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Just curious to see what you guys thought could it be fixed or if it's totaled? The drivers airbags deployed. The bumper and headlight are in backseat broken into pieces. I could not get the hood to open at all. Thanks in advance.
2022 E350 Diamond White Metallic, 2016 GLC300 Dakota Brown Metallic
Originally Posted by H8onit
Just curious to see what you guys thought could it be fixed or if it's totaled? The drivers airbags deployed. The bumper and headlight are in backseat broken into pieces. I could not get the hood to open at all. Thanks in advance.
Looks real bad. Would not surprise me if it was totaled.
Pretty much anything can be fixed. For your insurer it's a question of whether it's less expensive to fix it than it is to buy it from you for its pre-loss value and sell the salvage.
A lot depends on the pre loss value. Generally if the adjuster writes a repair estimate that comes within 80% of the value, his estimating software will automatically call the car a total loss.
That's a pretty hard hit, and up front where a lot of expensive stuff lives. The right way to do the estimate is to first have the car towed to a shop for a tear down. That's where all the obviously damaged parts are removed so there's a clear view of any hidden damage.
The wrong way is to write a quick estimate in the tow yard which may fail to total the car, and then catch whatever they missed on a supplement later. Not only is it lazy, they may accidentally commit to a repair and then discover a month later there's a cracked engine block, or sheared mounts, or a cracked tranny case. But they now have no choice but to move forward with repairs, so you get a car that should have been totaled but now has a used engine from a salvage yard in it.
I'd hope they just call it a total and buy it, but if they insist its repairable ask for a teardown before a final decision is made.
A lot depends on the value of the car. If it's a stripped down base model it's worth all of $20k. 80% is $16k. My 16 had a rear end hit that wasn't as bad and that repair was $16k. Under that scenario the car would total.
If it's a loaded up car that MSRP'd in the mid 50's, that's worth $38k it takes $28,000 worth of repairs to total it. Just eyeballing the damage, it's probably a $20k hit, presuming no drive train damage.
That's why the tear down is crucial. If I wrote an estimate based on what I could see when I first rolled up on it, and that resulted in a $20,000 estimate, that car would get fixed. Even if further along in the repair a bunch of other expensive stuff needed replacement, and it added another $10,000 to the total, we'd be too deep in to scrap the car.
Always ask for a tear down. It looks like you rear ended something so I'm guessing your insurance is paying under collision. They may recommend a shop they have a relationship with. As long as the shop is MB Certified, go there. The difference is, if you pick your own shop, and there's an issue with the quality of the workmanship, it's between you and the shop. If the estimate calls for three weeks of rental but your shop takes three months, it's your problem.
With a preferred shop, your carrier is on the hook for all of it. Carriers want cars fixed properly and on time because they don't want to deal with the phone calls and bull****, so odds are their shop fixes stuff right, or they wouldn't be their shop for very long.
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