karrmite

so today some idiot jumps in front of me from a parking lot making a left as i am driving down a road doing about 40.

Tried my best to avoid hitting him but couldnt avoid it . Impact was at about 20-25 mph to my front left fender area...

Tow truck driver tried to put in the tow hook to the front bumper but it would not screw in. He looked underneith it and said frame looks bent and they would most likely total it even with this minor damage?

is this true would they really total loss over something this little /.?

homeofstone

Yes it could be totaled since the cost to repair may be as much as half the value of the car.

karrmite

wow thats crazy. hopefully it is not totalled.

cx876

It's a total loss, it cost a lot of labor to replace the frame properly.

KEY08

No air bag deploy? I cannot imagine this being a total loss.

KEY08

Plus the tow hook insertion point is on the passenger side of the bumper away from the hit and there is a full under tray at the front. I don't think the tow truck driver could see into that area without dismantling the whole bumper and under tray. Wait until you get the report from the shop.

KEY08

Double post

The G Man

Tow truck drivers always try to predict the outcome of the insurance claim, its what make their job interesring. With that said, the OP' car is probably worth about $15000 to $20000, I have seen Mercedes in accident with no frame damage that cost more than $20000 to repair.

thefisch

Sorry that happened. Keep us posted.

fastlife23

depends on mileage and year of car to determine whether it costs more to fix the car or write it off.

dfordham

In 2002, I had very similar looking damage to a nearly-new Merc. It wasn't totaled since it was so new, but the bill came to $13,000. Not sure what that equates to in 2016 dollars, but it's a lot.

The repair process was like peeling an onion. There were hiddem suspension and steering problems. Every time they fixed something it revealed another problem. I was without the car for at least six weeks.

Good luck,
Don

Munich77

I would want it to be totaled - this will take forever to fix and it will be a hassle.

cx876

Yup, that's why most insurance company will write off a car if the initial estimate cost over 60% of the car's market value,
so they don't go upside down on a repair.

sghokie

I just went to a headache repair and dealing with MetLife and their adjusters. Basically the accident involved a parked car and my daughters BMW e46. The brunt of the damage was the right front suspension. It looked really bad. The adjuster came out and estimated out the damage at $3800. This involved replacing pretty much every suspension part on that side. Tierod, control arm, knuckle, wheel, tire, strut, etc. The shop I had taken it too made the mistake of subbing out all the suspension work to another shop, who basically did a hack job to try and get it to align. Anyhow after I picked it up I didn't really drive it far to get home and I couldn't really drive it for a few days because we had a blizzard. Well when I finally could drive it on the highway, it pulled so bad. I took it to my alignment shop that I usually use who told me the sub frame was bent. So back to the body shop. Those jackass MetLife people spent 2 weeks before they even went back out to look. They looked at the alignment numbers from the jackass place where they had subbed out the work to and said that I must have crashed the car after I picked it up. LOL so ridiculous. Luckily the shop agreed with me and went ahead and replaced out the subframe.
The caster was pretty far out with the bad subframe, the caster isn't really adjustable by much unless you put an aftermarket kit on it.

The car is good now with the replaced out subframe.

But it was just a big hassle dealing with MetLife, I still can't believe that they insisted I wrecked the car after I picked it up during the 4 days that I had it even though we got 30inches of snow and I couldn't even go anywhere. Of course I dropped them like a hot potato.

On another note, someone rear ended my wifes car barely on the bumper. It was very minor, but we went through their insurance to get it fixed, which it was.
But now it shows up on the carfax report and does deduct value if we were to trade it.

dbldpr

sorry to see such a nice looking car get damaged.

The G Man

I had Met life years ago and had a similarly bad experience. My car was stolen and the police found it stripped about a week late. Met life tried to accuse me of not setting the alarm on the car, which I know was not true, this is back when alarms had to be manually set. They gave me the run around for 3 weeks and finally approved the repair. The estimate came out to about 75% of the value of the car, I try to get them to total it but they refuse. The final cost of the repairs was about 110% of the value of the car. I had such a terrible experience with Met life, I had to change insurance company after that. I was hoping they might have improve since then, but from what I read in here, it sure doesn't sound like it.

lay3r3

Years ago I had an 1997 BMW e39 (528i). In 2002, I was doing a 3 point U turn, an uninsured beater with no brakes couldn't stop his car and took out the front end of the car from the passenger side. It did bend the subframe and the damage looked similar (actually worse) to the Op's. The car was NOT totaled. They decided to fix it. I was stopping by the BMW dealer bodyshop every couple of days during my lunch break.
1. it took a month before they can even look and fix the car - bodyshops are always backed up.
2. I saw how they put my car on a frame straightener - (stretching/pulling the frame - the 2 vertical square poles to spec). it's amazing what they can do.
3. HOWEVER - this is the part that was a lesson learned for me: Car looked fine, it drove okay, but I started to develop wrapped brake rotor for the passenger front wheel. and under high speed braking the steering wheel would shake. all signs pointed to the rotor and I had 3 of them replaced like once a year.


Finally I took the car to a very reputable independent shop and he informed me my subframe was loose, apparently the bodyshop didn't tighten some bolts tight enough. After that. it was all good.


That's the part that scared me. even when you send your car to a dealer bodyshop, they can still screw things up. No wonder people often say you're car would never drive the same.

thenew3

It may be a total loss if there is significant frame or suspension damage.
From the pictures it looks like a new front bumper, new hood, new quarter panel, maybe new lights. That's probably $5k ish. But if there is suspension damage and/or frame damage than that cost will go up very quickly.

Some insurance companies will total it if repair is 50% of the value, other's won't even total it if it's 80%.

Metlife is the worst. Had them about 15 years ago when a new (4 month old) A4 was in a 3 way accident. They claimed it was minor and would be $3k to $5k to fix (on a $29k car) and would take no more than a week or two to fix. I told the adjuster it would be close to the purchase price of the car, plus 2 to 3 months to fix (I have a friend who owns a body shop and I spend a lot of time there so I kind of knew). Adjuster insisted he has been doing this for 15 years and knows more than I do.
In the end, it cost over $35k for repairs and took over 3 months. The rental car alone was like $7k (the were going to put me in a Geo, I insisted on a like quality/size vehicle, ended up in a Volvo).

I dropped metlife right after I got the car back from the dealer's bodyshop. It never drove the same, I traded it in a couple months later. I checked the carfax report on that car 10 years after the accident and it shows no accidents on the history but a constant stream of repair shop visits for the following 5 owners.

Oleimy

Had the something on my mercedes c250 if the airbags did not get deployed or there was no frame damage then IT WON'T be a total loss, The accident will cost at around 6-7K if there were no mechanical damaged detected, just body work

SweetJazz

Has the OP gotten an estimate for the damage?

KEY08

So, is there a verdict yet?

Russ103

I would want it to be totaled. E-350's are common enough that finding a replacement that's a body shop virgin isn't difficult.

caccc

Accident was minor, so I thought. Vwer litte damage to rear drivers door. Drove car home. Adjuster determined total loss due to suspension damage. The repairs were 75% of the value of the car. Very disapponting. Wish I could have bought the salvaged vehicle.
At least now I know I'm not alone with this sort of dilemna

jahquan3

Guess we'll never find out what happened.