extremely unstable at speed after the repair - I was told by several repairers that the car should have been scrapped because it had been bent so badly it was impossible to get it back into proper shape again.

I've seen other older mess valuable cars junked over minor damage because the panel repairs cost too much from the insurers point of view.

markosity1973
It's all about economics and nothing to do with actual damage.

I once had a car that got rear ended from acar that went into and underneath it. I ended up with a bowed frame as a result. Despite my repeated protests, the insurance company insisted on repairing it because it was cheaper than writing it off for them.

I ended up with a car that I had to sell in the end because it was extremely unstable at speed after the repair - I was told by several repairers that the car should have been scrapped because it had been bent so badly it was impossible to get it back into proper shape again.

I've seen other older mess valuable cars junked over minor damage because the panel repairs cost too much from the insurers point of view.

Exactly! I hope you didn't hold a grudge against the body shop for not fixing your car right. There's only so much we can do. If you stomp on an aluminum can, you'll never get it all straightened out again. It's more the insurance company's fault for wanting to attempt repairs a heavily damaged car rather than pay off what it's worth because it's not road worthy. In fact, you could have probably taken it as far as suing the insurance company for putting you back on the road with a damaged frame which has severely weakened the structural integrity and will be much less safe in later accidents.

I swear the insurance companies are getting much worse as of late. It's technically illegal for them to steer you to one of their "preferred" body shops (basically, shops that will cut corners in order to save costs so the insurance doesn't have to pay as much, but it guarantees them work), but they do it anyway. Just within the past year we've lost a lot of jobs because the insurance companies keep steering our customers, even loyal customers, to "preferred" shops, and the consumer doesn't know any better half the time.

Aldakoopa
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Exactly! I hope you didn't hold a grudge against the body shop for not fixing your car right. There's only so much we can do. If you stomp on an aluminum can, you'll never get it all straightened out again. It's more the insurance company's fault for wanting to attempt repairs a heavily damaged car rather than pay off what it's worth because it's not road worthy.

Nahh, the repairer took one look at the car and told me that this model was difficult to repair and they would write it off if they were the insurer. I used this information to go back to the company with and they basically brushed me off, saying that the repairer was biased and knew nothing because the insurance company deals with many more times more claims than a single repairer.

They did their best to get the car right and it looked okay comsetically, but the instability on corners and bumps over 60 mph was quite frightening to be honest.

Always thought that a totaled car was just damaged beyond repair. Now I know! Thanks for sharing!