Basically, the car just sorta spun out on its own on a steeply graded road (stupid salt/ sand patched... ugh), and I hit the guardrail going sideways. It bounced off and I ended up spinning a full 360 degrees, with bits of the car falling off along the way. The front bumper is partially ripped off, the grille is gone, the radiator is pushed back (but seems to be otherwise intact), the hood is crumpled slightly and folder under so it doesn't open. The frame seems to be (mostly?) intact because the car is still driveable and goes in a straight line, but the collision place I called gave me an estimate of 2,700$ to fix it all. Since the car is worth 5,800$ according to the kelly blue book, that means i should definitely have an option not to total it.

What do you guys think - is it worth it to fix the car? I've read that after a car gets smashed up like this it's often never quite the same, but does that only apply if the frame is damaged? The car was getting a bit old, but it's still in overall pretty nice condition and we just put a bunch of money into upkeep type repairs. It'd be nice to have my first car back, but then again, if I total it I could use the money to buy something a bit hotter in a few months (i'm thinking an older lude or a miata).

This is my first major accident, so any advice on dealing with insurance, etc. would be much appreciated. I'm probably going to be taking it to geico tomorrow or so.


vtec 1996 accord EX 2 door


Modified by 36 degrees at 7:10 PM 3/28/2007

 

How many miles on it? Aftermarket or OEM parts? Any chance you could give a breakdown of what the shop gave you for the $2,700 worth of work? Was wondering what parts are being replaced vs repaired, and how much the painting will be. And an alignment was included, right?

See what Geico has to say. They will either appraise the damage themselves, or they may tell you to do something like getting three estimates and sending them in. Indicate to them that you aren’t sure which shop you want to do the work so they should make the check out to you.

 

sell the car and pick up another and start fresh

 

Have a Insurance Companys estimator come out, they save you alot of money by subtracting parts you dont need replace...

Like the body shop is gonna tell you every single little thing they see wrong.. because they dont fix stuff they just replace it..

A Insurance estimator will say " well that piece isnt that bad, it can be bent back to shape" thus saving you 200 dollars....

a body shop quoted me 1345 to replace a rear bumper that was pushed in, replace the cover and the panels on the sides...

The insurance guy came and quoted 980 dollars because like 3 parts the body shop said i need werent even messed up, they were just moved becaus the bumper was pushing on them

 

They might end up totaling it if you go through your insurance.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 36 degrees &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I hit the guardrail going sideways at about 60 mph. It bounced off and I ended up spinning a full 360 degrees, with bits of the car falling off along the way. The front bumper is partially ripped off, the grille is gone, the radiator is pushed back (but seems to be otherwise intact), the hood is crumpled slightly and folder under so it doesn't open.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
You hit the guardrail sideways, yet it messed up the front of your car? How does that happen?
Your insurance is going to go up since you're not 25 yet. I doubt that you'll want to total the car, if the price of fixing it is only half the value of the car. Think about it, would the insurance rather pay you 5800 to buy a new car with on 2700 and you keep the old one? Well maybe if you tell them you're getting a lude they'll give you the cash total and just take it back within a few months insurance payments. If you try and total it out I bet they give you 3000 at most for it.

 

It's all stock , no upgrades unfortunately. That may change if it's in decent condition by this summer. Almost 160,000 miles, but still running pretty nicely. I talked to insurance today, and they're gonna send an adjustor out to the body shop where I took it (a friend recommended the place to me). It doesn't sound like they want to total it (i guess it's basically just major cosmetic damage), which I'm almost sad about since the car is just starting to get old and it'd be nice to start over. Unfortunately, with my current financial situation, I've just got to take what I can get. The 1000$ deductible on our policy is going to be a huge pain in the ***.

And yeah - I hit the guardrail at about a 30-40 degree angle (or 36 maybe??), going mostly sideways at about 60mph. I was engine braking down a mountain and managed to hit a slick spot at a point where the road was slanted sharply to the left as it went into a wide turn to the left (a turn I've taken at 70-80mph in the past ), completely losing the front wheels and swerving across the left lane before I could react. If I'd been racing my friends I probably could've saved it (power on/ countersteer - duh), but in this case I was just cruising along fiddling with the stereo.

 

I dunno about power thru on gravel, most likely would have spun you around even more. I understand what happened more now, I was just thinking 'sideways &gt; 45 degrees' but I know it's a whole different story when you're in the car that's going out of control. Good luck with that deductible man, that sucks. You could always just sell the car once you have enough money saved to buy something else, or there's always financing. I'd just wait a few years (25+ is key age for low insurance) and then get something sporty.

 

I've done a lot of cruising 40-50 mph on deep gravel roads, drifting in the snow, etc, and countersteering with power on really seems to work pretty well. I didn't have any (or very little) front wheel traction, but it might've at least put some sideways thrust on the front of the car to pull me away from the wall and back into my lane. I dunno. I'm just glad the car is as tankish as it is, and there was in fact a guardrail there.

Really sucks about my premiums, this is the first real driving mishap I've had, but they still aren't exactly low.

 

I'd like to see pics of the damage.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 36 degrees &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... Really sucks about my premiums, this is the first real driving mishap I've had, but they still aren't exactly low.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Post some pics, but here's what I recommend...

Don't have Geico go to the body shop, tell Geico that you decided that you don't want him. Ask Geico to send an adjuster to examine the car and come up with an estimate of the damage. Then tell them to mail the check to you because you don't know which autobody shop you want to use and will probably use more than one.

At that point you'll have a messed up car and a check. Cash the check and take the car to at least three other autobody shops. Tell them that insurance isn't involved, that you crashed the car and didn't have collision. Tell them that you are poor and are looking for the least amount of work that can be done with the car still being in good working condition. That is, a cracked bumper can stay, it doesn't need to be repainted, the quarter panel doesn't need to be perfectly smooth, etc etc. You'll get a price much lower than the price to restore it to pristine condition, most likely more than $1,000 less.

In the end you'll get some work done and live with your car not being in perfect condition anymore. But you'll not be spending any money out of pocket, and you might actually have some cash on you.

Whatever you do, don't have Geico mail a check to the body shop or don't hand the check to the body shop. In fact, like I mentioned above, don't even tell the body shop that insurance is involved (you'll get lower estimates).

 

or you can do like i did. take the check from insurance. Deposit it into checking and buy all the parts you need to fix it off ebay and put them on yourself with a few friends. Then you should still have money to buy paint and have a friend or yourself paint it. That way you have your car done and have a few aftermarket parts. I got 2500 and bought new wheels and tires, complete body kit, stage 2 paint, wing, carbon fiber led mirrors, halo projector headlights, fiber glass fenders, used door from junkyard.

 

*bump*

update:

I got a call from the geico adjustor, she said that they opened up the hood and found some more structural damage inside to the parts supporting the colling and air systems (i forget what's it's called..), and wanted to total the car. When I called the body shop, they said that was going to be another 1000$ or so, making it nearly 4k in damage. That's still under the blue book value, but I doubt insurance wants to hand me a cheque for 3k (yay 1000$ adjustable).

The adjustor hasn't called me back and doesn't answer her phone, and the car's still sitting where it was. Ugh.

I might just let them total it, save the cash, and buy a car later in the summer after a few months of walking/ skating.

Anybody have an idea whether my premiums are gonna go up? I'm 20, male, 2.5 years of driving, with an up till now spotless record.

 

What do you think are the chances I could make a 4000$ repair like that? I have no official mechanical skills, but I'm not dumb and I can do things like rotors, bearings, and brakes as long as it's not too rusted. Obviously this job would really be a bitch.

If I had 2500$ I'd buy a new engine/ intake/ exhaust and a nice set of tires.

oh, and pics:

 

You could consider totaling it, taking the check, and parting it out on HT. That is, if you have a place to keep it while you part it out. You could probably make quite a bit of money with the parts you have left, especially if you find someone in your area that wants an engine/tranny setup.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 36 degrees &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">*bump*


Anybody have an idea whether my premiums are gonna go up? I'm 20, male, 2.5 years of driving, with an up till now spotless record.</TD></TR></TABLE>

going up! probably 2-300 more a month now but they might have that accident forgivness crap or what ever but good luck man i think you should just take what you can get take the check and part it out ht or locally or fix it and keep driving it for another million miles

 

Speaking of parting out... Check the signature.

 

So I guess buying it back is sounding like a good idea. I don't have any money (like 5$), so I'd need the insurance cheque first. I could probably put it in my friend's barn while I decide what to do with it.

Thanks for all the input... nobody in my family wrecks cars, so they don't have any advice at all, really.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 36 degrees &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... nobody in my family wrecks cars, so they don't have any advice at all, really.</TD></TR></TABLE>
That made me laugh

 

I had very similar damage to my car, new hood, fender, headlight, bumper cover, reinforcement, brackets, grille, radiator...you get the pount. i was able to fix it for around $800 bucks, including paint. it took around 8 days to do it. the hardest part is the core support, you have to break the old welds and weld a new one in. after that everything just bolts on, its pretty easy. if you have no experiece welding, just pay somebody to do that part for you. trust me it is not as bad as it looks, and with a little patience you can

 

The core support is the big metal frame piece that holds the radiator and most of the front of the car, right? That's definitely bashed in, and I can't weld. I guess it might be a good idea to keep the car driveable till I can figure that out, then.

I finally got a call from insurance today, they want to total it and give me 1,900$ (that's after taking off the 1k deductible)... I'd be kinda disappointed about that, but at least they're willing to give me the car back for free. I got a parts list from the body shop, and it looks like if I bought it new it would all cost about 1,500... so I'm gonna start shopping junkyards/ ebay.

There was a weird buzzing noise from the front of the car when I drove it home today (it felt really good to be driving again, though the broken car is really scary). It almost sounded like tranny grinding, and if so I'm going to cry... not that there should be any reason for the tranny to be damaged. Hopefully it's just the coat hanger they used to hold the hood down buzzing against the radiator.

 

the noise might be your fan hitting something.

 

Yes, you are right about the core support.
I'd get the car back from them and see what you could do about piecing this all back together. The buzzing noise (depending on what exactly it sounds like) could also be your a/c compressor fan, or engine fan hitting your front motor mount. That's what happened when I got in my wreck, it was pushed back and hitting the mount and the piece surrounding the fan.

 

Yeah, that sounds pretty right about it being a fan. The only thing was that the buzzing went away/ quieted drastically when I took the clutch off. Now that I think about it it wasn't coming from the transaxle area, though.

 

When I got in my wreck the engine fan (the fan on the passenger side) was the one damaged, so my temperature gauge went CRAZY the whole way home.