Appraise My Damage
 

Driving to work this morning I was rearended at a stoplight in my 01 Civic EX. At first glance the car looks virtually unscathed, despite the wreck feeling quite violent.

The bumper cover is mostly straight, but has a couple rips in it and the paint is fugged. The trunk was untouched in the accident but is pushed in and up at the rear window. When I popped the trunk (difficult) I could see more damage inside the trunk and there is no way in hell it's going to close again. It looks like some fairly substanital parts got bent, I'm praying to god that this POS is totaled as it's been nothing but nightmares since I bought it.

Car is an '01, 168k miles on it, KBB valued it at $3700. Please, tell me it's totaled, or at least that I've got a chance:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351530458

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351530458

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351530458

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351530458

I think this is the $$$ part: Latch inside the trunk, you can see where the plastic is pushed in from bent frame.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351530458

I know the pictures suck, it was the best I could do at lunch with my shitty virgin mobile phone. I'll get some better ones when I get home.

call his insurance, and have them pay for the damages, fix it, and move on with life.

Insurance has already been involved, determined the other driver to be at fault, and the car will be appraised Thursday morning. I'm just asking about potential repair costs and if there's any hope the thing will be totaled.

itll be around 2 grand. ive gotten hit like that 3 times in my altima. always about that price for similar damage :)

Boy P, you sure are racking up the accidents. Better stay off a plane.:rofl:

Your damage or the car's? The car will take a lot less typing.

I'd say it's toast unless there's something I'm missing. If the trunk lid is pushed in like that, the whole trunk area has been pushed in, and that's a lot in labor to fix. If $3700 is the value of the car, it's going to take more than half that to pull everything out, and they'll just total it.

I'm going to be so happy if they total the stupid thing. I just wasn't sure if I was being too optimistic.

You have no idea, I have had the most incredibly horrific luck the last 2 months that it's almost comical at this point.

Took some a better look at it when I got home today and I'm feeling more confident that it's not only totaled but almost unrepairable. The crash bar behind the bumper is broken in half and put some pretty good sized ripples through the bottom of the trunk and a crease in the passenger side of the body.

Broken sound deadening and ripples in the trunk:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351545487

Crease/bend in trunk: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351545487

Bottom of car:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351545487

Broken crash bar:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351545487

I'll let you guys know what they say.

Demand that they total it. If you get hit again, it will fold like a tin can.

It's totaled brochacho.

My nephew's brand new (literally, less than 150 miles) Ford Focus had less damage and they totaled that. Crash was at about 15 MPH, and cosmetically, the car didn't look too bad. But the rear crumple zone had partially collapsed, and that was it.

Your car is toast.

yeah if its valued at 3700 its totalled.

That's at least 2k worth of damage.

Totally totaled. Think of the man-hours required, at $100 an hour, to fix that rippled steel.

Yup.

Back it into a tree and masturbate on its corpse. Win.

In for "looking for $3700 daily driver recommendations" thread. ;)

That thread would be relevant to my interests.

I got the car appraised today and it was the craziest shit. The dude looks over the damage, put it in the computer, "NOT TOTALED!" WTF. They tell me there's $3882.86 worth of damage on the car I paid $1900 for 22 days ago and cut me a check for the repair, plus I got to keep the car. Hellls yeahhhhhh.



Anybody want to buy a civic?

now fix it on the cheap... like a $300 painted bumper cover, and figuring out how to get the trunk lid to line up a little better, then sell the car.

welcome to the braineack way.

So the next time it gets rear-ended the passengers in the backseat can die when it completely crumples. Oh ethics.

they can check the carfax, look in the trunk, and make the determination if the $$$ > benefit.

I would sell it and sleep very easy at night.


I mean it's a civic, it's going to crumble no matter -- hell, i was rear ended in my 2000 altima by a ford explorer going at least 40mph who barely braked before impact and my car looks much better..and that was the third time it was hit in such a manner.

Unless he were to explicitly spell out the danger before he sold it then I would still say it is at the very least highly unethical, if not borderline negligence. We all know the average car buyer does not come close to understanding how crumple zones and crash supports work. They will not fully understand the damage until they actually wreck it.

it's not my job to educate a buyer about crash zones; i know nothing of them. It would be unethical of me to try to explain them to a potential buyer.

If someone were to buy the car, and die from the car being crumpled, all the fault would go to the insurance company who determined the car safe for the road. As like you said: "the average car buyer does not come close to understanding how crumple zones and crash supports work."

I am not saying to break it down into explicit detail. I was thinking of something along the lines of, "This has been in a rear-end collision and the crumple zone has been compromised. In the event of another rear-end collision the chances of it's complete failure and serious injury has significantly increased."

It wouldn't have to sound so formal but some kind of statement to disclose that the damage is more than superficial. It may not be illegal for you to not explain this but it is highly unethical for you to do so, which is all I am saying.

this would be a lie. who's unethical now?

when i sell my car, here's what I'm going to tell a potential buyer about the car being rear ended three times:

if the buyer is smart enough to pull a carfax, and asks, "why was there three accident reports on your car?"

I will respond with:



Im sorry I dont follow your Kantian way of life.

How would that be a lie? One of the crash supports is clearly broken. The crumple zone is already partly crumpled and weakened. It has clearly been compromised and any mechanic would tell you the same thing. I said the chance of serious injury and complete failure are significantly higher not certain to occur.

That would imply to almost anyone that you completely fixed the car. I understand the statement you gave is vague and leaves room for interpretation which is why it would not be an illegal action. It would, however, still be highly unethical as you are being intentionally vague as to avoid disclosing the entirety of the situation unless explicitly asked the right question. You are doing this to make the car easier to sell. You can try to justify this in whatever way you see fit, but it is what it is.

I am not telling you to live a certain way or even ethically. I am just calling it like I see it.

This is also a funny argument coming from a mod of this forum. Full disclosure is a huge part of our for sale section here and I have seen sellers get shunned and even banned from the forum for doing similar shit to what you are talking about.

Because pxdeta is not an expert in crash zones and supports. Telling anyone that they are compromised would be a lie, even if it happened to be true. That's like saying "Global Warming caused Sandy." Is it possible global warming caused Sandy? Sure it's possible. Do you actually know? No.

Here's all he could tell a potential buyer:

If he tells someone this, and only this, then it's completely ethical.

It's up to the buyer to determine whether or not it's worth the risk and they price will lowered significantly and negotiated due to the damage and both parties will come to the voluntary choice and agreement of a $$$ for the car.

I have an oblogation as the admin of the forum to try to protect the members here. This gives the buyers some sort of confidence when using the FS section here and provides a sense of community and civility. The sellers, on the otherhand, have no obligations to protect the members here, only themselves.

It's always buyers beware regardless.

This approach would be more effective from a legal standpoint. It is not really relevant for an ethical debate as intentions and resulting consequences of actions have more to do with ethics than the actions taken themselves. Although he is not an expert mechanic offering an opinion that may be overly conservative with the intention to make the buyer aware would not be unethical. All that would do would reduce the chance of selling the car at a higher price or at all on the chance that the crash zone is not in fact compromised.

That statement would be completely ok with me. I wasn't caught up so much on the specifics as much as not cosmetically covering the real damage without taking any steps to inform the potential buyer that it exists unless they explicitly ask.

Touche on your responsibility here. I am all for buyer beware from a legal standpoint. From and ethical standpoint I feel that a seller should be as forthcoming as possible with all relevant information.

I also just like to say stupid things and argue about nothings online when im bored.

Funny story, when I told the adjuster I'd probably just take the money and sell the car as is, he expressed interest in personally purchasing the car. He gave me his cell number so I can call him when the title arrives from the DMV (since I just purchased the car a few weeks ago). That would pretty much resolve an ethics debate wouldn't it?

If the car is sold to another party it won't be difficult to figure out the car has been in an accident that wasn't properly repaired (it was obvious to me when I purchased the car that it had already been wrecked and would be even more noticible now). I'm really not sure what I'll end up doing with it, just keeping it and pissing away the 4 grand on miata parts seems like a pretty good idea.

I had three people express they wanted to buy my prelude when the transmission died. One was the tow driver who gave me his number.

I called him a two days later, once i bought a new car, and asked him if he wanted to buy it. He was very happy and said he wanted it, and asked how much. When I told him $2000, he then asked, did I fix it. I laughed and said: No, that's why I'm selling it, you can come tow it.

He didn't like that and offered $700.

I sold it within 24 hours of posting online for $1700.True stories:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351792526

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1351792593

Me and my wife hanging out in our own lane on Independence Ave, in DC, at 4:00pm just as rush hour is about it hit :)

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...0412001720.jpg

Which car's wheels were backwards?

light blue. i like the blades to point "back"

How tall is Mrs. Brain?

5'10 why do you ask?

Total it and buy another miata.

She just looked tall next to that fence. My wife's 5'4".

shes 5'7

She shrunk? Or you cut off her feet to keep her from running away?

whoops. i misread, i thought you first asked how tall i was. I tend to go by Mrs. Brain. My wife doesn't have an avatar.

When I first started dating my current love, she crashed her prelude. She ended up getting $6k from insurance and I sold the car for $3k on ebay as is.

I told her she made out like a bandit! lol

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1352040454

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1352040454

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1352040454

Proof winter time is upon us.

Meanwhile, in FL (as of 10:45am):

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1352044867


:rofl:

also, how i spent my morning:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1352046288


now to sit around, do nothing, but watch football all day.

I'm pretty sure my car looked like this when I walked out to it-

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1352081795

And when they put me in the ED to work, it looked like this-

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1352081795

And now tonight I'm working hard to look like this-

http://www.thepoisonforest.com/wp-co...edOutDrunk.png

So FU and your nice weather.

It was damn near 90 degrees here yesterday